Apple announced its biggest change to the Mac in years on Monday with the introduction of Apple silicon, its own custom family of chips for the Mac.
The announcement has seemingly been long overdue, considering Macs are the only Apple products that don't run on the company's own processors. Apple demonstrated the types of workloads its chips will be designed to handle and shared its strategy for making the switch from Intel, saying that doing so will enable better performance and specific features tailored to Apple's hardware.
"When we look ahead, we envision some amazing new products," Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the presentation. "And transitioning to our own custom silicon is what will enable us to bring them to life."
But there are still many unanswered questions about the transition, especially around the first devices that will come with the new chips and how their performance will compare to Intel-powered computers.
What's immediately apparent, however, is that the switch will make Apple's Mac computers feel a lot more like the iPhone and iPad.
Switching to its own chips means all of Apple's products will run on a common architecture, so iPhone and iPad apps will be able to run on the Mac. Apple's latest version of macOS also comes with a redesigned look that feels a lot more like the iPhone and iPad's software, complete with iPhone user interface elements like the Control Center.
The move will also help Apple build specific features tailored for its hardware into future products, just as it's done for the iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad.
Here's a closer look at what we know so far about Apple's big switch to its own chips.