A look back in time: Apple’s first chip transition (1994)
Back in 1994, Apple made its first chip transition. It was the switch from the Motorola 68000 series architecture to the then-new PowerPC platform from the AIM alliance (Apple, IBM, and Motorola). To ease the transition, Apple added an emulator to Mac OS that let old software run on the new PowerPC Macs. It wasn’t quite as elegant as todays Rosetta 2 technology, but it suited its purpose at the time. In fact, a decent amount of Mac OS itself was run in emulation at the time of its launch. The PowerPC processors were so powerful that emulation didn’t cause much of a noticeable slowdown (similar to what we see today). Customers were able to continue using their favorite apps, while at the same time developers worked hard to update them for Apple’s new PowerPC chips.
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