eli5 what makes a ARM Cpu different from a x64 cpu ? why can’t apps from x64 run on ARM or vice versa
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A program is like a manager and the CPU is a worker. An ARM CPU can only understand French and a x64 CPU can only understand English. The manager can only speak one of those languages.
You can run ARM programs on an x86 CPU and vice versa, but you need an interpreter/translator between the CPU and the program in order for them to understand each other. That’s where you’ll hear the term “emulator”. The same type of program you would use to play older console games (like N64, SNES, etc) or Android games on your laptop.
There are plenty of other under-the-hood differences. For example, x86 tends to be like a diesel engine in a semi truck whereas ARM is like your v4 in a typical sedan. In other words, x86 tends to be very good at raw computing power while the ARM CPU is energy efficient for scenarios that don’t need that power. The lines get more and more blurred everyday but isn’t quite there yet. For example, ARM has been trying to break into the datacenter market (like the cloud servers) for well over a decade with limited success. And Intel has more or less given up on their ultra-low power consumption x86 chips.
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