Apple will let you emulate old apps and run iOS apps on ARM Macs – TechCrunch

Apple has announced a major shift for the Mac. In the future, the company will switch from an Intel CPU to Apple’s own silicon, which is based on the ARM architecture. If you’re a developer or you’re running obscure business applications, you may have a lot of questions about how it works.

First, you can compile your app so that it can run on both Intel-based Macs and ARM-based Macs. You can ship these apps with both executables in a new format called Universal 2. If you’ve used a Mac for a while, you know that Apple used the same process when switching from PowerPC CPUs to Intel CPUs – one app, two executables.

If the software is not optimized, you can continue to run these apps. However, the performance is not as good as that of a native ARM-enabled app. Apple will ship Rosetta 2, an emulation layer that lets you run old apps on new Macs.

When you install an old app, your Mac checks the app and tries to optimize it for your ARM processor. In this way, a certain optimization is carried out before the app is opened.

But what if it is 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 run the app.

If you’re a developer and you’re working on code to run on servers, Apple is also working on a number of virtualization tools. You can run Linux and Docker on an ARM Mac.

As a bonus, users can also access a much larger library of apps. “For the first time, Mac users can run iOS and iPadOS apps on Mac,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

Although the company didn’t share many details, Apple isn’t talking about Catalyst, its own framework that makes porting iOS apps to macOS easier. You should be able to download and run apps even if the developer has never optimized those apps for macOS.

The transition will take a while – about two years. The first ARM-based Mac will ship at the end of the year. There will be a quick start program for developers who want to port apps to ARM-based Macs. In addition to the documentation and a private forum, Apple will send you a customized Mac Mini with an A12Z system on one chip. This way, you can test your apps on an actual Mac with an ARM chip.