Apple came out with a new processor for its Mac line that hands down beat the equivalent Intel chip both in terms of performance and power consumption.
What's Intel been doing all these years?
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Apple Silicon M1 chip -- in pictures[2] SEE FULL GALLERY[3]
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NEXT [4] PREV [5]I think that it's safe to call Apple's new M1 chip "disruptive." After all, here is a first-generation product that's kicked sand into the faces of huge companies who do pretty much nothing other than make chips.
I'm looking here at Intel, but it equally applies to the likes of AMD, and even Qualcomm.
How did this happen?
Let's start with the most obvious.
As big as Intel and the other chip giants are, they're not as big as Apple. Apple has a lot of spare cash to throw at R&D with a very focused goal -- a single chip to begin horning Intel aside.
That money, along with the focus of manufacturing a single chip, also allowed Apple to write blank checks to TSMC to make 5-nanometer possible.
Being in a position to be able to bankroll -- and make it make business sense (more on this in a moment) -- 5-nanometer architecture was a cornerstone to making M1 possible.
Speaking of TSMC, the company has enjoyed a close relationship with Apple since Samsung was sidelined as iPhone chipmaker back in 2014 with the iPhone 6's A8 chip. The company has a proven track record of producing tens of millions of chips every year.
Being able to guarantee that sort of volume, adjusting to fluctuations in demand, and