Apple developing new chip to improve battery life of Mac laptops

Apple was developing a new chip for Mac laptops that was meant to improve their battery life while in sleep mode, Bloomberg reported.

The chip would reportedly handle a number of basic tasks, like checking for email and installing updates, while the computer was asleep, the report said. Apple currently relied on the main processor of the MacBook to handle these tasks, but by building a dedicated low-power processor, Apple could cut battery consumption even further.

The chip was supposed to be similar to the Apple-made processor used in MacBook Pros to manage the Touch Bar. That suggested that the chip would not eliminate the Intel processor at the core of every MacBook with an Apple-designed ARM processor, like the ones used in iPhones and iPads, according to commentators. They added, it rather seemed like Apple planned to continue augmenting the Mac with ARM processors so it could get the benefits of both types of chip.

Bloomberg noted that Apple might not even choose to highlight the existence of this new chip whenever it got inside a product, since MacBooks had had a low-power mode like this for a number of years now.

According to commentators, that also, seemed to indicate that this might be more interesting as a step forward in Apple's hardware story than as a feature inside the next Mac.