iBridge

From The Apple Wiki

iBridge is a family of embedded processing devices for Intel-based Macs. There are two major variants.

iBridge T1 - found in the following Macs:

  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports, 2016)
  • MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports, 2017)
  • MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)

iBridge T2 - found in the following Macs:

  • iMac Pro (2017)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports, 2018)
  • MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)
  • Mac mini (2018)
  • MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports, 2019)
  • MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019)
  • MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019)
  • Mac Pro (2019)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports, 2019)
  • MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
  • MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2020)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports, 2020)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports, 2020)
  • iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020)

iBridge devices run a heavily modified version of watchOS, titled bridgeOS (T1 devices run embeddedOS), and they power various functions on Intel-based Macs.

  • Touch Bar (MacBook Pro only)
  • Touch ID (Mac laptops only)
  • System management controller
  • Microphone hardware disconnect (Mac laptops and T2 only)
  • HEVC 8- and 10-bit encoding (T2 only)
  • Image and audio signal processing (T2 only)
  • Apple Secure Boot (T2 only)