Goodbye, Intel? MacOS core has references to ARM processors

Before we get into the news itself, here’s a brief explanation: Apple has been using a chip created by its own engineers since the iPhone 4 (which came equipped with the A4). From there, with each new iPhone and iPad release we saw a new generation of Apple processors being launched: A5, A5X, A6, A6X, A7, A8, A8X, A9, A9X and now, the A10 Fusion that equips iPhones 7/7 Plus.

The performance of these processors has been growing at such an impressive level that, currently, the A10 Fusion has a performance capable of beating MacBooks Air and even the MacBook Pro (launched in 2013 and still marketed by Apple).

Remember the story that Apple could abandon the processors of Intel and start using your own on Macs too? In the past, this was still a long way off, but with this performance from the A10 Fusion, things started to become a little more believable. And just for the sake of punctuation, we are not talking about those boring predictions of analysts who do not understand patavinas of how things work at Apple. Big names like Jean-Louis Gassée (who previously worked as head of product development at Apple) are the ones who have been talking about this for a while.

Now, people at TechTastic found [Google Tradutor] the following reference in the nucleus (kernel) for macOS Sierra: CPUFAMILY_ARM_HURRICANE.

MacOS kernel with reference to ARM processors

The codename Hurricane (Hurricane) does not appear in any documentation from ARM. Only, you see: from the A7, Apple started to name its processors internally. The A7, for example, was called Cyclone (Hurricane); the A8, Typhoon (Typhoon); the A9, Twister (Tornado). You don’t have to be a genius to make the correlation, right?

Ah, but Apple has no way of putting an A10 Fusion on a high-end MacBook Pro. Who will say on an iMac. On Mac Pro, then, we don’t even talk!

My friends, if Apple can put this kind of performance that disburses MacBooks Air on a processor 100% optimized for mobile devices, I have no doubt that if it wants to create something totally optimized for desktops (without worrying so much about energy efficiency, heat dissipation, etc.), for example, can achieve performances of leaving Intel with hair on end!

It may not really be the time, yet, to see Macs with ARM processors, but it is undeniable that this change, for Apple, makes a lot of sense for several issues such as not depending on Intel’s launch schedule to launch new Macs, integrate yet plus the software with the hardware (as it always has with the iOS /iGadgets), Among other things. Regardless of timing, it is a fact that if one day – not too distant – this transition happens, the tests / preparations for the exchange are already in full swing in Cupertino.

[via iDownloadBlog]