20 years of Intel Macs: Why Apple switched, and why it switched again
Remembering the ups and downs of the Intel Mac era as it finally winds down.
Signal weather
Rising
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
The release of macOS 27 later this fall won't quite close the book on the Intel Mac. The last handful of models that could run macOS 26 Tahoe will be eligible for security and Safari updates for two more years, and elements of the Rosetta compatibility layer for running Intel code on Apple Silicon Macs will be with us in some form for some indeterminate amount of time after that. But macOS 26 is definitely the last chapter of the Intel Mac story. Anything that happens after this is a coda or an epilogue. Most of our WWDC coverage has been forward-looking, so indulge us if you will in a look backward at the full history of the Intel Mac, a partnership between two companies that made Macs dramatically better, until it started making them worse. Read full article Comments
Stay on the signal
Follow 20 years of Intel Macs: Why Apple switched, and why it switched again
Follow this story beyond a single article: new follow-ups, adjacent sources, and the evolving storyline.
Story map
Understand this topic fast
A quick entry into the story: why it matters now, who is involved, and where to go next for context.
Why it matters now
Topic constellation
Open the live map for this story
See which entities, story threads, sources, and follow-up articles shape this story right now.
Click nodes to continue
Entity pages
Story timeline
Continue with this story
A short sequence of events and follow-up stories to understand the arc quickly.
How reliable this looks
Signal and trust for Ars Technica
This source works at a rapid pace: 100% of recent stories land in the hot window, and 0% carry visible search signal.
Reliability
92
Freshness
100
Sources in storyline
1
Related articles
More stories that share tags, source, or category context.
Trump admin tries to block Clean Air Act lawsuit over xAI's gas turbines
NAACP lawsuit says xAI uses gas turbines without permits for Grok data center.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
Year of free HPE software a “step in the correct direction” in VMware rivalry
Partner tells Ars that HPE should be giving out more free VM Essentials licenses.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
Cockroaches scurry around with thousands of pieces of bacterial genomes
Transferring genes across species doesn't just happen in microbes.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
Among the large new rockets Amazon was counting on, only Europe has delivered
"As for Arianespace, they have definitely stepped up."
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
More from Ars Technica
Fresh reporting and follow-up coverage from the same newsroom.
Trump admin tries to block Clean Air Act lawsuit over xAI's gas turbines
NAACP lawsuit says xAI uses gas turbines without permits for Grok data center.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
Year of free HPE software a “step in the correct direction” in VMware rivalry
Partner tells Ars that HPE should be giving out more free VM Essentials licenses.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
Cockroaches scurry around with thousands of pieces of bacterial genomes
Transferring genes across species doesn't just happen in microbes.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
Among the large new rockets Amazon was counting on, only Europe has delivered
"As for Arianespace, they have definitely stepped up."
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.