Apple Execs Discuss M1 Macs in Yet Another Interview

Following the announcement of Apple’s first proprietary ARM-based processor — the Apple M1 — and the new Macs, Apple execs have been basking in the glory of their newest creation and doing the rounds in various interviews.

Tech publication ArsTechnica caught up with Apple’s Senior VP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi, Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing Greg “Joz” Joswiak, and Senior VP of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji to talk about the industry giant’s first computer-scale SoC.

Apple developed the M1 processor to replace the Intel CPUs that Macs (and most other computers, for that matter) relied upon. In addition, the execs revealed that this has been years in the making, as Apple has wanted its Macs to be powered by its own silicon for the longest time.

Among other things, the Apple execs talked about how the Apple M1 came into being, and how it has truly encapsulated the vision Apple had for it. Federighi went on to discuss the processor’s revolutionary Unified Memory Architecture, unmatched power consumption-performance ratio, and support for “90 percent” of iOS and iPadOS apps.

The M1 Macs do come with Rosetta 2, which allows them to translate and run programs designed for Macs with Intel CPUs. However, the M1 Macs cannot run Windows applications as Intel Macs can.

As for Federighi on Microsoft Windows running natively on M1 Macs?

As for Windows running natively on the machine, “that’s really up to Microsoft,” he said. “We have the core technologies for them to do that, to run their ARM version of Windows, which in turn of course supports x86 user mode applications. But that’s a decision Microsoft has to make, to bring to license that technology for users to run on these Macs. But the Macs are certainly very capable of it.”

The execs also reinforced that Intel Macs would receive continued software support for the foreseeable future, and that barring the Intel Macs Apple is already working on, all upcoming Macs will be powered by Apple silicon moving forward.

Click here to visit Apple.ca to learn more about Apple Silicon Macs.

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