My Macbook Pro M1 Max runs everything blazingly fast, even old executables
compiled for Intel CPUs. I find that surprising, given that the M1 CPU has
to emulate the Intel instructions. But it does and it's great!

The WSJT-X web site doesn't appear to offer a different version for M1, so
I think I'm running the same WSJT-X executable that I was using on my old
Intel-based Macbook. It runs much *faster* than it did on the old
machine. In fact, WSJT-X performance was one of two reasons I upgraded to a
newer Macbook: On the old machine, I was having sporadic problems with
transmit audio dropouts. Apparently it was overloaded. No problem on the
new machine. (The other application was Lightroom, a photo-finishing and
archiving program. *I'm not sure whether it's a separate compile for M1*
but the picture-adjusting sliders now work in real time, much faster than
on the old computer. The System Info panel Graphics section does say
"Metal: M1" so the code appears to be at least aware of the CPU type.)

I'm also running Parallels Desktop on this new Macbook Pro. Several
Windows-only programs that I use run faster on Windows 11 ARM Preview under
Parallels than they do on a native Windows 10 Dell XPS-13 laptop (about 5
years old). These are all Intel compiled executables. If Parallels comes up
with a fix for their generic serial port driver, or if N1MM makes serial
ports non-essential for keyer and SO2R switching, then I'll be able to
retire the Dell (as I did the old Macbook) and finally enjoy a
single-machine life. My breath is bated!

73,

/Rick N6XI

On Wed, Feb 16, 2022 at 11:58 PM JeffH - W4JEW <jeff@...> wrote:

Hello,

I see there are several topics here regarding people who are using an
M1-based Mac. What I can't seem to tell is whether or not WSJT-X has been
compiled for the ARM architecture which is what the M1 Macs are based on.

Yes - it is possible to run non-native apps on M1 Macs via a backward
compatibility feature in macOS called Rosetta, but the performance is not
anywhere near as good as if the code is natively compiled for the ARM
architecture.

Does anyone know if it has been made available as a universal app
(universal = both ARM and Intel support in one binary)?

Thanks!

--
****
Jeff Hochberg
W4JEW

--
--

Rick Tavan
Truckee and Saratoga, CA