Apple is reportedly working on new Mac processors that could outperform Intel's. And they are said to be coming as soon as 2021.

Arm-based Apple Silicon chipsets running 16 power cores and four efficiecy cores are claimed to be in development. They could even make their way into new Mac models by the end of next year.

The Cupertino firm is even said to be working on a 32-core CPU, but that's more likely to appear in a half-sized version of the Mac Pro in 2022.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman wrote that the new Apple CPUs will "significantly outpace the performance of the latest machines running Intel chips" if they live up to expectations - at least, that's what his sources have told him.

Apple's first Macs to feature its own Silicon processing - the M1 chip - were launched in November, with new MacBook Pro 13, MacBook Air and Mac mini models now available.

The M1 5nm chip runs on eight-cores and includes a custom graphics engine.

Apple will continue to also offer Mac devices with Intel technology inside for the foreseeable future, although the transition to using its own Silicon completely is inevitable. As well as a financial benefit, it enables the company to offer greater cross-compatibility with iOS devices.