What's the difference between MacBook Air2020 M1 and Intel processors?

The M1 is manufactured by Apple for exclusive use in their products. That way, the Mac can be designed in accordance with all the features Apple wants to provide in them. Aspects such as power efficiency, speed, security, all of them can be incorporated without compromise.

Intel manufactures their products for a wide variety of customers, who are then constrained to design their products in accordance with capabilities and limitations inherent in them.

To fully appreciate Apple's reasons for designing their own processors, you would have to research their product evolution from the beginning. The first Apple computer used a Motorola CPU. The first Mac used a far more powerful Motorola CPU. The first iMac CPU was the product of a joint venture between IBM and Motorola, and finally Apple transitioned to the Intel line of products. In each case Apple eventually became frustrated with those manufacturers' inability to keep pace with innovation they demanded. Since Apple wasn't their only customer those companies lacked the motivation to invest the resources necessary to placate that one customer.

Like most successful companies, Motorola, IBM and Intel became lazy and complacent. Apple is intolerant of that, so they began developing their own "silicon" (as it has become known) a long time ago. Compared to anything Intel or others may have to offer, the M1 is remarkably faster, more efficient, and incorporates security features over which Apple has sole control. Those are just a few features Apple thinks their customers want.

MacbookAirGold2020 wrote:

What's the difference between MacBook Air2020 M1 and MacBook Air Intel processors?

You will need a course to understand all the differences.

Instruction sets, technology, architecture, and footprint are some differences.

MacbookAirGold2020 wrote:

What's the difference between MacBook Air2020 M1 and MacBook Air Intel processors?

At its simplest, different processor architectures.

One uses an Intel x86-64 processor with the Intel 64 processor architecture, and the other uses an Apple silicon processor using the Arm AArch64 architecture. The former has been widely used on desktops, laptops, and servers, while the latter has been in (massive) use on phones, tablets, and higher-end embedded devices, and lower-spec Arm architecture processors are in ubiquitous use in embedded computing ~everywhere.

Here is one write-up about the transition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_transition_to_Apple_silicon

Intel 64 is the most recent version of the x86 processor architecture design that traces back to the Intel 8086 from 1978, and with compatibility which inherently also involves baggage and compromises and limitations. Intel has done a yeoman job with adapting the design to newer requirements, too. But it’s a design that’s hot and complex and power-hungry, and not particularly customizable for a vendor’s target requirements.

Beyond the architectural differences, Intel has also had production issues with semiconductor fabrication around yields and transitions to yet-more-dense designs in recent years.

In terms of third-party operating systems, there’s no supported version of Windows that can be purchased for Apple silicon, though that’s up to Microsoft, and various folks have an unsupported version of Windows for Arm (as differentiated from the far more familiar Windows for x86-64) running on Apple silicon computers. Ports of Linux and BSD Unix are well along, and in use.

Read ▷ Apple M1.

Read ▷ Apple M1 Pro & M1 Max.

Read ▷ Apple M1 Ultra.

The full answer to your request is far too involved and voluminous to post here. Surffice it to say ... performance and efficiency at a reasonable price point.