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Tom’s Guide
Tom’s Guide
Technology
Tony Polanco

Apple’s M-series chip 5 years later: How ditching Intel revolutionized computing — and what’s next

Apple Intel Corporation Mac Architecture Avi Greengart Tim Cook Memory
Apple MacBook Pro M4 and a visualization of the M1 chip.

Saying that Apple’s M-series processor shook up the computing industry would be an understatement. Five years after Tim Cook announced that the company was ditching Intel for its own silicon for Macs, M-series chips from the original M1 to the current M5 continue to set new standards for performance and efficiency. It has made everyone rethink what’s possible with Arm-based architecture.

While the success of the M-series seems inevitable in hindsight, it wasn’t guaranteed. After all, Macs powered by Intel chips were successful for years, and switching from x86 architecture to ARM could have proved disastrous. However, when Apple’s internal testing showed how much faster M1 was over Intel, the company knew it had made the right decision. The fact that the five-year-old M1 MacBook Air can still hold its own against competitors is a testament to the M-series’ strengths.

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