3 years ago
#23 The Mac's Instruction Set Architecture Transitions
From 68K to PowerPC to X86 to ARM
Apple is transitioning the Mac from Intel's X86-64 based microprocessors to its own Apple Silicon built on the ARM64 instruction set. But the Mac has already been through two other similar transitions! In this episode we discuss the transitions and how they affect software. We delve into the 1994 transition from the Motorola 68K line to the Motorola/IBM PowerPC, and the 2006 transition from PowerPC to Intel. Finally, we talk about going from Intel to Apple Silicon. Along the way we discuss mitigation strategies for software developers like universal binaries and emulation.
Show Notes
- Episode 10: What is an Emulator?
- Motorola 68K via Wikipedia
- PowerPC via Wikipedia
- x86 via Wikipedia
- ARM architecture via Wikipedia
- Apple Silicon via Wikipedia
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