Former Intel Engineer Claims Buggy Skylake Chips Hastened Apple's Switch to Custom Silicon

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At this week's WWDC, Apple confirmed its plan to switch from Intel to custom processors for its Macs over a two-year transition period. Apple said that the switch is all about platform consolidation and performance advantages, but at least one former Intel insider claims that quality control issues with Skylake chips was the reason Apple finally decided to to ditch Intel.

"The quality assurance of Skylake was more than a problem," said former Intel engineer François Piednoël, speaking to PC Gamer. "It was abnormally bad. We were getting way too much citing for little things inside Skylake. Basically our buddies at Apple became the number one filer of problems in the architecture. And that went really, really bad.

"When your customer starts finding almost as much bugs as you found yourself, you're not leading into the right place."

"For me this is the inflection point," said Piednoël. "This is where the Apple guys who were always contemplating to switch, they went and looked at it and said: 'Well, we've probably got to do it.' Basically the bad quality assurance of Skylake is responsible for them to actually go away from the platform."

There have been rumors suggesting Apple has an interest in Arm-based Macs for years now, but it was only on Monday that Apple confirmed the plan, satying it expects its first Mac with custom silicon to launch by the end of 2020.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that a redesigned iMac due in the fourth quarter of 2020 will be one of Apple's first two Mac models with a custom Arm-based processor, with the other being a future 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Following Apple's announcement about its switch to custom silicon, Intel said it will continue supporting the Mac through its transition, but insisted that its processors are still the best option for developers.

Tags: Intel, Arm Macs

This article, "Former Intel Engineer Claims Buggy Skylake Chips Hastened Apple's Switch to Custom Silicon" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple Silicon Macs to Feature New Boot and Recovery Interface, New Mac Sharing Mode Replacing Target Disk Mode

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Apple Silicon Macs will introduce a new system for accessing macOS recovery and security options at startup, Apple explained at a WWDC session on Wednesday.

The new Startup UI on Apple Silicon powered Macs
Existing Macs include a number of macOS Recovery options at boot-up that are accessed using key combinations. For example, Command-R boots Macs in Recovery mode, and Command-Option-P-R resets the NVRAM. On Apple Silicon Macs, these key combinations are being replaced by an on-screen Startup Manager interface.

In the new system architecture, users can hold down the power button on their Mac to access the new startup screen, which features recovery options for reinstalling macOS, as well as options to boot as normal, shut down, and restart.

Apple is also replacing Target Disk Mode, which is used to transfer data between two Macs, with what's called Mac Sharing Mode. Mac Sharing Mode turns the system into an SMB file sharing server, providing another Mac with file-level access to user data. User authentication is required to access the service.

The security modes on Apple Silicon powered Macs
In addition, Startup Disk is a new feature that enables user to select different security modes for startup volumes. Full security, enabled by default, provides the same best-in-class security as enjoyed by Apple's iOS devices and let users boot from an external disk without reducing the security of the system.

Meanwhile, Reduced security mode provides more flexibility by allowing users to disable System Integrity Protection and run any version of macOS, including those that are no longer signed by Apple.

Lastly, Apple Silicon Macs run separate security policies for each OS installation, whereas Intel-based Macs operate on a less flexible system-wide security policy. For more details on this and the other new startup features, check out the full WWDC session on the Apple developer website.

Tag: Apple Silicon

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