- Qualcomm has identified the key challenges Apple faces with arm-powered computers.
- The company believes app emulation will be a major hurdle for Apple.
Apple is widely expected to launch the first computers with Arm-based processors later today, after it was confirmed earlier this year that Apple is working on something called Apple Silicon for its Macs.
However, this would not be the first time a large computing platform has supported the Arm architecture after using X64 / X86, as Microsoft has done so with its Windows on Arm platform in collaboration with Qualcomm. That partnership has resulted in multiple Windows laptops running energy efficient Snapdragon chipsets like the Samsung Galaxy Book S.
Now Qualcomm has announced what it believes will be the biggest challenge for Apple computers running Arm processors based on its own experience. As you would expect, the US chipmaker believes that running legacy apps is a major obstacle to overcome.
Legacy apps are supposed to be a big hurdle
“It’s good to have emulators to connect the existing ecosystem to the new ecosystem, but you will face challenges,” replied a company representative when asked by Android Authority.
“There is a lot of very poorly written, old software out there. And the emulators don’t solve any of that. As you can imagine over the past few years, turning them off one by one is like a punch in the mouth. “
Windows on Arm is currently running older 32-bit apps through emulation. However, this is associated with a loss of performance, as opposed to using a native Arm version. Additionally, not every legacy app is fully compatible with emulation, as Qualcomm points out. Microsoft and the US chipmaker are also working on bringing 64-bit legacy app emulation to the platform. A preview will be released later this month. So there has certainly been some progress in this regard.
Apple uses a translation tool called Rosetta 2 to process older Mac apps, including 32-bit and 64-bit programs. Again, we definitely expect a performance dip, as we’ve seen with Snapdragon laptops with legacy software. And, if Qualcomm is to be believed, app compatibility could still be an issue, especially when it comes to apps that are no longer actively supported.
The Qualcomm manager also pointed to another potential hurdle for Apple in the enterprise segment, saying Windows on Arm / Snapdragon has made great strides in terms of enterprise deployment, security and management.
Even so, Apple’s move to poor silicon for its Macs is expected to result in significant energy savings compared to its current laptops. Other potential benefits include a lower price point (as there is no longer a need to buy chips from Intel) and the ability to use internal silicon for better security, higher quality images / videos, and faster machine learning.
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Next: Microsoft Surface Pro X Review – The pros and cons of Windows on Arm