Over the past three years, Apple has transitioned its entire Mac lineup to Intel processors and solidified itself as one of the leaders in the silicon industry. And Apple has no intention of resting on its laurels.
According to a statement from ARM before its IPO, Apple has has signed a new agreement with ARM for chip technology that “extends beyond 2040.” That’s nearly two decades of iPhone and Mac chips, and will likely cover everything that comes after the A- and M-series chips.
Apple is also one of the several companies invest $735 million in ARM’s initial public offering, including Intel, Samsung, Nvidia and Google. Softbank, owner of ARM, is targeting a valuation of between $50 billion and $55 billion with shares between $47 and $51 when they hit the Nasdaq Composite Index later this month.
Apple helped create ARM (Advanced RISC Machines Ltd.) in 1990 and used the first ARM processor in the Newton MessagePad. However, after abandoning the project for PowerPC and later Intel chips, Apple did not use ARM-based processors in its products until the A4 in the iPhone 4 and the M1 processor in the Mac in 2020. It is reported that Apple has a ‘licensed architecture’ with ARM, which allows the company to design its own cores using the ARM instruction set.
Apple is expected to launch the A17 processor, the industry’s first 3nm processor Wonderlust event on September 12th. The M3 processor for Mac and iPad will reportedly follow in October.
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