Performance By Design

In late June, Apple announced plans to transition its next generation Mac computers from Intel-manufactured x64 processors to custom ARM chips, something which Apple has branded as “Apple Silicon,” highlighting the provenance of the new hardware. Later this year when the first Apple Silicon-based Macs begin to roll out, the company’s line of Mac portable and desktop computers will be using the same ARM processors that Apple is currently using in its iPhone and iPad  products. While there has been ample coverage of this news in the trade press, much of the commentary I have seen online from various technology pundits ( here is a representative sample analysis from one of these self-anointed experts) misses many key aspects of Apple’s recent decision. Apples’s move warrants a better and more complete analysis. In brief, moving off of Intel processors and on to ARM CPUs is not a huge deal, but it is a very smart move. What is fundamentally significant about the decision to switch to t