Sources: Apple began developing a new low-power ARM-based chip last year for Macs, which will work alongside Intel's chipset and handle “Power Nap” duties, more
A part built with ARM Holdings is used in keyboard's Touch Bar — New design could help improve battery life in MacBook laptops
Context & Ripple Effects
This report slots into a pattern that was already visible: the 2016 MacBook Pro shipped as a hybrid machine, with an ARM-based T1 chip running modified watchOS to secure the Touch Bar, Apple Pay, and Touch ID while Intel handled macOS. The new low-power part described here extends that playbook from security duties to background housekeeping like Power Nap.
Read forward through the coverage, the significance is clear: by 2019 developers and Intel officials expected an ARM-based Mac imminently, and Apple went on to announce the full shift away from Intel at WWDC 2020 before reaching the AI-focused M4 generation. This 2017 chip is an early data point in that migration.
First-order effects
- Intel's role in MacBooks narrows to primary macOS compute while Apple's in-house ARM silicon absorbs Power Nap and background tasks, cutting the power draw that governs MacBook battery life.
- Apple gains another internally controlled component designed with ARM Holdings, deepening its co-design leverage over the Mac supply chain at Intel's expense.
Second-order effects
- Each function moved off Intel's chipset sets a template for the next one — the T1 took security, this part takes low-power housekeeping — leaving Intel defending a shrinking share of the Mac bill of materials.
- Battery life becomes the competitive axis Apple can tune directly, forcing rivals still dependent on merchant silicon to match efficiency gains they don't control.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the endpoint is a Mac running entirely on Apple-designed ARM processors — exactly where the coverage lands with the 2020 Arm-based processor announcement and the later M4 chips for MacBook Pros, Mac minis, and iMacs.
- The industry structure shifts toward vertically integrated PC makers designing their own workload-specific silicon, with Intel reduced from platform owner to optional component supplier.
The trend: The Mac is migrating function by function from Intel's chipsets to Apple-designed ARM silicon, moving from auxiliary coprocessors to a complete in-house platform.