System on a chip in the context of "Mac transition to Apple silicon"

A microcontroller (MC, uC, or μC) or microcontroller unit (MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. A microcontroller contains one or more processor cores along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. Program memory in the form of NOR flash, OTP ROM, or ferroelectric RAM is also often included on the chip, as well as a small amount of RAM. Microcontrollers are designed for embedded applications, in contrast to the microprocessors used in personal computers or other general-purpose applications consisting of various discrete chips.

In modern terminology, a microcontroller is similar to, but less sophisticated than, a system on a chip (SoC). A SoC may include a microcontroller as one of its components but usually integrates it with advanced peripherals like a graphics processing unit (GPU), a Wi-Fi module, or one or more coprocessors.

Very-large-scale integration (VLSI) is the process of creating an integrated circuit (IC) by combining millions or billions of MOS transistors onto a single chip. VLSI began in the 1970s when MOS integrated circuit (metal oxide semiconductor) chips were developed and then widely adopted, enabling complex semiconductor and telecommunications technologies. Microprocessors and memory chips are VLSI devices.

Before the introduction of VLSI technology, most ICs had a limited set of functions they could perform. An electronic circuit might consist of a CPU, ROM, RAM and other glue logic. VLSI enables IC designers to add all of these into one chip.

macOS Tahoe (version 26) is the twenty-second and current major release of Apple's macOS operating system. The successor to macOS Sequoia (macOS 15), it was announced at WWDC 2025 on June 9, 2025, and its first developer beta was released the same day. It was released on September 15, 2025.

Tahoe is the final version of macOS that supports Macs with Intel processors; the 2020 iMac, the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro, the 2020 4-port 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the 2019 Mac Pro models are supported. Future versions will work only on Macs with Apple silicon systems on a chip (SoCs). It is the first version of macOS since Mac OS X Snow Leopard that cannot be upgraded from an older version via the Mac App Store; upgrading it is exclusively available through the System Settings software update preference pane, as is the case with iOS.

The Apple–Intel architecture is an unofficial name used for Macintosh personal computers developed and manufactured by Apple Inc. that use Intel x86 processors, rather than the PowerPC and Motorola 68000 ("68k") series processors used in their predecessors or the ARM-based Apple silicon SoCs used in their successors. As Apple changed the architecture of its products, they changed the firmware from the Open Firmware used on PowerPC-based Macs to the Intel-designed Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI). With the change in processor architecture to x86, Macs gained the ability to boot into x86-native operating systems (such as Microsoft Windows), while Intel VT-x brought near-native virtualization with macOS as the host OS.

Nvidia Corporation (/ɛnˈvɪdiə/ en-VID-ee-ə) is an American technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem, it develops graphics processing units (GPUs), systems on chips (SoCs), and application programming interfaces (APIs) for data science, high-performance computing, and mobile and automotive applications. Nvidia has been described as a Big Tech company.

Originally focused on GPUs for video gaming, Nvidia broadened their use into other markets, including artificial intelligence (AI), professional visualization, and supercomputing. The company's product lines include GeForce GPUs for gaming and creative workloads, and professional GPUs for edge computing, scientific research, and industrial applications. As of the first quarter of 2025, Nvidia held a 92% share of the discrete desktop and laptop GPU market.