diff --git a/Doc/library/platform.rst b/Doc/library/platform.rst
index d8e5166..929936e 100644
--- a/Doc/library/platform.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/platform.rst
@@ -228,9 +228,6 @@
    Entries which cannot be determined are set to ``''``.  All tuple entries are
    strings.
 
-   Documentation for the underlying :c:func:`gestalt` API is available online at
-   http://www.rgaros.nl/gestalt/.
-
 
 Unix Platforms
 --------------
diff --git a/Lib/platform.py b/Lib/platform.py
index 967491a..6e301da 100755
--- a/Lib/platform.py
+++ b/Lib/platform.py
@@ -758,6 +758,7 @@
                    0x2: 'PowerPC',
                    0xa: 'i386'}.get(sysa,'')
 
+    versioninfo=('', '', '')
     return release,versioninfo,machine
 
 def _mac_ver_xml():
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_platform.py b/Lib/test/test_platform.py
index ec134a1..8751aa8 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_platform.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_platform.py
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@
             self.assertEqual(res[1], ('', '', ''))
 
             if sys.byteorder == 'little':
-                self.assertEqual(res[2], 'i386')
+                self.assertIn(res[2], ('i386', 'x86_64'))
             else:
                 self.assertEqual(res[2], 'PowerPC')
 
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index caa12a6..6bb9f9f 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -56,6 +56,9 @@
 Tests
 -----
 
+- Issue #12549: Correct test_platform to not fail when OS X returns 'x86_64'
+  as the processor type on some Mac systems.
+
 - Avoid failing in test_robotparser when mueblesmoraleda.com is flaky and
   an overzealous DNS service (e.g. OpenDNS) redirects to a placeholder
   Web site.