In 2020, Apple made the leap from Intel processors to its own line of custom silicon chips, the M1 family. It's a notable move for a company known for controlling product hardware and software, but it's not entirely unexpected (the company has already implemented its own chip design on mobile iOS devices).
Apple's initiative seems to have been a huge success. As of early 2024, the company has grown to its third-generation M3 chip production line.
Perhaps inspired by Apple's success, more companies are starting to jump into the race for custom chips, including rivals Google and Microsoft
and other tech giants like Amazon, Tesla, and NVIDIA. Chips are no longer just the patents of Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. Now, they may be en
d-user specific (e.g., AWS Custom Chip, Google Custom Chip, Apple Custom Chip, etc.).
Apple's custom chips lead the way
Apple has long used its own A-series chips on iPhone and iPad devices, such as the A15 Pro chip used on the iPhone 17 Pro. These chips are based on the ARM architecture and have CPU and GPU elements that can accommodate processing nodes such as AI accelerators. This integrated, customized architecture optimizes and saves space and assembly costs. Because the chip (i.e., the system-on-chip or SoC) is designed to meet Apple's specific requirements, features that are not relevant to those requirements can be stripped away.
Apple has achieved improvements in processing power and energy efficiency, and they have applied that experience to their M1 with their M3 laptop and desktop chips. In the current booming field of custom chips, other companies should reap similar benefits.
Of course, one of the huge drawbacks of designing your own custom chip is that you are solely responsible for the final design. In-house expertise must be sufficient for design needs, and if a company's capabilities aren't as strong as it thinks they are, this can create huge problems. Still, with Apple's success, other companies are transitioning to custom chips.
