Binary Translation for C++ and Assembly Programmers
This booklet is written for C++ and Assembly programmers who want to understand how programs built for one processor family can run on another processor family. The focus is binary translation from x86-64 to Arm64, using Rosetta 2 on Apple silicon and Windows on Arm as practical reference points. The booklet does not claim access to proprietary internals. It explains the engineering model used by dynamic binary translators in general, then relates that model to public documentation from Apple a
About this book
The modern software world is no longer tied to a single processor family. A desktop application may begin its life as x86-64 code, then be executed years later on an Arm64 laptop. A C++ application may depend on plug-ins compiled for x64, while its hot paths are gradually rebuilt as native Arm64EC. A macOS binary may be translated by Rosetta 2 while the user sees only a normal application launch.
For systems programmers, this is not a small compatibility trick. It is a meeting point between compilers, executable formats, operating systems, ABI rules, memory models, security policy, exception handling, and CPU microarchitecture. The translator must preserve a complete execution illusion: the program believes it is still living in its original machine world, while the host processor executes a different instruction set.
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