ARMs Race | Apple working on a smaller Mac Pro powered by Apple Silicon

Apple won’t be finished with its transition to Apple Silicon after it announces its Apple Silicon-powered MacBook Air and MacBook Pro on November 10th, because Bloomberg is reporting that Apple is designing a new Mac Pro with a smaller form factor.

The new form factor is said to be “about half the size of the current model and will retain a similar design. We know that all Macs will eventually transition to Apple Silicon, but it is not currently known if this model will replace the current Intel-powered model.

Apple engineers are currently developing a new ‌Mac Pro‌ that looks like the current design at about half the size. It’s unclear if that Mac will replace the current ‌Mac Pro‌ or if it’s an additional model. Apple’s chip designs could help the company reduce the size of its computers due to increased power efficiency, but the current ‌Mac Pro‌ is large, in part, to fit components like additional storage drives and graphics chips.

There is no information that we will see this model this year and is more likely to be released in 2021 or 2022.

Apple announced their November 10th event believed to be the event where Apple will finally reveal their new Apple Silicon-based MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.

What Apple Silicon chip will power the new Mac Pro?

Bloomberg recently said that the first of the three Apple Silicon chips will be a 12-core processor with a unique mix of eight high performance cores called “Firestorm” cores and four energy efficient core called “Icestorm” cores. There is a clear Fire & Ice reference here that also relates to the cores that will be hotter and cooler. Apple is said to already be working Apple Silicon with more than 12 cores with the company designing second-generation processors for Macs based on the future unannounced A15 chip.

In Bloomberg’s report, they provide details about chips themselves:

• The Mac chips will reportedly be manufactured by TSMC based on a 5nm fabrication process.
• The first of these chips will feature eight high-performance CPU cores and at least four energy-efficient cores, for 12 cores in total. The A12Z chip used in the current iPad Pro has eight cores: four high performance and four energy efficient.
• As well as a CPU, the SoC will also include a GPU.
• ARM Mac computers will continue to run macOS rather than switching to iOS, similar to the approach taken with existing Windows laptops that use Qualcomm ARM processors.
• Bloomberg speculates that Apple’s first ARM-based machines will be lower-powered MacBooks because its own chips won’t be able to match Intel’s performance in its higher-end MacBook Pros, iMacs, and Mac Pro computers.

Stay tuned for coverage of Apple’s November 10th event, where we will likely be reporting on new Apple Silicon-powered MacBooks and more!