1 of 10

Apple M1

…. Latest MacBook/MacMini

RRTX Technology Club - January 2021

2 of 10

Agenda

  • What just happened
  • CISC/RISC
  • ARM Holdings
  • M1 Performance
  • Software Support
  • Rosetta X86-64 Emulation
  • Virtualization
  • What’s next … M1X

3 of 10

What just happened?

  • Major Change to Apple’s laptop/desktop computers
  • Replaced Intel with Apple Silicon (M1)
  • Apple Ecosystem … more integration of computer, tablet, phone, entertainment and car

4 of 10

CISC (Intel) vs RISC (ARM)

  • CISC (Compex Instruction Set Computers > e350 Instructions in Set) - eg Intel
  • RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computers .. less than 100 instruction in set) - eg ARM (Acorn RISC
  • SoC .. System on a Chip (eg Intel INSIDE)
  • ARM .. Acorn Risc Machine. Apple investment and spin off became “Advanced” Risc Machine. Sold to Japanese
  • Intel/ARM Business Model

5 of 10

Advanced Risc Machine.. ARM Holdings

  • ARM .. Acorn Risc Machine .. small Cambridge based British Company started by (Sir) Robin Saxby
  • 1990: “Advanced” Risc Machine spin off - Apple/ARM/VLSI (80% Olivetti)
  • 2016 Sold to Japanese company Softbank
  • 2020 (sept) ARM sold to NVIDIA

6 of 10

M1 Performance

7 of 10

Software Support

  • All Apple Native Apps - Mail, Notes, Messages, Numbers, Quicktime, Final Cut PRO etc.
  • Some Major Third Party Apps … Lightroom, Chrome and Firefox, Microsoft 365

8 of 10

Rosetta 2 - x86-64 to M1

  • While apps are being developed for Apple’s M1 ARM IS, Intel x86 apps can be run using an “Emulator”
  • Apple’s Rosetta emulator, originally for the PowerPC to Intel transition, has been modified for x86-64 IS apps.

9 of 10

Virtualization

  • Parallels, VMWare Fusion under development
  • Already done using QEMU

10 of 10

What’s Next