Notes on Apple's Rosetta Technology
With Apple transitioning the entire Macintosh line over to Intel processors over the next 12 months, users will have to be familiar with Rosetta. Rosetta is the emulator (translator) that allows current Mac (PowerPC) programs to run under the new Intel processors.
Apple has posted some recent developer notes about Rosetta which may be of interest to users.
Rosetta supports "applications that run on the PowerPC G3 or G4 processor that are built for Mac OS X". This excludes the following applications:
- Classic Environment, and subsequently any Mac OS 9 or earlier applications
- Screensavers written for the PowerPC
- System Preference add-ons
- Applications which specifically require the PowerPC G5
- Kernel extensions
- Java applications with JNI (PowerPC) libraries
As developers compile their applications for the new Intel processors, they will be releasing all new applications as Universal Binaries. Universal Binaries have both PowerPC and Intel code and can be used on either type of Mac.
You can tell if an application is is Universal or PowerPC by opening the Info window in finder. (example)
Apple has posted some recent developer notes about Rosetta which may be of interest to users.
Rosetta supports "applications that run on the PowerPC G3 or G4 processor that are built for Mac OS X". This excludes the following applications:
- Classic Environment, and subsequently any Mac OS 9 or earlier applications
- Screensavers written for the PowerPC
- System Preference add-ons
- Applications which specifically require the PowerPC G5
- Kernel extensions
- Java applications with JNI (PowerPC) libraries
As developers compile their applications for the new Intel processors, they will be releasing all new applications as Universal Binaries. Universal Binaries have both PowerPC and Intel code and can be used on either type of Mac.
You can tell if an application is is Universal or PowerPC by opening the Info window in finder. (example)
Top Rated Comments
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79 months ago
Very interesting. I wonder if EyeTV will be supproted as it needs the Dual G5 for HD playback...
79 months ago
I wonder if AltiVec is being translated. Apps that make specific use of the G5 does not exclude AltiVec since AltiVec debuted on the G4.
79 months ago
- Applications which specifically require the PowerPC G5
Final Cut Studio doesn't run under Rosetta and it doesn't require a G5. How about any app that needs direct access to CoreAudio and OpenGL?
79 months ago
Guess that's the end of the line for that.
Good ridance.
(sadly this isn't quite true, there will still be people using their old graphite Macs with OS9 a decade from now. ):)
Good ridance.
(sadly this isn't quite true, there will still be people using their old graphite Macs with OS9 a decade from now. ):)
79 months ago
Some Java? That is strange to be in the same list as OS 9 applications.
I wonder how you can tell if a screen saver is written for PowerPC vs CPU independent.
I wonder how you can tell if a screen saver is written for PowerPC vs CPU independent.
79 months ago
Maybe someone can find more applications that are currently universal on their Macs, but the only 2 that I can find on mine are Quicktime and iTunes. The rest are still PowerPC. Will Software Updates from here on out start changing all of the applications over to Universal?
79 months ago
How about a tool to scan the installed apps, extensions, etc., etc. and report on which are PPC and which are universal? And lookup which PPC have universals available? That's be sweet.
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