Apple Reportedly Planning More ARM Co-Processors For MacBook

With the new Touch Bar MacBook, Apple introduced their first ARM processors to their laptop lineup. The T1 chip is meant to help offload Touch Bar functionality from the CPU to reduce the performance impact and provide a low power state for the Touch Bar. According to a new report out today, Apple is reportedly planning to add even more ARM coprocessors for their MacBook lineup.

Despite relying on Intel to provide the x86 grunt for the Mac family, Apple has extensive experience with designing ARM processors. These designs offer some of the best performance and efficiency in ARM world and go into their iPhones and iPads. The goal is to bring that efficiency to the MacBook by using the ARM coprocessor to power the Power Nap mode. Power Nap mode retrieves e-mails, install software updates, and synchronize calendar appointments while the display is shut.

Right now, the Power Nap mode is run on the Intel main CPU which consumes under 10W of power. However, Apple wants to go even lower with their ARM processor. Given that most ARM processors don’t even exceed 10W max power consumption, there is certainly some savings to be found here. Apple could even do a custom design with a single ARM core clocked under 1GHz and tuned for low power usage.

In many ways, getting the ARM processors to play nice with the x86 ecosystem can be a lot of work. However, as Microsoft has shown, emulation is a viable alternative. While the economics and power savings might be little, there may an ulterior motive. By showing that they can do it, this can place pressure on Intel for negotiations. In fact, Apple may just be testing the waters until their go all in house with their own ARM processors one day.