Apple developed the ARM-based M1 chip used in Macs introduced in 2020.
Apple announced the M1 on November 10, 2020, as its first system-on-a-chip designed specifically for Mac computers. It combined CPU cores, GPU cores, memory technologies, and other components in one package, supporting improved performance and power efficiency.
The M1 marked Apple’s transition away from Intel processors in the Mac line. It was based on the ARM architecture, which Apple had already used extensively in iPhone and iPad chips through its A-series designs.
The first Macs with the M1 were the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. The chip is sometimes confused with Intel’s x86 processors because both powered earlier Macs, but their instruction-set architectures and platform designs differ.