Apple has announced that it is moving from Intel’s x86 desktop microchips to its own processors based on the ARM designs used in the iPhone and iPad.

At its World Wide Developers Conference, held virtually for the first time due to the Coronavirus, the company said the transition would take two years.

Apple said that switching to its own chips would not only improve performance, but would enable innovative technologies such as the artificial intelligence neural engine, high-performance graphics and best-in-class security.

The inbuilt web browser Safari has also been sped up, claiming to be twice as fast as Google’s Chrome, with new privacy-protecting features, such as the ability to see how a site is tracking someone from a button on the address bar.

Apple is not the first computer manufacturer to switch to the more power-efficient ARM chips. Microsoft used them on its Surface Windows PCs, most recently with the SurfacePro X, which has a custom-designed chip made with Qualcomm.

Apple said it has already moved all its apps to the new ARM-based chips, adding that both Microsoft and Adobe were working on getting their apps ready for the switch.

Apple is pushing a new Universal 2 format that allows developers to produce one app that runs on both existing Intel Macs and the new ARM Macs.

It also has emulation technology called Rosetta 2 to make sure that existing apps that haven’t been updated will run on the new Apple ARM-chips from the start.

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