Apple is reportedly thinking about ditching Intel and making its own chip for Mac laptops

Apple may be considering releasing a laptop in the future that uses its own chips instead of a chip from Intel, according to $4.

Apple's iPhones use an Apple-designed chip based on the ARM instruction set, but its current lineup of Mac laptops and desktops use chips from Intel that run the x86 instruction set. It would be a significant engineering challenge to enable software designed for Intel chips to run on Apple's ARM-based processors. MacOS alone would be a huge effort.

But given the dramatic performance gains and low power usage of Apple's recent iPhone chips, it's not surprising that Apple would consider it. In fact, $4, the recently launched iPhone 8 outperforms Apple's high-end MacBook Pro.

Here's a chart that Apple used when launching the iPhone 7 in 2016:

Apple's ability to design its own semiconductors and other chips is a huge advantage over other smartphone makers, who typically buy off-the-shelf components from companies such as Qualcomm and Mediatek. Apple's head of chip engineering, Jony Srouji, was promoted to senior vice president - essentially $4 -in late 2015.

Apple is also looking to design its own chips for touch sensors and its own modem chip for iPhones, according to the Nikkei report. Currently, TSMC is $4 to be Apple's primary manufacturer for its main chip design, the A-series processor.

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