VMware Communities
kajaani
Contributor
Contributor

Fusion for iOS

would it be possible to create a VM player like fusion that would run on the new iPad Pro?

Reply
0 Kudos
8 Replies
ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Not likely, Fusion doesn't emulate CPU's, it virtualizes them, so it could only run guest OS's that work on the Ax series of processors, and right now that's just iOS.

Reply
0 Kudos
wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

At VMworld last August they actually demo'ed running vSphere on Arm.

See also:

ESXi on Arm? Yes, ESXi on Arm. VMware teases bare-metal hypervisor for 64-bit Arm servers • The Regi...

IOW, VMware does have the knowledge to run a hypervisor on an Arm processor.

Does that mean it will come to an iPad? I'd say not impossible, but still doubtful.

Like mentioned earlier, you need guests you can run on it and while there are quite a few operating systems that run on an arm processor, there's not a lot of demand for that outside of android and ios.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
Reply
0 Kudos
bluefirestorm
Champion
Champion

There is also the constant speculation/rumours that tend to come and go about Apple dumping Intel CPUs in favour of their own design of ARM-based chips for the Mac lineup. So if that does happen, a version of Fusion on running on ARM won't be far behind and might actually launch at the same time; just as Fusion 1.0 launched around the time the first Mac products came with Intel instead of PowerPC.

Reply
0 Kudos
ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Yeah, but that'd also be the end of running Windows on Fusion, unless they add CPU emulation - and talk about killing performance.

Apple has enough of a business market now, that I take those stories with a grain of salt.  Intel saved the Mac.  Mac is not a phone.

Reply
0 Kudos
bluefirestorm
Champion
Champion

Yeah, every speculation/rumour about any future product/service plans/roadmap of any company (not just Apple) is to be taken with a grain of salt.

Except that of late, Apple has not been good at keeping such secrets (perhaps intentionally). The most recent product launch event, all the "predictions" were pretty much spot on with the same Bloomberg reporter who has his sources with the 2020 target year for macOS on ARM.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-02/apple-is-said-to-plan-move-from-intel-to-own-mac-...

Who knows these types of stories is just a tactic in some Intel supply contract negotiation? Even if Apple spends US$10-20 million/year on a few dozen people working full time/part time on a macOS on ARM project and it does not see the light of day, the possible extra discounts that Apple can squeeze out of such Intel supply contract probably pays for such a skunkworks project many times fold.

There is also the movement of Microsoft Windows away from just being Intel x86 architecture only (and this isn't the first time, NT also had versions that ran on Alpha, MIPS, PPC, and Surface RT was a version Windows 8 that run on ARM-based CPU even though Surface RT was considered a failed product). It is widely expected there will be Windows 10 on ARM with better native application support (not emulation). It was the lack of application support on NT on non-Intel chips and Surface RT not a viable choice.

It can seem far-fetch as it requires a certain confluence of events to have a successful transition to macOS on ARM and the transition could take a 12-18 months before it can be judged success or failure. But it was also unimaginable in the past to have Microsoft embracing Linux but yet now there is a Linux subsystem inside Windows 10 and SQL Server on Linux.

Reply
0 Kudos
ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

I suspect that we'll end up with a dual CPU system, much like the T2 chip now.  They would offload functions of the core OS to that, but leave the main CPU for applications.  In any case, as you say, I'll worry about it when/if it happens.

My big fear is that Apple really does believe that an iPad can replace a computer.....

Reply
0 Kudos
Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

It may be possible, but the bigger question is 'should we?'

-
Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
Reply
0 Kudos
ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

And will Apple allow it?  They pulled DOSBox over TOS violations.

Reply
0 Kudos