Apple Rumor: Macs Will Drop Intel Processors for ARM in Future Laptops?

Tech news website SemiAccurate has heard reports that Apple will rotate out the Intel processors used in its laptops and replace them with ARM-based chipsets within the next two years.

Citing unnamed sources that have previously provided accurate early reports on Apple’s business decisions, SemiAccurate believes that the manufacturer will shift notebooks, and potentially desktops, from Intel’s x86 architecture to ARM-based silicon, specifically a variation of the powerful Cortex A15 chip ARM unveiled last September.  With clock speeds between 1.5- to 2.5-GHz, the A15 is the first ARM technology with enough speed and power to handle the processing demands of laptops.

If the early reports are true, don’t expect to see ARM-powered MacBooks until late 2012 or early 2013.  The Cortex A15 is not slated to ship for at least another 18 months, and even then, the first generation of the product will support a 32-nanonmeter system, whereas many notebooks, including some MacBooks and iMacs, use a 64-nm system.

If the rumors come true, the hardest hit party will be Intel, the company that currently enjoys an 86% market share of the laptop processor field. If ARM processors debut inside Apple notebooks and run as well the ARM chips in the company’s mobile products (the iPad uses an ARM-based A5 chip, the iPhone an A4), it will surely mark new competition in the playing field Intel has come to dominate.

Via SemiAccurate and MacRumors.com