Apple Inc. finally announced its long-awaited M1 chips that will power the next generation of computers, including a new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini that debuted today.

Alongside the hardware advances, Apple also revealed software upgrades that will take advantage of the new silicon with updates to macOS Big Sur and its components to speed up its performance.

Following up recently introduced new iPhones and iPads, the company turned its attention to its computer line. “We love the Mac. It’s in our DNA,” said Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook. “The Mac business grew over 30% last quarter, and the Mac is having its best year ever, and the Mac continues to attract new users. Today, over 50% of buyers are new to the Mac.”

Apple Silicon M1 chip

The M1 is optimized for Mac systems in which small size and power efficiency are paramount. As a system-on-chip, the M1 combines numerous technologies onto a single chip and features a unified memory architecture for improved performance and efficiency.

That allows it to be fitted into different form factors that weren’t possible for Apple before, as will be seen in the new product lines.

Apple says the M1 is the first personal computer chip built using five-nanometer technology and packs 16 billion transistors, the most Apple has ever put into a chip. The company claims that that M1 can deliver up to 3.5 times faster central processing unit performance, up to six times faster graphics processing unit performance, and up to 15 times faster machine learning, all with twice the battery life of previous-generation MacBooks.

“There has never been a chip like M1, our breakthrough SoC for the Mac,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies. “With its unique combination of remarkable performance, powerful features and incredible efficiency, M1 is by far the best chip we’ve ever created.”

According to Apple, the M1 system-on-chip design allows it to provide high performance at extremely low power – much better than any PC design on the market – and it does so with eight cores. Four cores are high-power, and four cores are high-efficiency. Each of the cores is managed by a coordinator, which determines by workload needs in real time which tasks should be handled in order to keep wasted heat to a minimum and therefore provide the best power efficiency.

Although Apple is absolutely glowing about its new M1 silicon, Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, felt that the numbers might be a little questionable.

“Performance of the new M1 chip is nearly impossible to gauge since the company didn’t provide any detailed substantiation around any of the performance claims made,” Moorhead told SiliconANGLE. “I think these should be scrutinized extensively as I believe the CPU benchmarks are likely measured using very synthetic benchmarks like GeekBench.”

According to the company, the CPU is capable of processing nearly 25,000 threads simultaneously and the GPU can handle extremely demanding tasks with ease, such as smooth playback of multiple 4K video streams to rendering complex 3D scenes.

MacOS Big Sur optimized for M1

Big Sur, the latest operating system for macOS, has been engineered to run on the M1 chip to take advantage of the new silicon. As a result, it has seen a boost to its own performance, including instant wake and what the company boasts is nearly 1.5 times faster JavaScript performance and a 1.9 times more responsive Safari browser experience.

With Big Sur and M1, users can run a greater range of apps than before. All of Apple’s Mac software is now labeled “Universal” and runs natively on M1 systems. Existing Mac apps that have not been updated to Universal will run seamlessly using Apple’s Rosetta 2 technology.

During the virtual conference, Apple revealed that M1 would also be able to power high-resolution gaming. Some aren’t so sure, however.

“The company didn’t talk a lot about compatibility either, but did make some giant claims that Rosetta 2 could play your favorite games,” said Moorhead. “I find that nearly impossible as the new GPU doesn’t have higher-end quality features found in AMD’s, Intel’s and Nvidia’s new GPUs.”

New MacBook Air

The new MacBook Air is an ultrathin 13-inch notebook powered by the M1 chip, as is everything in today’s lineup from Apple, and features a quiet fanless design made possible by that chip.

According to the company, it also uses the latest in solid-state hard drive technology to deliver up to double the storage performance, so previewing massive images is swifter than before.

More important, especially for users on the go, it has a better battery. It can last up to 15 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 18 hours of video playback – the longest battery life ever on a MacBook Air, Apple says.

Compared with the previous generation, it can export a project to the web three times as fast, integrate 3D effects into Finalcut Pro up to five times faster and export photos from Lightroom up to twice as fast.

The MacBook Air is available now for $999 and $899 for education.

13-inch MacBook Pro

According to Apple, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is the company’s most popular pro notebook. With the eight-core CPU, when paired with an active cooling system, it becomes even more powerful and nearly three times faster than the previous generation. Apple says the GPU is five times faster and capable of delivering smoother graphics performance.

Its battery is larger as well, with up to 17 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 20 hours of video playback.

New features of the 13-inch MacBook Pro include studio-quality mics built into the chassis for clear recordings and calls and high-quality cameras combined with the M1 chip that enable sharper image resolution and more detail when editing in software or when doing video calls.

The new MacBook also includes a Secure Enclave in M1 and Touch ID, which is an encrypted feature that provides a method for protecting sensitive information. The chassis features two Thunderbolt ports with Universal Serial Bus 4 support.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro is available starting at just $1,299 and $1,199 for education.

Mac mini

The Mac mini, Apple’s small form-factor desktop computer, gets a three-times CPU performance boost from the M1 chip over the previous generation and six times the GPU performance for 3D-related tasks.

When compared with the previous generation of Mac mini, users will be able to compile code in Xcode up to three times a fast, play a graphics-intensive game such as “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” with up to four times higher frame rates, render a complex timeline in Final Cut Pro up to six times faster and take music production to new levels by using up to triple the number of real-time plug-ins in Logic Pro.

The new Mac mini features an advanced thermal design to keep itself cool and quiet even under high stress, so its fan won’t get too loud even if users plug in two displays, which it can support. According to Apple, it can handle two Apple Pro Display XDR in full 6K resolution, and Wi-Fi 6 for faster wireless performance. It also features the Secure Enclave in M1.

The Mac mini is now available for just $699, $100 less than the previous-generation quad-core model.

Images: Apple