Apple will switch to ARM processors: what does it mean for plugin developers?

[Daimonicon]

What it means for users? They will continue to be f*** by Apple

And still they enjoy pay so much more for a rotten fruit and at the same time still believe it's so much better than a pc and believed "think differently"really meant something.

[medienhexer]

What it means for users? They will continue to be f*** by Apple

And still they enjoy pay so much more for a rotten fruit and at the same time still believe it's so much better than a pc and believed "think differently"really meant something.

Thanks for your services, that carpet really needed to be tinkled on.

Is there really no way to discuss anything Apple without these ideology-laden posts? Why don’t we all go join forums for harmonica enthusiasts and tell them how they’re all idiots for playing an instrument without strings?

[Forgotten]

Is there really no way to discuss anything Apple without these ideology-laden posts?

Unfortunately it does not seem possible for some people who feel that it’s a worthwhile effort to seek out posts about Apple and post the same words that they’ve already posted a hundred times over...

[medienhexer]

Looks like you’re right about that.

Funny thing is: we‘re discussing the potential of custom ARM designs and not the pros and cons of operating systems.

If we were discussing operating systems, we would have to mention that all major systems (Windows, Linux, BSD, Mac OS), all if them run on ARM CPUs already. So really, it‘s just that no end user has seen MacOS on ARM, yet.

It is, however, likely that Apple has a viable version internally. They did maintain and develop an intel-compatible version in parallel to the PPC version they were selling at the time and iOS was initially forked from Mac OS development after the Macs were transitioned to intel.

[jgalt91]

It is, however, likely that Apple has a viable version internally

They have one indeed, it's called project Catalyst (Marshmallow before) and IIRC it aims to execute natively both x86 and ARM. If they do an efficient ARM to x86 instruction translation (unlike the infamous Windows running on a SD835 on an emulation layer with lots of overheat) and the A-series chip they use is powerful enough, users shouldn't notice anything, maybe less performance on x86 programs than ARM ones but good enough to not care at all. That should at least ease a lot the transition before all their ecosystem is full ARM, a bit like PPC to x86 transition with Rosetta.

Now for devs it's different, I guess Apple will ease some x86 toolchains to compile things in Xcode.

Of course that is just information based on leaks, so take it with a grain of salt but it makes sense to play again the Rosetta card.

[Urs]

new simd instructions

As someone who made the transition from PowerPC (AltiVec) to x86 (SSE) for SIMD, I have abstracted vector types and intrinsics early on. As a bonus it's quite easy to make an abstraction that's based on scalar types only, so you can compile for any platform at any time. You can also support the compiler's built-in vector types, e.g. Clang Vectors, with the same codebase.

[Vokbuz]

So, it's official. Mac will transition to ARM.

[Urs]

Two years transition time, new Universal Binaries, Rosetta 2, dev kits available this week.

[ericj23]

First models this year - but they are talking 2 year transition, so I suspect that might mean a last round of intels before they are all changed. Not a computer expert but does this make making android VST (or at least some sort of plug-in) more likely?

Everyone will end up having to compile for ARM so why not Android?

[Vokbuz]

dev kits available this week.

I wonder what is the use case for these dev kits without actual hardware.

[dineshk]

Dev kits are hardware... Mac mini form factor arm Macs out this week for devs

[medienhexer]

First models this year - but they are talking 2 year transition, so I suspect that might mean a last round of intels before they are all changed. Not a computer expert but does this make making android VST (or at least some sort of plug-in) more likely?

Everyone will end up having to compile for ARM so why not Android?

For a very long time, it was almost impossible to achieve low enough latency. Also, there needs to be a way for developers to earn money with plug-ins. On iOS, you can sell standalone apps and run them like a plug-in in an iPad DAW. Some developers teamed up with a DAW developer and sold their plug-ins as in-App purchase integrated in that DAW.

Google had their development team focussed on other priorities than Apple.

[thelizard]

Hard-to-find dev kit link here for fellow devs: https://developer.apple.com/programs/universal/

[aMUSEd]

I'm worried this will be the kiss of death for apps like Metasynth - U&I have been spending well over a year having to update their ageing codebase to make it Catalina compatible, now I bet they are pissed that they have to do it all again.

[Markus Krause]

I doubt that the new machines will support OpenGL, which is deprecated by Apple. Seems quite a desaster, since most VST3 plugins use it