Difference between Intel, Universal, and Apple Silicon apps

[adamryan1983]

Hey folks, recently acquired a 14 inch MBP with the M1 pro chip so obviously my next step is to migrate my apps to their silicon compatible versions.

I moved some of my popular apps from my old 16 inch intel based MBP to the new computer and doing some easy observations, I see that I have a mixture of Intel and Universal apps.

Some of the new apps I have downloaded are listed as Apple Silicon.

So essentially I have a mixture of three types of apps on my machine. I know the Intel ones will continue to run through rosetta, but I guess my question is:

Should I let the universal apps be as they are, or should I be looking for silicon versions of these apps as well?

I'm a bit confused if there is a difference with silicon and universal apps and if there is any benefit/drawback to either type.

 

[Krevnik]

Universal means that it has machine code for both Apple Silicon and Intel bundled together, so it will run on either system. It just means it can run natively on both Intel and AS hardware.

 

[adamryan1983]

That's what I was kind of thinking. I just downloaded Monolingual and stripped the intel architecture from them. It looks like they are listing as Apple Silicon type now. Thank you.

 

[branchus]

That's what I was kind of thinking. I just downloaded Monolingual and stripped the intel architecture from them. It looks like they are listing as Apple Silicon type now. Thank you.

How do you stripped the Intel architecture?

 

[jeanlain]

Any idea why some developers propose intel and ARM version as separated apps rather than a single universal app? It creates confusion in the mind of users who don't know about this stuff. So there has to be some technical reason.

 

[alien3dx]

Ï Any idea why some developers propose intel and ARM version as separated apps rather than a single universal app? It creates confusion in the mind of users who don't know about this stuff. So there has to be some technical reason.

my ios apps show as ios even been compile as universal

i see few type

1. apple silicon e.g xd,creative cloud
2. intel e.g visual studio ,vlc
3. ios e.g (my apps)
4.universal e.g xcode, da vinci resolve,telegram

 

[alien3dx]

** ios doesnt mean all apps in phone can be in m1. need to compile uniersal first

 

[thenewperson]

Any idea why some developers propose intel and ARM version as separated apps rather than a single universal app? It creates confusion in the mind of users who don't know about this stuff. So there has to be some technical reason.

Size, for one (if not only).

 

[Krevnik]

Any idea why some developers propose intel and ARM version as separated apps rather than a single universal app? It creates confusion in the mind of users who don't know about this stuff. So there has to be some technical reason.

Depends on their build system, really, and ”minimizing effort” on the part of the engineers.

If you use Xcode to build, there’s pretty much zero reason because it’s just a setting when you do the final build. But if you use some sort of CMake-based build system or the like, then it’s extra effort to build both architectures, and then merge them together with a tool. This means modifying the build pipeline, etc. So with the mentality of “If we just ignore it, it will eventually go away”, they add an ARM-specific build pipeline that looks identical to the x86-specific build pipeline minus some variables being set, and call it a day. All part of “minimizing engineering effort, maximizing customer impact” thinking where if you aren’t delivering big new features or changes that impact a large % of your customers, then you aren’t spending your engineering time efficiently.

Size, for one (if not only).

Few projects have binaries big enough for that to be a noticeable factor.

 

[thenewperson]

Few projects have binaries big enough for that to be a noticeable factor.

Definitely; I was just answering the question.