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>What I'm worried about is implementing top-quality ARM backends for software like the JVM. We need someone doing this rapidly as I think an ARM MacBook Pro wil
by dhosek 7y ago
>What I'm worried about is implementing top-quality ARM backends for software like the JVM. We need someone doing this rapidly as I think an ARM MacBook Pro will just turn up one day, unannounced.
Nope. Never gonna happen. There are too many moving parts in a processor transition (and Apple has done two so far: 68xxxx to PowerPC to Intel, not counting the 64 bit transition). There's always more than a simple recompile (if that's even possible as some of the big players may be using their own proprietary toolchains for building, although I imagine this is less common now than it was during the last two processor transitions).
- saagarjha 7y agoAll rumors point to an ARM Mac, and some very credible ones point to one rolling out within a year. Apple has been gradually abandoning cruft that they probably didn't want to bother porting across architectures.
- macintux 7y agoI have no idea whether a transition is imminent, but Apple is famous for abandoning cruft, so I wouldn’t treat that as indication of anything.
- chipotle_coyote 7y agoI think the transition will happen, but I don't think the post above worrying that "an ARM MacBook Pro will just turn up one day, unannounced" is going to be correct. It's not impossible, but the PowerPC-to-Intel transition didn't happen that way -- they shipped developer-only machines in mid-2005 and didn't start shipping consumer Intel machines until January 2006, and took nearly all of 2006 to make that transition. I'd expect an ARM transition to be similar, and if anything, slower.
- dhosek 7y agoThe not going to happen isn't about the transition but about it happening suddenly.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]