Apple’s processor roadmap could see MacBooks feature processors with up to 32 cores

Apple obviously plans to blow a few minds with its Apple Silicon. We were already blown away with the unveiling of the company’s M1 processor, which includes substantial boosts to performance as well as battery life. And then there was talk of an improved M1X chip hitting the market soon. But, apparently, this is no place to stop.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple’s roadmap for processors stretches beyond ‘just’ a twelve-core M1X chipset. Oh no, the company has far bigger ideas in mind.

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Apple is reportedly planning to transition away from Intel’s processors completely by 2022, replacing the entire lineup with its own hardware. And the hardware is supposed to be rather blistering, with the company reported to be testing processors with up to 32 performance cores, for its more high-end machines. They’re expected, should they actually arrive, in late 2021 and in 2022.

Graphics cores are also set to see an upgrade, with 16-core and 32-core on-chip GPUs also being internally tested, according to Bloomberg‘s sources.  GPU performance might go as high as 64- or 28-core, but that’ll be reserved for Apple’s desktop machines. We shudder to think what one of those would do to a MacBook’s battery life.

Of course, this is all just rumour at this point — even if it’s rumour from a very reliable place. Odds are we’ll see massive performance gains in the next round of MacBook releases as Intel is very slowly shuffled off, stage left. Just how extensive those gains are will depend on the results of ongoing testing. In what might seem like a strange scenario, it’s possible that we’ll see an Apple-made dedicated GPU launch at some point in the future. The company certainly has the tech and, apparently, the ambition to do something like that.