The Intel era in Apple's Mac computers is coming to an end, and Microsoft is on the defensive. According to a new report, Apple will begin selling Macs (possibly MacBooks) with its own A-series processors with 12 cores by 2021.

Apple's chips in the iPhone and iPad already rival the power of Windows-based PCs, but according to Bloomberg, the first 5-nanometer system-on-chip for the Mac will be the A14 processor in the iPhone 12 will reportedly be "much faster" than the A14 processor in the iPhone 12.

The chip will further squeeze the Surface Pro X, which is powered by Microsoft's SQ1 chip and offers middling performance. The Surface Pro X also suffers from app compatibility issues, which Apple should be able to overcome with its walled garden approach.

While Apple will not supplant Intel overnight, the company does have an initiative to produce multiple chips, codenamed "Kalamata." The first Mac processor will reportedly have eight high-performance cores, codenamed Firestorm, and at least four energy-efficient cores, codenamed Icestorm.

By comparison, the iPad Pro 2020 has four high-performance cores and four cores for low-power tasks. The new MacBook Air has just two cores.

The A12Z Bionic chip in the iPad Pro 2020 already outperforms the Surface Pro X. In Geekbench 5, which measures overall performance, the iPad Pro 12.9 scored 4,720 in the multicore portion and 1,126 in the single-core test; according to Geekbench, the Surface Pro X only scored 2,824 and 737, respectively.

So which Macs will be the first to feature this Apple chip? According to the report, one would expect a laptop. Apple will not be able to offer the same high level of performance that the MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro desktops currently offer. That leaves the possibility of the 12-inch MacBook, which is rumored to be revived with an ARM chip.

One of the challenges will be to make macOS work well with the new ARM-based chip while continuing to run legacy Intel-compatible apps. But Apple has been working behind the scenes to minimize friction and avoid Microsoft's stumbling block with the Surface Pro X, which is powered by the SQ1 ARM chip co-developed by Microsoft and Qualcomm.

Indeed, the Kalamata project has been going on for "several years." And Apple has reportedly developed a chip for the Mac based on the previous iPad Pro's A12X CPU; according to Bloomberg, Apple's software, hardware, and component procurement teams are working closely together.

One reason Apple has not released new Macs that frequently in recent years is that Intel's pace of innovation has slowed. For example, the latest 10th generation Intel Ice Lake processors are based on a 10-nanometer process. Apple is working on a 5 nm chip for the Mac.

This transition will undoubtedly take time. But overall, the move to in-house processors is a sure sign that Intel's days in Apple computers are numbered.