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Mac With Apple-Designed Arm Processor Coming in First Half of 2021
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Yes, numerous times. Across numerous different architectures, CISC and RISC. It certainly helps one find foolish assumptions one has made in the code. You learn to write more portably after a few of those.
Now you're talking about an entirely different subject which does not have any bearing on the subject at hand (I would also point out that juggling chainsaws is extremely hard, and that also has no bearing on porting between chip architectures) - moving from one OS to a completely unrelated OS is a giant pain - every system call has to be reconsidered and one has to work around the ones that are present on one system and missing on the other, to say nothing of rewriting all the UI code to some new API. But that's nothing like what a macOS-on-Intel to macOS-on-ARM port would require. Those are two entirely different tasks.
We aren't talking about moving to a different OS (which is what you're offering as a counter argument), we're talking about moving to a different chip architecture on the same OS. The only time moving from one architecture to another would require really massive rewrites is if you've written the whole application in assembly language (in which case I would question your sanity).
ARM (as current version ARMv8) will run anything that a x86 CPU will run.
Microsoft already proofed this by allowing ARM CPU to half emulate x86 binary code (serving x86 binary native arm API libraries and emulate the x86 part).
So there no "x86 only" software.
Now everyone hate emulation so we want native binary on ARM.
The next part is kinda complex as you have to know what a compiler is. Chrome/Safari/Word/Keynote almost every software you are currently using are not build using the language CPU could understand.
Your CPU only understand binary that is 010101s. Those binary contains instruction that CPU could directly run.
Developer usually write "High level programming language" like C/C++/ObjectiveC/Swift/Java/Kotlin.
Those language have to "compile" into binary somehow and this compiler take care of what CPU you are targeting.
You can just ask compiler to compile your code into ARM or any new CPU arch that is supported by the compiler--if your code does not contains any CPU specific code like inline assembly or platform different length variables.
Modern platform usually encourage developer to avoid these as those things caused trouble when upgrading from x86 to x64.
By now if your code runs on x64 then most likely you do not need to modify a single line and it will just works on a ARM64 CPU target.
Legacy software died with the release of Catalina and its killing off support of 32 bit apps. As such, the number of abandoned apps that are not being actively updated will be minimal. I have no doubt that Apple will release a Rosetta style emulator, too.
Agreed. It's one thing to lock down hand-held / portable devices, but if it's going to stay competitive the MacBook will need to maintain broad capabilities, including supporting x86-based software.
As others have noted, this will be a staged roll-out, with the most powerful Mac models (the ones being used in corporations) being the last to migrate off of native x86 CPUs. And most of the Macs I have seen in my workplaces (and they are very large workplaces) are used to write software for the cloud, not to run Windows productivity applications (that is done on PCs running Windows natively).
As others have also noted, the most-likely model that will be released first will be in the 12" MacBook Retina form factor. And those used 7W Intel CPUs that were not known for fire-breathing performance. So I think even with emulation, a top-end A-Series CPU could probably hold it's own at a minimum running native x86 apps.
As others have also noted, the most-likely model that will be released first will be in the 12" MacBook Retina form factor. And those used 7W Intel CPUs that were not known for fire-breathing performance. So I think even with emulation, a top-end A-Series CPU could probably hold it's own at a minimum running native x86 apps.
Windows is also going ARM.
And since Apple just built VM hypervisor for Mac recently it's hard to imagine they will not support running Windows ARM in VM.
Recent Windows Server ARM insider build already shows Hyper-V running on ARM running Windows ARM. (Yes ARM host and ARM client VM)
Open source software targeting Linux might already support running on ARM and already runs on ARM with cocoa API and Darwin kernel--iOS.
Very unlikely that Apple will use a mobile device chip in a new ARM Mac. New chip probably be capable of the same thermal dissipation as the current Intel silicon, but typically be run cooler for the same real-world app performance.
Most games are 32 bit, and as such will already run in Windows ARM (and already don't work on Catalina) today via Microsoft's emulation layer.
They will not replace the main CPU of the systems any time soon. Might add another chip to allow it to run certain things (similar to how things get offloaded to the GPU), but an interpretation layer will NOT give the performance everybody is dreaming out.
It will increase the availability of software since any work involved is also useful for ipad and iphone.
And MacOS isn’t locked down (turn off SIP and you can do whatever you want) and it is not “stripped down,” (it can do everything it could do last year and the year before, unless you count removing support for old technologies ”stripping down”)
It is, but it’s early days.
Windows has been ported to multiple architectures in the past, with less than successful outcomes.
there’s no guarantees this time round.
There's already a vast number of open source Linux applications that run just fine on a Raspberry Pi 4 (armV7).
1) there already is an ARM chip in macs. This is not about that.
2) The increased performance we dream of is for ARM-native, not interpreted, code
Sun ported Solaris to x86 in 1993. Your timelime is waaay off.
I'm interested to see how this plays out. Intel's been holding up Mac releases for the last few years and they seem to be falling behind in the CPU wars. An ARM based Mac would be interesting and I can only imagine how much processing power it'd have, if the A-series chips give us anything to go by. I am someone who needs Bootcamp though, so if I were to lose that functionality with an ARM based Mac (which is a real possibility), it'd be hard to move over to macOS exclusively until developers ported their software over.
I'm optimistic though. The switch from PowerPC to Intel took a few years, but look how much good that brought to the Mac. Maybe the same thing will be said about the switch from Intel to ARM, if it truly does happen.
I'm optimistic though. The switch from PowerPC to Intel took a few years, but look how much good that brought to the Mac. Maybe the same thing will be said about the switch from Intel to ARM, if it truly does happen.
I totally want that water cooling. 👌😀
BTW, Asus makes a water cooled laptop. The water cooler is a detachable unit that makes the thing ginormous.
Windows NT has been ported to x86 and that's a huge success.
Obviously not guarantee but more competition is better than less right?
No way they do this. It would be way too expensive to include both an intel and Ax chip in this hardware.
IPad version of adobe? Really not even close to what a macOS version can do
Perhaps it'll just be an iPad Pro with non-detachable keyboard?
Actually, I wonder if this wouldn't be a better way to go. If they worked on iPadOS 14 to be more Mac-like in some ways, they could have a product in the $750-$1000 range that would compete with higher-end Chromebooks and mid-range Windows laptops, is designed for (and supports) a touch-screen, blows away the competition in performance and battery life, has cellular support, and have a ton apps that could run on it from day 1.
Why go through a messy Mac transition and fragment that market when you can have a product that plays to Apple's strengths right now?
Also - there are more iOS developers than Mac developers, and apps designed for this mythical product can possibly be ported to the Mac using Project Catalyst.
So, while everyone wants an ARM-based Mac, I want a more Mac-like (and cheaper) iOS laptop.
And guess when did Sun Fire x86 server becomes popular.
Most bank still purchasing SPARC during early 00s as they want to run software that was built more than 20 yeas ago.
I was an engineer prepare them for bank at that time. Using hot swappable CD-Drive to load OS on them.
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