Widely expected to announce a new line of Mac computers Tuesday morning at its latest "event," Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) could very well ignite a new war over processors by doing so. That's the view of numerous pundits, who see the company's announcement that it would power the devices with a proprietary chip as a possible opening shot in such a conflict. The company had been utilizing x86 chips from processor giant Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) since 2006; in June it announced that it would transition the full Mac line to its silicon chip in a two-year process. In the heyday of the PC, Intel was a dominant player, in near-constant battle with the perennial runner-up, Advanced Micro Devices. However, new competitors have been entering the field in the age of the smartphone. Image source: Getty Images. One potential big rival to Apple and Intel in this endeavor is mobile devices component maker Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM). As with Apple's announced plans, Qualcomm makes chips based on ARM architecture from the eponymous U.K. company that is set to be acquired by NVIDIA. Qualcomm co-developed processors with both AMD and Microsoft specifically to power the latter's Surface line of laptop/tablet products. Apple had pledged to contract a third-party manufacturer to produce the silicon chips. Speculation is rife that this will be Taiwan Semiconductor, although neither Apple nor the Asia-based chipmaker has yet confirmed this. While Intel doesn't have the prominence it once enjoyed in the processor world, its chips still power a great many of the world's PCs, and it's likely to remain a major player in the segment. 10 stocks we like better than AppleWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Apple wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of October 20, 2020 Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends Intel and recommends the following options: long January 2021 $85 calls on Microsoft and short January 2021 $115 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source