In 2020, Apple announced the abandonment of Intel processors, and the outside world was in an uproar about Apple's market behavior. First of all, the biggest question is whether the ARM processor can provide the general performance of the Intel processor, whether it can cope with the compatibility of the original common software in work and life for the ARM instruction set, and so on.
In this first and everyone science Intel and Apple's self-developed M1 difference is what is, many small partners may know half-understood: Intel and M1 are CPU brand names, which means that it is called this name, behind the name is the difference between different computer instruction sets, the commonly used processor brands on the market Intel and amd, their instruction set X86, about the history of X86, allow me to slowly come.
In 1971, Intel released the 4004 was only the prototype of a microprocessor, and it needed 4001, 4002, 4003, 4004 chipsets, a total of 10 pieces, to build. It wasn't until the third generation of the 8080 in 1974 that it was considered a truly usable microprocessor. After the emergence of the 8080, there was the first commercial personal computer Altair 8800, and the combination of the Altair 8800 system and the Intel 8080 chip allowed system manufacturers to see a greater opportunity, that is, the business model of combining processors and operating systems. The CPU market has become bullish, with the Z80, the most successful 8-bit CPU on the market, Zilog. The biggest highlight of the Z80 is that it is fully compatible with the 8080 instructions. Finally, Intel introduced the chip of the 8086 architecture while maintaining the backward compatibility of the instruction set, and it was also the attempt of backward compatibility that formed the industry standard and laid the cornerstone of X86. Throughout the 80s, Intel was based on the 8086 chip, constantly launched 80286, 80386, 80486 and other iterations, and therefore, Intel's chip architecture is called the "x86" series.
Let's talk about ARM, in November 1990, a joint venture between Acorn Computer, Apple and VLSI Technology was born, the full name is Advanced RISC Machines Ltd (the source of the ARM name), and in 1993 Apple launched Apple Newton, using arm processors. Anyone who has used Apple Newton knows that this high-tech product is not excellent, some of Newton's flaws greatly reduce its practicality, and ARM recognizes that you can't rely on a single product to stay successful. So Robin introduced the IP business model, that is, he did not manufacture chips, licensed the chip design scheme to many semiconductor companies, charged a pre-licensing fee, and charged a patent royalty for post-production chips. Because of this, ARM's huge market structure and business system have been formed.
Speaking of which, why did Apple abandon the X86 and invest in the ARM camp? At that time, the development of Apple computer fell into a bottleneck period, Intel product line update iteration has no substantive highlights, Apple has provided self-developed chips for iPhones and iPads (based on ARM architecture), but apple sales of PCs are equipped with INTEL processors, based on this consideration, Apple decided to make its PC can also use self-developed processors, so M1 became Apple PC's first ARM-based processor. At that time, it was not clear whether the macOS operating system was compatible with Arm and whether it had more performance advantages, and after a year of multi-market verification and customer feedback, the people who questioned it were quickly "punched in the face" by Apple's performance.
In 2020, Apple's first computer chip, the M1, was released with a MacBook Air laptop. It is more powerful than Intel's chips, more power-efficient, and quieter (fanless design), which has won the favor of countless users.
In April 2021, Apple CEO Tim Cook said on the company's fiscal second-quarter earnings call that the M1 chip helped drive Mac revenue growth by 70.1 percent, with Apple Mac revenue reaching $9.1 billion in the quarter. The fiscal third quarter continued to maintain high-speed growth, with Mac revenue up 16% year-over-year. All kinds of data show that Apple's decision has undoubtedly won the best feedback from the market.
At the same time, Apple no longer has to be subject to Intel's release delays, and has gained full control of the product, which means that it can design new software and hardware with a global mindset. So abandoning Intel and using ARM is undoubtedly the most correct decision for Apple.