RME macOs driver in a nutshell

With the announcement of DriverKit and System Extensions in 2019, Apple has introduced new security features and important changes. These changes affect the way RMA can develop drivers for existing and future macOS platforms. This video explains the main differences between the old RME drivers and the newly released DriverKit drivers, both of which can be found on the RME download page.

Prior to macOS 10.15 Catalina, all drivers ran as kernel extensions with some access to kernel-level functions. For security and stability reasons. Apple has decided to deprecate the Kernel Extension Framework. Drivers now run as system extensions. System extensions are similar to kernel extensions, but run in userspace.

Apple has also announced that macOS will no longer support existing kernel drivers for USB and PCI Express devices. Therefore, manufacturers will be forced to develop driver kits to ensure that their devices will be compatible with all future versions of macOS.