Risc Os on Mac Arm ?

Coming soon ?

@+

https://developer.apple.com/programs/universal/

64bit?

64bit?

Undoubtedly, and since Apple presumably have licenced the cores to get custom silicon, it’s pretty unlikely there’ll be any 32-bit decode hardware.

@ Olivier

New mac with A14 CPU or higher most likely won’t have support for AArch32, the only mac that could potentially run RISC OS is the macmini from the Apple DTK which may still support AArch32, but the initialisation it’s a pain, Apple’s custom firmware.

There will be no 32-bit support, Apple won’t have documented this in any way, and the whole thing will be locked down to the nth degree. Other than being amazed that the Acorn RISC Machine has completed its takeover of Apple, there’s nothing to see here for us.

Except that 64-bit ARM is now almost completely unrelated to the Acorn RISC Machine, and doesn’t really merit the RISC description at all.

If we would ever have a 64Bit RiscOS running on those Apple cores we would be spoiled with a speed enhancement that is hard to believe. While checking the latest AMD Zen3 reviews I’ve spotted SPEC benchmarks per MHz where Apple even with the older A13 core passes by any other core from Intel, AMD and whoever…of course it clocks lower than those 5 Ghz thingies but still…

Link here

We’ll see that running on a desktop may be at the next Apple event on the 10th of November…quite exciting, but yes, quite irrelevant to RiscOS.

@Clive Yes AArch64 isn’t ARM as we know it, but it is still very much RISC i.e. register-register, highly orthogonal, no microcode. While it may have a large number of instructions compared to earlier simpler ARMs, its still an A5 pamphlet compared to the x86’s War and Peace.

its still an A5 pamphlet

Crikey. I thought I was doing very well to get the ARMv7 instruction set onto an A5 gatefold…that was in 2007.

We are talking text so small neither of us can read it any more.

We are talking text so small neither (almost¹) none of us can read it any more.

¹ Covers the exceptional cases.

Well… not running RISC OS, but ARM on Apple Silicon in the incarnation of the M1 chip appears to be the fastest core on the market…

The “Archimedes effect” is back ;)

I was offered the choice of a MacBook Pro 16" or a ThinkPad X1 Carbon when I started my current Job. I haven’t actually used Mac much (beyond getting frustrated with Louie’s G4 laptop a long time ago) so I opted for the ThinkPad running Linux (Windows free at last – yea!). By the time of the next machine refresh the top of the range MacBook Pro will have gone ARM, so I might change my preference.

I inherited a Macbook Air, which I use when I’m being sociable in the living room, but the tiny 1366×768 screen drives me nuts, and I frequently run back to my 43" 3840×2160 at my desk upstairs. Then it’s the Mac Mini or the Pi at a click of the remote…

MacBook Pro will have gone ARM, so I might change my preference.

+1 :D

MacBook Pro will have gone ARM, so I might change my preference.

ARM or not, you will still have to deal with the many Apple idiosyncrasies.

you will still have to deal with the many Apple idiosyncrasies

For sure. Pick your idiosyncrasies: Microsoft, Apple, Linux or RISCOS? Not one is perfect. Apple is expensive, but otherwise? Less obnoxious than Microsoft IMO (but maybe a close run thing), easier to use than Linux. RISCOS? Lovely for what it does well, but so many things it can’t really do.

ARM or not, you will still have to deal with the many Apple idiosyncrasies.

Paul, on another thread I was recommending Clive (above) to look at your ConvText, but found your site and domain had disappeared. Is there a new one?

[…] but found your site and domain had disappeared

Well, stone me! No idea what may have happened, but I’m going to find out. Thank you for letting me know!

Found out. There was a migration thingy at the providers side. Websites are back on line now.

you will still have to deal with the many Apple idiosyncrasies

I can always install Linux on it.

@ Druck

I can always install Linux on it.

Be careful… from the T2 chip introduction is has increasingly become less stable to use Linux on Macs, not sure how is the situation right now and with the new M1 chip thought…

…but yeah Linux is my choice on my 2014 macbook pro, so IMHO defo a good idea

Another issue from my point view – how many of the 3rd party apps I use on my Mac Mini will be available on the ARM-based Mac Mini? They’ll presumably all need recompiling…I wonder how many of them actually will be, and how soon? LibreOffice, Firefox, The GIMP, Hugin, MorphX, Audacity, XNView, FileZilla…

My Mac Mini is no longer young, but it’ll probably last a fair few years longer. But I’m wondering whether to trade it in for more recent one, second-hand, as soon as they start appearing when people upgrade to the M1 version.

Apparently there’s an emulator that’ll run the old intel apps. They call it Rosetta 2.

Apparently there’s an emulator that’ll run the old intel apps. They call it Rosetta 2.

I believe I read that Rosetta 2 is a one time translator.