An ex-Intel engineer claims to know why Apple went in-house for the future of Mac processors

Apple finally put weeks of speculation over the future of Mac computing solutions to rest at its WWDC, with the announcement of a new line of ARM-based chipsets starting with the A12Z Bionic in the form of a developer's kit. The OEM insisted that this potentially seismic shift has been done in order to provide more seamless support for its own apps using its own binaries at this conference.

However, a formerly leading figure at Intel asserts that it was in fact precipitated by one main culprit: Skylake.

This famously straight-talking source is the company's former principal engineer, François Piednoël. He claims that Apple found fault with various aspects of Skylake's architecture to such an extent the OEM was ultimately driven to start making its own processors instead.

In fact, the Cupertino giant was apparently the foremost source of complaints about the platform's structure back when it was being evaluated for inclusion in its PCs.

Piednoël describes this situation as an "inflection point" in Apple's decision to commit to its ARM project. Furthermore, he implies that the same company may not have done so at all were it not for the "abnormally bad" bug-count it found in Skylake.

On the other hand, these indications remain the opinions of just one engineer, albeit one with an in-depth knowledge of Intel and its (currently terminated) relationship with the Cupertino giant.