2 ms·
The porting was obvious, the switching was not. It was obvious to me, knowing that MacOS is based on NeXTStep and how that ran on a bunch of different architec
by alwillis 4y ago
The porting was obvious, the switching was not.
It was obvious to me, knowing that MacOS is based on NeXTStep and how that ran on a bunch of different architectures—68000, Intel, Sparc, etc.
I even wrote 3 years ago here on HN (before Apple announced their transition to ARM) that I wouldn't be surprised if there were ARM-based Macs in the lab [1].
And also knowing that Apple always wants to be in control of as much of the technology they rely on as possible. After Motorola/IBM dropped the ball with PowerPC and Intel couldn't deliver the performance per watt they needed, they weren't going to fooled a third time.
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21235236 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21235236
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y agoNo, the porting is obvious - I guarantee Apple has test rigs running Darwin on AMD processors and RISC-V, for example - but switching, as in, actually doing something with that portability, is less obvious.