Around OSX 10.4, there was a transition from PowerPC to x86 architecture. It was handled by bundling a JIT interpreter called rosetta [0]. It ran at pretty much the same speed as if you ran it on the original architecture.<p>They had already done something similar in their first arch transition, 68k =&gt; PowerPC [1].<p>Point is, binary compatible is <i>possible</i>. Far from easy, sure, but it&#x27;s been done before. The question is, did CPU evolve so much it became impossible to translate from one arch to another ?<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Rosetta_(software)" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Rosetta_(software)</a>
[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Mac_68k_emulator" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Mac_68k_emulator</a>