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Why is Apple Rosetta 2 fast? (2022)

(dougallj.wordpress.com)
172 points fanf2 | 1 comments | 19 Nov 24 21:42 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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leshokunin ◴[19 Nov 24 22:35 UTC] No.42188818[source]▶
Super interesting. Putting my PM hat on, I wonder: how many x86 apps on Apple still benefit from this much performance? What's the coverage? The switch to M1 happened 4 years ago, so the software was designed for hardware nearly half a decade old.

Excellent engineering and nice that it was built properly. Is this something that Linux / Wine / the Steam compatibility layer already benefit from?

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1. Syonyk ◴[19 Nov 24 22:43 UTC] No.42188863[source]▶
"Apple M-series chips emulating x86," in certain benchmarks and behaviors, was right up there with the fastest x86 chips at the time - I'd guess largely in stuff that benefited from the huge L1I/L1D cache (compared to x86).

I had a M1 Mini for a while, and it played Kerbal Space Program (x86) far better than my previous Intel Mini, which had Intel Integrated Graphics that could barely manage a 4k monitor, much less actual gaming.

I believe there's a way to use Rosetta with Linux VMs, too (to translate x86 VM applications to ARM and run them natively) - but I no longer have any Macs, so I've not had a chance to play with it.