You must have heard that a big change is going to be seen in the tech industry from Apple really soon as the company has announced its switch to ARM-based Macs with the first of these Mac devices coming later this year. Apple calls its ARM-based chips the “Apple Silicon” and we believe a more detailed branding will be revealed at its first Mac device launch. As we have seen Apple’s A-series chips for iPhones and iPad, we believe the company will name these chips something else.
Having said that, the problem with switching to ARM from Intel will be of support on legacy devices as well as the latest technology. One of these technology is Thunderbolt which is a port standard from Intel which has its own set of advantages. We have seen that every Intel-based device support Thunderbolt 3 ports and now Thunderbolt 4 has also been released.
So the obvious question is whether Apple will support Thunderbolt on their ARM-based Macs. Well, the answer is yes as revealed by Apple who claims that they are “committed to the future of Thunderbolt and will support it in Macs with Apple silicon”. Apple’s spokesperson also adds that they “partnered with Intel to design and develop Thunderbolt, and today our customers enjoy the speed and flexibility it brings to every Mac”.
As far as the difference between Thunderbolt 4 and 3 is concerned, they are subtle since they will still use the USB Type-C ports but they will now have standard features such as “ability to power external monitors, or charge laptops”. The advantage of having a Thunderbolt port is that you can have the above feature while a normal USB 3 or USB 4 port might or might not offer you these features.
Now that Apple has committed itself to keep Thunderbolt port on their ARM-based Macs, the wait for the latest Mac devices with Apple Silicon has intensified even further. The only thing left to see now is the performance of Macs with Intel-based chips compared to Macs with ARM-based chip. Let’s also not forget that Apple has also said that they will keep releasing Intel-based Macs for the foreseeable future.
