As reported by MacRumors, eager Apple developers are already posting benchmarks on the developer transition kits for Macs with Apple silicon. These kits are based on the Mac mini chassis but include ARM-derived Apple silicon rather than Intel CPUs.
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Before we dig in, it's important to note a few caveats. First, the CPU included in these developer kits may or may not reflect the CPUs included in future Apple Macs. These are not consumer products; they're developer tools. Second, the benchmarks were done using Rosetta, which likely still has many changes and optimizations coming. And thirdly, the developers who've leaked this information are in violation of non-disclosure agreements at Apple.
Developers who wanted access to the kit were required to pay a $500 access fee, agree to return the kit after one year—and agree not to publicly write about, review, share, or display the unit without Apple's prior written approval. At least eight developers so far seem not to have read the fine print, judging by the uploads to Geekbench's online leaderboard.
There is currently no way of knowing whether these leaks are deliberate or accidental. At Ars, we frequently get to benchmark hardware that isn't available to the general public and whose details are under embargo as well—and we can confirm that you need to pay close attention to what you're doing. Most modern benchmark utilities have an online leaderboard, with an 'upload results' button baked right into the utility—and in some cases, they even upload by defaultFirefox Developers For Mac
With developer tools, design and build apps and manage projects. See our tips on the best tools to make a development project go smoothly. Mac OS X development environment. Macs are expensive machines primarily used by power users and developers to accelerate their workflow. But, despite its ease of use, macOS isn’t devoid of problems.
unless you specifically force them not to.Accidental or not, the leaks give us some additional information about the potential performance of the new Macs with Apple silicon, though nothing conclusive. The developer transition kits are equipped with what seems to be a variant of the A12Z SoC found in the latest iPad Pro models. These Geekbench database entries also report the virtual CPU as four-core, rather than eight—even though the A12Z as we know it in the iPad Pro is an octa-core CPU.
Four of the A12Z's cores are high-power fast cores, and the other four are low-power slow cores used to increase battery efficiency when running background tasks. This configuration is common in the ARM world but nearly unheard of in x86. So it's not too surprising that an x86 emulation would ignore the big/little configuration and report itself as a simpler four-core setup regardless of underlying reality.
These tests appear to have been run in Geekbench 5.2.0 for macOS x86 (64-bit)—meaning they were run in Rosetta, Apple's tool for emulating x86 Macs on ARM-based Apple silicon.As for the results, the Apple silicon-equipped developer kits average 811 for single-threaded Geekbench and 2781 for multi-threaded. That's about 20 percent slower than the entry-level i3-1000ng4 powered Macbook Air's single-core results and 38 percent faster than its multi-threaded results. Higher-end Macs produce much higher numbers, though.
What's impressive about these leaked numbers is that they're not for Geekbench running natively in ARM mode. These tell us what emulation of legacy apps might look like on Apple silicon Macs—and it's likely early adopters of Apple's new ARM-based Macs will use Rosetta to run at least some apps, so it's a potentially useful insight.
Rosetta 2's performance characteristics aren't well-known enough yet to meaningfully extrapolate the A12Z's native performance—but if the leaked numbers are correct, we can assume it will be quite good.All that said, there is no indication yet that the A12Z will actually ship in consumer Macs. Apple may have plans to introduce a very different chip when it actually comes to market with the new Macs, so while these benchmarks are an intriguing curiosity, they are not certain to be representative of what we'll see when the real deal arrives later this year. These kits weren't designed to reflect the final hardware of Apple silicon Macs.
Developers can start building apps today and first system ships by year’s end, beginning a two-year transition
Cupertino, California — In a historic day for the Mac, Apple today announced it will transition the Mac to its world-class custom silicon to deliver industry-leading performance and powerful new technologies. Developers can now get started updating their apps to take advantage of the advanced capabilities of Apple silicon in the Mac. This transition will also establish a common architecture across all Apple products, making it far easier for developers to write and optimize their apps for the entire ecosystem.
Apple today also introduced macOS Big Sur, the next major release of macOS, which delivers its biggest update in more than a decade and includes technologies that will ensure a smooth and seamless transition to Apple silicon. Developers can easily convert their existing apps to run on Apple silicon, taking advantage of its powerful technologies and performance. And for the first time, developers can make their iOS and iPadOS apps available on the Mac without any modifications.
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To help developers get started with Apple silicon, Apple is also launching the Universal App Quick Start Program, which provides access to documentation, forums support, beta versions of macOS Big Sur and Xcode 12, and the limited use of a Developer Transition Kit (DTK), a Mac development system based on Apple’s A12Z Bionic System on a Chip (SoC).
Apple plans to ship the first Mac with Apple silicon by the end of the year and complete the transition in about two years. Apple will continue to support and release new versions of macOS for Intel-based Macs for years to come, and has exciting new Intel-based Macs in development. The transition to Apple silicon represents the biggest leap ever for the Mac.
“From the beginning, the Mac has always embraced big changes to stay at the forefront of personal computing. Today we’re announcing our transition to Apple silicon, making this a historic day for the Mac,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “With its powerful features and industry-leading performance, Apple silicon will make the Mac stronger and more capable than ever. I’ve never been more excited about the future of the Mac.”
Family of Mac SoCs to Deliver Powerful New Features and Best-in-Class Performance
For over a decade, Apple’s world-class silicon design team has been building and refining Apple SoCs. The result is a scalable architecture custom designed for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch that leads the industry in unique features and performance per watt, and makes each of them best in class. Building upon this architecture, Apple is designing a family of SoCs for the Mac. This will give the Mac industry-leading performance per watt and higher performance GPUs — enabling app developers to write even more powerful pro apps and high-end games. And access to technologies such as the Neural Engine will make the Mac an amazing platform for developers to use machine learning. This will also create a common architecture across all Apple products, making it far easier for developers to write and optimize software for the entire Apple ecosystem.
macOS Big Sur Enables Transition to Apple Silicon
In macOS Big Sur, Apple is offering a range of technologies to make the transition to Apple silicon smooth and seamless. With everything built into Xcode 12, such as native compilers, editors, and debugging tools, most developers will be able to get their apps running in a matter of days. Using Universal 2 application binaries, developers will be able to easily create a single app that taps into the native power and performance of the new Macs with Apple silicon, while still supporting Intel-based Macs. With the translation technology of Rosetta 2, users will be able to run existing Mac apps that have not yet been updated, including those with plug-ins. Virtualization technology allows users to run Linux. Developers can also make their iOS and iPadOS apps available on the Mac without any modifications.
Quick Start Program Lets Developers Get Started Today
Apple Developer Program members can start moving their apps to Apple silicon today by applying for the Universal App Quick Start Program. The program provides access to documentation, forums support, beta versions of macOS Big Sur and Xcode 12, and includes the limited use of a DTK, which will enable developers to build and test their Universal 2 apps. The DTK, which must be returned to Apple at the end of the program, consists of a Mac mini with Apple’s A12Z Bionic SoC inside and desktop specs, including 16GB of memory, a 512GB SSD, and a variety of Mac I/O ports. Developers can apply to the program at developer.apple.com, and the total cost of the program is $500.
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