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Inspiring
February 22, 2019
Answered

Mac ARM Processor

  • February 22, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 751 views

I know it's a little early but what this means to AIR on macOS: https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/02/21/intel-officials-believe-that-arm-macs-could-come-as-soon-as-2020 ?

I guess that Apple will suggest fully optimized application for the new ARM's and allow emulation mode from the current ones but latter will not allow new applications and updates compiled in the old fashion.

I hope not but, otherwise will be a new worry about AIR support this new threat.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer zwetan_uk

Not a huge problem.

The way the source code is organised for Avmplus is to support different CPU architectures

Flash/AIR already support ARM for mobile, but not exploited on the desktop (eg. Windows ARM)

I would see it as the move from PowerPC to Intel on the Mac,
if it happen that ARM become the "default" and the more spread/popular on the mac
I don't really see it as a huge challenge to move from Intel to ARM for macOS


the CPU arch support come mainly from the compilers available on the system,

I don't see Apple moving everything to ARM if they don't add support for it into Clang

In the very worst case scenario where some specific Avmplus )or other) things could not be ported

for that non-yet existing ARM on macOS target, Adobe would still have the option of using AOT
to publish ARM binaries for macOS (as they already do with IPA for iOS), as it is based on Clang.

I'm not saying it is a 5mn job but unlikely a huge blocker for Adobe dev.

1 reply

zwetan_ukCorrect answer
Inspiring
February 22, 2019

Not a huge problem.

The way the source code is organised for Avmplus is to support different CPU architectures

Flash/AIR already support ARM for mobile, but not exploited on the desktop (eg. Windows ARM)

I would see it as the move from PowerPC to Intel on the Mac,
if it happen that ARM become the "default" and the more spread/popular on the mac
I don't really see it as a huge challenge to move from Intel to ARM for macOS


the CPU arch support come mainly from the compilers available on the system,

I don't see Apple moving everything to ARM if they don't add support for it into Clang

In the very worst case scenario where some specific Avmplus )or other) things could not be ported

for that non-yet existing ARM on macOS target, Adobe would still have the option of using AOT
to publish ARM binaries for macOS (as they already do with IPA for iOS), as it is based on Clang.

I'm not saying it is a 5mn job but unlikely a huge blocker for Adobe dev.

Inspiring
February 22, 2019

Thank you for your answer.

It's a relief to know.