iMac Pro to feature A10 Fusion coprocessor, which could be used for always-on “Hey Siri”, BridgeOS 2.0 code from Apple shows
Update: Leaked screens from BridgeOS confirm ‘Hey Siri’ for Mac … The HomePod may be delayed, but we have still have the launch of the iMac Pro to look forward to before the end of the year.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple has been walking toward this for over a year: Siri came to the Mac as a tentpole feature of macOS Sierra in 2016, but that version required a click or hotkey because the main CPU could not afford constant listening. BridgeOS 2.0 code now shows the iMac Pro shipping with an A10 Fusion coprocessor — the same chip family inside the iPhone 7 — dedicated to handling the always-on 'Hey Siri' wake detection.
The timing matters because the HomePod, Apple's other always-on Siri device, may slip past year-end while the iMac Pro stays on track for launch before December, making the pro desktop the first Mac to carry assistant-dedicated silicon.
First-order effects
- iMac Pro buyers get hands-free 'Hey Siri' without the workstation's Xeon processors burning cycles on wake-word detection — the A10 Fusion listens so the main CPUs don't have to.
- With the HomePod potentially delayed, the iMac Pro becomes Apple's first shipping always-on Siri hardware of the season.
Second-order effects
- A working coprocessor design in BridgeOS gives Apple a template it can carry into future Mac refreshes — the kind of broad lineup update Bloomberg later reported spanning MacBook Pros, Airs, Mac Pros, minis, and larger iMacs.
- Rival PC makers pushing their own voice assistants into desktops now face an Apple machine where always-listening costs effectively zero performance, raising the bar for what 'assistant built-in' means at the pro-desktop price point.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward Macs routinely pairing a big general-purpose CPU with small low-power silicon for ambient tasks — a heterogeneous compute structure that foreshadows Apple's later chip roadmaps, including reported plans to skip higher-end M6 parts and launch an M7 lineup explicitly aimed at boosting on-device AI capabilities.
- If every Mac ships with dedicated assistant silicon, voice stops being a per-product feature and becomes infrastructure baked into the platform, shifting competition from who has an assistant to whose assistant is always available at no performance cost.
The trend: The Mac is following the iPhone in splitting work between a main processor and dedicated low-power silicon, turning always-on voice assistance into standard platform infrastructure rather than a bolted-on feature.