Is it possible to test Apple Silicon builds on Intel Macs?

Using the "Xcode 12 for macOS Universal Apps Beta", you will be able to build your app Universal, so that it can run on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs. There is a new destination that you can select when building your project, "Any Mac," which will cause your app to be built with both CPU architectures. However, if you launch and test your universal app on your Intel Mac, only the x86_64 code will run. In order to fully qualify your app, you still need to test it on an Apple Silicon Mac.

Check out the release notes for Xcode 12 for macOS Universal Apps Beta for more info: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode-release-notes/xcode-12-for-macos-universal-apps-beta-release-notes/

Also, be sure to watch today's session on this topic, "Port your Mac app to Apple Silicon": https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2020/10214/

The other way around does work though -- for those who *do* get access to the Developer Transition Kit, you can run / test / debug / profile either the Apple Silicon version of the app, or the x8664 version, on the Developer Transition Kit. The x8664 version of course would be running under Rosetta. Profiling the CPU performance there would not be comparable to running on Intel hardware, but profiling memory use of either the Apple Silicon version or the x86_64 version is viable.

There's an online app testing tool by Does It ARM that lets you check apps for Apple Silicon Binaries and checks for reports on any known native versions.


They mention the site in this article
https://news.apple.com/ArWmwusL6QxCo8fwAteZ5kQ