Apple 'working on' ARM laptop; bad news for Intel, says analyst

Apple is engaged on a laptop upon an internally-designed chip, a project which might pose a life threatening risk to Intel, an analyst said today in a very research note.

"We have some of datapoints that Apple's processor design Gucci iPad Mini Case group is perfecting an ARM-based product for your notebook line. Even if it's into production remains in sight, yet it is the biggest probability risk to Intel through ARM camp within your PC market," said Piper Jaffray analyst Gus Richard in any research note today.

U.K.-based ARM allows the basic design for chips that populate the majority of the world's smartphones andtablets. Apple's A5 chip, applied to theiPad 2 andiPhone 4S, is dependant the ARM design. And Apple is anticipated to produce an updated A set chip inside of the upcoming refresh for this iPad.

ARM chips will be more power efficient in comparison to the Intel chips utilized Apple's MacBook Air line but fall short of Intel chips in Hermes iPhone 4 Case performance.

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This isn't the very first time that these kinds of assertion has surfaced. In May of in 2010, a chip-centric Blog stated that Apple was "dumping" Intel favoring Apple's internally-designed A set chips for future MacBook Air products.

Piper Jaffray's statement is far more circumspect, however, this is because it states the fact that the Apple notebook project might not necessarily go to fruition using a commercial product.

And it's not clear if Piper Jaffray's note jibes with--or contradicts--comments from Apple CEO Tim Cook to the Citigroup analyst yesterday. Cook asserted that Apple will probably be satisfied with expanding the iPad line in order to meet needing a notebook-like product.

And while Apple's Several chips, most notably the future A6, will in the end you have to be powerful, Intel's chips get more power efficient with every generation. To provide an example, Intel's future Haswell processor is predicted being system-on-a-chip and offer a really good balance of power use and. For future MacBooks, that is certainly enough based on Apple.