Computing SHA-256 digests is a common and demanding task, particularly in security. A late Intel Mac is shown to be much slower at doing that than M-series Macs, and this considers why that might be.
Apple silicon
How your Mac can use less energy and power, run its battery down less, generate less heat, and keep its P cores for the work you want it to do for you.
Apple silicon Macs (and iPhones and iPads) with AI enabled load 23 cryptexes to support that. This explains how that works, and how you might see an odd volume named Creedence….
Although Macs can resolve time to nanoseconds, this isn’t apparent from tests writing log entries very rapidly. This explains what is probably happening.
Although there are important differences between Intel and Apple silicon Macs, both can resolve time to nanoseconds. So can this new version of LogUI.
Will macOS 16 support Intel Macs? All T2 models, or just a few of them? What about the 5 year rule? It’s all down to demand and cost benefit, and maybe convincing those who have been sitting on the fence.
68K to PowerPC in 1994-1998, on to Intel in 2006-2009, and to Apple silicon from 2020. The 68K emulator, Rosetta, and Rosetta 2 that enabled backward compatibility.
How much faster are the P cores in M3 and M4 chips, compared to late Intel Macs? How do they compare when running threads at low QoS, such as those of macOS background tasks?
From the original Macintosh 128K in 1984, through the divergence into SE and Mac II, then the unique Twentieth Anniversary Mac, to the first iMac in 1998, and its successors.
How apps and processes set their priority, and on Apple silicon that determines which type of core they can be run on. What you can do to alter that.
The Eclectic Light Company 