The problem is that
applications are designed to run on specific processors and not all developers have done all the legwork to get their apps to run natively on Apple Silicon Macs. Macs with M1 technology can run native, universal (where the installer contains code for Intel and Apple chips), and Intel applications. Apple encourages developers to release universal apps where possible and also allows Intel apps to run on Apple silicon using emulation technology Apple calls Rosetta 2.
What is Rosetta 2?
Rosetta 2 is an emulator designed to ease the transition between Intel and Apple processors. Translate applications designed for Intel to run on Apple Silicon. Some applications (including Microsoft Office applications) are also translated the first time you run them. This need for translation on first run means that applications may start a bit slower than normal (up to 20 seconds in some cases), but you won't experience the same delay the next time you run the application. 'application. The entire process takes place in the background, and while it may have a slight impact on application performance, early reports suggest that the performance improvement for the switch to the M1 chip more than makes up for it.
What Apple says
"Rosetta is a translation process that allows users to run applications that contain instructions," says its developer page. “
Rosetta's goal is to ease the transition to Apple silicon, giving you time to create a universal binary for your application. It is not a replacement for creating a native version of your app. "
What is the translation process?
“If an executable contains only Intel instructions, macOS automatically starts Rosetta and begins the translation process. After the translation is complete, the system starts the translated executable instead of the original. However, the translation process takes time, so users may feel that translated applications start or run slower, ”says Apple.
Rosetta can also translate dynamic code or JavaScript on the fly.
Can I run an x86 plugin with my application?
When using a Mac M1, you'll find that it will always prefer to run arm64 instructions on Apple's silicon. Nevertheless,
sometimes an application contains ARM and X86 instructions, and if so, the user can restart the application using the Rosetta translation from the Get Info window. 'app in Finder. Select the app, press Command-I, and check the Open using Rosetta box. This is only really useful if you need to run an old plugin in an app that runs natively on M1, for example.
Who supports Rosetta 2?
All of Apple's applications and all of its commercial applications are already natively compatible with the M1 chip. Developers are also creating universal apps that will run natively on Intel and M1 Macs. Apps that are not yet available natively or universally may require a small update to enable Rosetta 2 support, but will then work just fine. Key applications like Word are already running on the M1 and Adobe promises a native M1 version of Photoshop early next year, with Lightroom coming "soon". Of course, you can also run all iOS apps on the M1 chip, if the developers allow it.
What can't Rosetta 2 translate?
Rosetta cannot translate kernel extensions or virtual machine applications that virtualize x86_64 computing platforms. Developers should be aware that Rosetta is also unable to translate AVX, AVX2, and AVX512 vector instructions.
A Little History
Apple has used the Rosetta name before. When you migrated the Mac from PowerPC to Intel chips, you used something with the same name to perform the same function of enabling PowerPC applications on Intel chips. Although the name and purpose remain the same, there is a big difference between this form of Rosetta and the Rosetta we use today, as Apple developed the target processor, which means that it thought of Rosetta's needs when designing the M1. . This means that it was able to build some of the elements necessary to provide this support on the chip itself. This is why some applications running in Rosetta emulation on an Apple Silicon Mac run faster than on Intel, because despite having a low performance impact, they still benefit from the huge performance benefits that provides switching. to M1 processors.
What does the performance look like?
As I explained here, I've been using a Mac mini M1 for a while. In my experience, most applications run just as well (often much faster) when running on the M1 chip as they do on the equivalent Intel-powered Mac. It should also be noted that these processors offer excellent memory management. Apple has developed a technology called Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) that shares memory among all processor functions. Since the memory, processor, and other parts of the system are all housed on the chip, you can expect great performance. This is especially noticeable in graphically intensive applications, which I find run even faster than before.
How long will Rosetta 2 be available?
We don't know if Rosetta 2 will continue to be available. Historically,
Rosetta was included in OS X 10.4.4 Tiger, became a downloadable option in OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and in support, but disappeared the following year, although in this case the transition was completed earlier. than expected when Apple stopped selling Macs based on the older architecture. Apple has committed to completing the transition between Intel and Apple Silicon processors within two years, which suggests that it will be there to support this and will continue to be available in subsequent versions. Apple knows that people will always buy new Macs with Intel processors during this transition. With that in mind, it seems plausible that Apple will keep support for Rosetta 2 in macOS until at least 2023. For more on Rosetta, check out this Apple Developer Note.