From Intel to Apple Silicon: 20 years of Mac chip evolution
▼ Summary
– macOS 27 will not end Intel Mac support entirely; some models will get security and Safari updates for two more years, and Rosetta compatibility will persist.
– macOS 26 marks the final chapter for Intel Macs, with any subsequent updates considered a coda or epilogue.
– The Intel Mac era began with Apple engineer JK Scheinberg proposing an Intel-compatible version of Mac OS X in June 2000 as a solo project.
– At that time, Macs used PowerPC processors from Apple, IBM, and Motorola, making an Intel version unnecessary initially.
– The Intel version, codenamed “Marklar,” existed as a hobbyist side project for about a year and a half before becoming official.
The release of macOS 27 this fall won’t entirely end the era of the Intel Mac, but it does mark a definitive turning point. The last remaining Intel models capable of running macOS 26 Tahoe will still receive security and Safari updates for two more years, and elements of the Rosetta compatibility layer,which lets Intel-based software run on Apple Silicon,will linger in some form for an unknown period. Still, macOS 26 is the final chapter in the Intel Mac story. Everything after that is just a postscript.
Most of our WWDC coverage has focused on what’s next, so allow us a moment to look back at the full arc of the Intel Mac. It was a partnership that made Macs dramatically better for years,until, eventually, it made them worse.
The Birth of “Project Marklar”
The Mac’s relationship with Intel didn’t begin with version 10.4.4, the first Mac OS X release to ship on a commercially available Intel-based Mac. But we don’t need to go all the way back to NeXTSTEP’s x86 compatibility or Apple’s failed 1990s attempt to license classic Mac OS for third-party x86 systems.
Instead, start with JK Scheinberg, an Apple engineer who, in June 2000, was looking for a solo project to ease his transition to working from home. His idea? A version of the still-unfinished Mac OS X that could run on Intel processors.
“I’ve been working on the Intel platform for the last week getting continuations working,” Scheinberg wrote to his boss in an email later shared by his wife. “I’ve found it interesting and enjoyable, and, if this (an Intel version) is something that could be important to us I’d like to discuss working on it full-time.”
At the time, all Macs still relied on PowerPC processors co-developed by Apple, IBM, and Motorola,a partnership that had been in place since 1994. Early versions of Mac OS X ran on G3 and G4 chips, and the 64-bit G5 processor launched in mid-2003. An Intel-compatible version of Mac OS X wasn’t an immediate necessity. For about a year and a half, it existed only as a hobbyist side project, codenamed “Marklar.”
(Source: Ars Technica)