Apple is immersed for a year in a transition process for its Mac computers. The company will leave Intel processors and X86 architecture and from next year will use exclusively processors designed by the company itself.
The first processors, the M1, M1 Pro and M1 Max have already reached some of the catalog machines and, in general, with good results.
The laptops and desktops manufactured with them are more powerful and efficient than those that until now used Intel processors.
But there is a small problem: they can not natively execute the Windows operating system.
Since 2006, Apple allowed Mac users to create a partition within the Mac hard drive and install a copy of Windows on it.
This option, known as Boot Camp, allows us to use applications that otherwise would not be available in the MacOS operating system.
It is especially useful for games, since there are many titles that do not have support for MacOS.
But the existence of Boot Camp was possible because both Mac and most Windows PC computers used the same processors.
Apple only had to add support for the different components of the equipment (keyboards, screen and others) and everything worked quite well.
The jump to a new architecture has finished with this possibility.
Microsoft has a version of Windows designed for computers with architecture processors similar to the new Apple M1 (ARM) but at the moment there is no something like Boot Camp on the new Mac to install it.
The only option, so far, is to run this special version of Windows within a virtualized environment, such as those offered by software tools such as Parallels or VMware.
These solutions, which simulate a completely independent computer in Mac’s memory, nevertheless have an impact on the power of machines and are not compatible with all applications.
Windows 11 for ARM includes the option to emulate an architecture processor similar to those of Intel to run non-compatible applications, but this also remains power to the processor.
The experience, therefore, is not very good.
The problem could be solved soon.
According to the XDA publication, the reason why there is still no solution similar to Boot Camp that allows us to install Windows natively on a Mac is that Microsoft has an exclusivity agreement with Qualcomm for the Windows version.
Qualcomm and Microsoft began working on laptops with ARM processor in 2016 and as part of the initiative, Qualcomm negotiated be the only processor provider.
This agreement will soon expire, which would allow other semiconductor companies, such as Samsung or MediaTek, create ARM architecture processors for future PCS.
But it will also provide Microsoft distributing copies of Windows 11 lists to install on Mac with M1, M1 Pro and M1 Max processors, or any future model with Apple processors.
So far, Qualcomm has only made small adaptations of your most powerful mobile chips for this version of Windows.
There are laptops for sale that use Windows for ARM and SnapDragon processors (the Qualcomm processor chips line that is usual to see on many Android mobiles), but it is very focused and very low powerful machines.
Qualcomm has already confirmed that it works on processors specifically designed for computers, not for mobile, and that will be comparable in power with the solutions that Apple has created for your Mac.
