but when you want big-boy toys, you play with Intel and AMD, because nothing else is even CLOSE to their fastest chips.Īpple switching to ARM isn't a rejection of Intel, or some weird evidence that Intel has somehow 'lost', it's an admission by Apple that it thinks computers are just glorified tablets that carry premium price tags for the privilege of being allowed to escape Apple's jail and run unapproved apps. Yes, ARM is probably the best choice for 'cheap & cheerful' throw-away devices. You should be able to download and run apps even if the developer never optimized those apps for macOS.ĪRM chips might be manufactured more, but when you get to the extreme high end, Intel churns out its fastest chips by the tens of thousands, while the fastest ARM chips are all custom-fabricated vanity projects with no real commercial market because they aren't competitive with Intel & AMD's best. While the company didn't share a lot of details, Apple isn't talking about Catalyst, its own framework that makes it easier to port iOS apps to macOS. 'Mac users can for the first time run iOS and iPadOS apps on the Mac,' Apple CEO Tim Cook said. You'll be able to run Linux and Docker on an ARM Mac.Īs a bonus, users will also be able to access a much larger library of apps. And if you're a developer working on code that is going to run on servers, Apple is also working on a set of virtualization tools. But what if it's a web browser or a complicated app with just-in-time code? Rosetta 2 can also translate instructions from x86 to ARM on the fly, while you're running the app. This way, there will be some level of optimization even before you open the app. When you install an old app, your Mac will examine the app and try to optimize it for your ARM processor.

Apple is going to ship Rosetta 2, an emulation layer that lets you run old apps on new Macs. But its performances won't be as good as what you'd get from a native ARM-ready app. As for unoptimized software, you'll still be able to run those apps. If you've been using a Mac for a while, you know that Apple used the same process when it switched from PowerPC CPUs to Intel CPUs - one app, two executables. You can ship those apps with both executables using a new format called Universal 2. TechCrunch reports: First, you'll be able to compile your app to run both on Intel-based Macs and ARM-based Macs. They also announced that iPad and iPhone apps will be able to run natively on ARM-powered Macs. At the WWDC 2020 keynote today, Apple announced that the company is going to switch from Intel chips to Apple's own silicon, based on ARM architecture.

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