Apple Silicon didn’t start with the M1

Apple was a co-founder of ARM Ltd in 1990, together with Acorn Computers and VLSI Technology. Acorn had developed the ARM architecture. VLSI could manufacture the chips. Apple needed an efficient processor for the Newton.

For the first few years, Newtons ran on the ARM610. That was an important step, but progress on the processor side was limited. Newton OS improved, the hardware improved, but the platform clearly needed more speed.

The real leap forward came with StrongARM.

DEC’s StrongARM was not simply a faster chip that Apple bought off the shelf. Apple’s Newton team worked closely with ARM and DEC for eighteen months on the development of the processor.

DEC brought expertise from its Alpha processors: fast RISC chips from the workstation and server world. Apple brought years of experience with Newton and knew exactly where the ARM610 fell short: it needed much more speed without losing ARM’s low power consumption.

Thanks to StrongARM, the Newton MessagePad 2000 and 2100 suddenly approached the processing power of Apple’s PowerBooks of the time — but in a handheld running on AA batteries.

After Newton was discontinued by Steve Jobs in 1998, that processor line continued outside Apple. Through Intel, StrongARM found its way into devices such as the Compaq iPAQ, a Windows PDA that became one of the most important Pocket PCs around 2000.

That makes the story remarkable.

Apple helped found ARM for Newton. Apple later helped define the need for StrongARM. Newton was not a commercial success, but the processor path that grew out of it continued into PDAs, smartphones, iPhone, iPad, Mac and ultimately Apple Silicon.