During a "One More Thing" virtual event on 10 November 2020, Apple announced the first Apple Silicon processor for the Mac. It's called the M1.

To be clear, this is Apple's long-awaited move from Intel processors. The company has been rumoured to be working toward this transition for years. Now, it's official. Apple said the M1 chip is the first in a family of Apple Silicon chips. It has an eight-core CPU, with four high-performance cores. Apple described it as "the world's fastest CPU core". The other four high-efficiency cores use one-tenth of the power, helping M1 deliver the best CPU performance per watt.

Apple M1 photo 1

The M1 also features integrated graphics with an eight-core GPU. In fact, Apple said the M1 has "the world's fastest integrated graphics". Of course, it's very Apple to claim to be the world's best at everything. We have yet to test the chip in a Mac, however, so much of its claims must be taken at face value right now.

The M1 chip contains a six-core neural engine that can process 11 trillion operations per second, as well as Apple's Secure Enclave. It is built on the same five-nanometer process as Apple's A14 chip for iOS devices, and the M1 supports Thunderbolt and USB 4. You can learn more about M1 in our guide here.

Apple M1 photo 3
Apple

Apple said it's launching new Macs running the M1, including a Mac Mini and a MacBook Air. The laptop has a silent, fanless design, and it's supposedly faster than 98 per cent of PC laptops sold in the last year, according to the company.