What does Apples Transition mean for Bricscad ?
I understood the WWDC presentations that Apple will bring their whole desktop Mac lineup
to ARM until 2023. So they promise their Silicon will be fast.
Maybe not really as fast as AMD chips will be at that time but reasonably fast, together with
optimized Software.
For me Apple Silicone + Apple macOS 11 Frameworks meanwhile look like a very interesting
platform for the future. For standard and CAD tasks and maybe even for heavy 3D and
rendering.
Of course that transition will take years and there will still be x86_64 Mac desktops around
and in use for many years.
And the promise is that Rosetta2 emulation will make even more complex x86 Apps able
to reasonably run on ARM desktops. They even included their deprecated (!) OpenGL and
OpenCL over to Rosetta2 for legacy support.
(But if I got these Developer Videos right, Rosetta2 won't support any virtualization and
use of Intels specific code optimizations like SSE or AVX will cause problems ?)
But really interesting is Apples new platform when Apps got ported to ARM and make use of
Apples optimizations.
For Apps that followed Apples recommendations over the years and cleaned up their code
from legacy stuff that Apple marked deprecated (32bit libraries, OpenGL+CL, ...),
the port is basically just a recompile in Xcode.
Up to a mostly rewrite for more complex cross platform Apps using lots of legacy code.
But wouldn't the benefits of that ARM platform being very interesting for Bricscad too ?
Bricscad uses lots of AI in Bimify, Blockify or Propagate. So could Bricscad make use
of Apple's machine learning cores ?
Will RedSDK allow a transition to Metal or at least Vulcan to dock to Metal by MoltenVK
or such ?
Is Bricsys interested in Apple's coming platform ?
Comments
-
Very interested in this move by Apple to ARM and how Bricscad responds.
I currently use a 2018 15 " MBP and have a 2015 15" MBP in reserve so will probably move to ARM only once a suitable laptop version comes out that is capable of running a 5 k screen AND if a suitable ARM version of Bricscad is available - so I am not in a hurry but am closely watching this space.
Apples recent move to exclusively 64 bit for Catalina bodes well for running on ARM V8 64 bit so here's hoping porting will be straightforward. -
It is a bit more urgent here.
My 2013 Mac Pro is still able to do CAD and Modeling. Just Rendering
isn't that much fun anymore, compared to my Ryzen 3950X PC.
So I may need an Intel iMac in between, when it gets updated.I'm still on Mojave.
But Big Sur is the first OS Update since years that I am really looking forward to.
And I am totally excited about Apples coming ARM hardware. -
Not sure if Bricsys will use them, but I see endless interesting
opportunities.Bricscad (or parts of it) for Apple ARM would also run on an iPad
(even iPhone or Apple TV)
where you could use Apple Augmented Reality and Raytracing to
show your planned 3D Model on building site.
To present or check your planning or design in context or to check
your Wall openings on site while construction and such things.
You could access your plan drawings on site and do small changes.
Lidar sensor could automate model creation of existing buildings.
Howdy, Stranger!