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Mach absolute time

Inside the Unified Log 6: Difficult times

Apparently based on Mach absolute time, log entry times are converted to wallclock times. This exposes them to the vagaries of time zones, seasonal adjustments, and periodic wallclock adjustments. Here’s how all that works, and can confuse.

October 17, 2025 Macs, Technology

Is high resolution time available in the log?

It turns out that ‘nanosecond’ times introduced in LogUI are largely artefact. Is higher resolution timing really needed, and how can it be obtained?

May 22, 2025 Macs, Technology

How Rosetta complicates call chains on M1 Macs

Two basic rules: M1 Macs run Arm-native code when it’s available, but won’t mix ARM-native and Intel code in the same process. Here are the details.

January 27, 2021 Macs, Technology

Inside M1 Macs: Time and logs

Time has changed in M1 Macs, with the Mach clock ticking every 41.67 nanoseconds. This affects all log entries too, and works differently in Rosetta.

November 27, 2020 Macs, Technology

Mints now tells you the (Mach absolute) time

T T Read More

New version of Mints tells you the scaling factors required to convert raw Mach absolute time values to nanoseconds, which change on Apple Silicon Macs.

September 15, 2020 Macs, Technology, Updates

Last Week on My Mac: Times forgotten

The more you look at changes to Mach Absolute Time coming in Apple Silicon Macs, the more messy they become, largely because the docs are so incomplete.

September 13, 2020 Macs, Technology

Changing the clock in Apple Silicon Macs

Since we switched to Intel Macs, Mach precision time has ticked away in nanoseconds. That’s won’t be true in Apple Silicon Macs, and could have strange results.

September 8, 2020 Macs, Technology

Taking macOS to the end of time: nanoseconds count

Picking the right time system for the purpose is critical when you want to analyse very short periods. Sometimes it takes time to discover how to juggle with time.

August 20, 2018 Macs, Technology
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