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ARM based Macs, How is VM gonna handle Virtual machines

At the previous WWDC 2020 (June), Apple announced the move away from Intel chips to doing their A12x Bionic ARM based Mac. Since the code would be vastly different, and not rely on x86 architecture any longer, this could cause problems for products that rely on Intel VT.

Apple announces Mac transition to Apple silicon - Apple

https://www.macrumors.com/guide/apple-silicon/

I know its early stages, and developers have got plenty of time, but also i'm sure no one likes surprises either. Is VMware looking int this... ? Particularly with Bootcamp, as no more using Bootcamp partitions in VM. Or would the default answer be the easiest? "Keep an old Intel Mac around for this stuff"

I'm sure many in the "too hard basket" will probably do this, but since Apple is helping it by offering 'Rosetta 2' (anyone remember transitioning from PowerPC to Intel in 2005/2006 will remember this) would ease the phase, but just like what happened then, that still wouldn't be without its problems. Arguably, probably the same set of problems. The only exception is many more developers are on the x86. already.

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

This thread has speculation and thoughts: Bloomberg: Apple looking at moving to ARM chips for Mac

Rather than have multiple threads on this topic, I’ll lock yours.


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