Please take a look at the bitcode technology of apple:
https://medium.com/@InertialLemon/apple-s-bitcode-telegraphs-future-cpu-plans-a7b90d326228
To me it seems that they at least prepare to be independent on CPU harware so they can switch to e.g. a POET processor as soon as it is available.
Magical
Bitcode is that magical third option. The Apple Watch will be the first significant Apple platform completely freed from the shackles of ABI compatibility. With Bitcode, the S2 can have whatever architecture suits Apple’s needs. It doesn’t even have to be ARM (but given Apple’s investments, it will.) And if the S3 needs to do even crazier stuff, Apple’s compiler engineers just need to plug the new LLVM back end into the App Store. Developers and users won’t have to know or do anything.
And let’s not forget that iOS is getting Bitcode love too. iOS has over a million apps today, so switching to a radically different architecture will take at least a couple generations. Since Bitcode is optional for iOS 9 app submissions, the A9 processor in this fall’s products will be a gentle evolution. And next year’s A10 will have to stick to the existing ARM64 ABI.
But the A11? Picture all of that high powered chip design talent. Picture a whiteboard filled with a hundred PhD thesis-level ideas for improvements. Now imagine Bob Mansfield (remember him?) telling them, “Forget about compatibility. Your only criteria for the next CPU is to be better.”
