iPhone:Binary Type FAT and Non-Fat

Discussion on Fat and Non-FAT Binary type:

At WWDC, it was mentioned that you can build a binary which supports both the ARM v6 instruction set of the original models of iPhone and iPod touch, as well as one that uses the new ARM v7 instruction set of the iPhone 3G S and new iPod touch models.

Standard "non-fat" binaries should run just fine on all currently available devices (3G S or not). As long as you built your application for 2.x and tested it on both 2.x and 3.x OS devices, you should be just fine. The only reason you'd want to specifically create a fat binary would be to squeeze extra performance out of these new devices.

Technically, "fat" means the application will run on at least two architectures.

The iPhone runs an OS X derivative. OS X has the plumbing to support multiple types of processors. This includes the binary carrying a marker for weather or not it is Fat. Your iPhone app should never be marked as fat since it is only capable of running on the iPhone.

PowerPC is the type of processor Apple used in all Macs from 1992 through 2006. It was produced by IBM and Motorola. In 2006 Apple transitioned to x86 and as such they had to support Macs with multiple types of processors in OS X. They did this by compiling for both platforms and calling the resulting binary Fat.

Thanks.

M.P.PRABAKAR
Senior Systems Analyst.

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