Craig Federighi: Native Windows on Mac M1 is ‘Really Up to Microsoft’

Following the release of the Mac M1, Apple executives interviewed various publications, and today, Ars Technica posted another interview with Craig Federighi, chief software engineer, Johny Srouji, director of hardware technologies, and vice president of marketing Greg Joswiak.

Much of the interview focuses on topics the three have covered in previous discussions, but there is some interesting tidbit from Federighi on Microsoft and Windows on the M1 Macs. Currently, M1 Macs do not support Windows and there is no Boot Camp functionality like on Intel Macs, but Windows support is a feature that many would like to see.

Federighi says Windows on the M1 Macs is “on par with Microsoft.” The basic technologies are there and Macs can do it, but Microsoft must decide whether or not to release its Arm-based version of Windows to Mac users.

As for Windows running natively on the machine, “it really depends on Microsoft,” he said. “We have the core technologies to do that, to run their ARM version of Windows, which in turn of course supports x86 user mode applications. But it’s a decision that Microsoft has to make, to license this technology to users. on these Macs. But Macs are certainly very capable of it. “

Federighi also suggested that Windows in the cloud might be a possible solution in the future, and he highlighted CrossOver, which is capable of running Windows x86 apps on M1 Macs using Rosetta 2.

Federighi, Joswiak and Srouji also discussed the development of Apple Silicon chips, design of M1, performance of M1, unified memory architecture, running iOS apps, etc. The full interview can be read at Ars Technica.