macOS provides built-in support for some USB-to-serial converter IC's. Built-in support was added at various times for different chips. In the versions of macOS before support for a particular chip appeared, a manufacturer-supplied driver needs to be installed.
I rolled some old Macs back to their original versions, and then rolled them forward, one version at a time, to test support support for three different families of USB-to-serial chips. I tested by attempting to upload firmware to ESP32 chips using esptool.py.
Summary
FTDI FT232x chips have working built-in support starting in Mojave, macOS 10.14. Specifically, a cable using a FT232RL was tested.
Silicon Labs (Silabs) CP210x chips have working built-in support starting in Catalina, macOS 10.15. Specifically, support for CP2104 was tested on an Adafruit Feather HUZZAH32.
WCH CH9102F chips have working built-in support starting in Ventura, macOS 13. Specifically, an Adafruit Feather ESP32 V2 with the CH9102F was tested.
Tested macOS Versions
Not every combination was tested, since I knew which versions did not have support and did not re-test old versions.
High Sierra - macOS 10.13
Only Python 2 is available in the original installation, so Python 3.11 was manually installed from python.org.
NO - FTDI did not work properly, though it appeared as /dev/cu.usbserial-AL0157X9.
NO - CP2104 does not appear at all.
NO - CH9102F appears as /dev/cu.usbmodemNNN, but does not work properly with esptool.py.
Mojave - macOS 10.14
Only Python 2 is available in the original installation, so Python 3.11 was manually installed from python.org.
YES - FTDI with esptool.py works. It appeared as /dev/cu.usbserial-AL0157X9.
NO - CP2104 did not work, I believe (my notes are incomplete).
NO - CH9102F
Catalina - macOS 10.15
Has Python 3.8.
YES - FTDI works.
YES - CP2104 starts working in this version, appearing as /devcu.usbserial-NNNNNNNN.
NO - CH9102F does not work properly. Only esptool.py chip_id works.
Big Sur - macOS 11
Same as Catalina.
Monterey - macOS 12
Python 3.9.6
Same as Catalina.
Ventura - macOS 13
YES - FTDI works.
YES- CP2104 works.
YES - CH9102F starts working in this version. It appears as /dev/cu.usbserial-NNNNNNNN. Note the change from usbmodem to usbserial from Montery to Ventura.
Sonoma - macOS 14
Same as Ventura. All work.
References