How can current versions of Adobe products continue to run on the new Macs with Apple Silicon?

Question

During its November 10, 2020 event, Apple has announced that Adobe is bringing its major apps to Apple Silicon, starting with the Lightroom photography software. They also said that all current versions will continue to run, but the new ones will take advantage of Apple Silicon directly. How can it be the current versions will run on the new ARM processor, since they were compiled for x86 Intel processors?

Answer 1

Apple includes a software called Rosetta that works like a "bridge" between the Apple Silicon and Intel by "translating" the intel binaries into Apple Silicon binaries that can be executed on Apple Silicon.

Reference and more details: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_silicon/about_the_rosetta_translation_environment?language=objc

Answer 2

Apple is using Rosetta 2. Scroll down the page for this bit:

“With Big Sur and M1, Mac users can run a greater range of apps than ever before. All of Apple’s Mac software is now Universal and runs natively for M1 systems. Existing Mac apps that have not been updated to Universal will run seamlessly with Apple’s Rosetta 2 technology.”

Answer 3

When they transitioned from PowerPC to Intel, they made Rosetta so PPC apps can run on Intel. Similarly, they made Rosetta 2 so Intel apps can run on M1