Asahi Linux Issues First Alpha Release For Running Linux On Apple Silicon

[Developer12]

Apple server chip? Lol. If only it's that easy to create server chip. But let's see.

They're pretty much already there. Their chip is already faster than most of what intel and AMD sell, and has roughly 3x the perf-per-watt. (the most important metric in a dataceter) It has higher RAM bandwidth than an 8-slot dual-CPU motherboard. Break out some PCIe lanes, stick linux on it, ship it. The closest thing they have to a competitor is ampere's vaporware.

I'm no fanboy, like somebody

You're quite the fan of shitting on people doing good open source work.

[t.s.]

They're pretty much already there. Their chip is already faster than most of what intel and AMD sell, and has roughly 3x the perf-per-watt. (the most important metric in a dataceter) It has higher RAM bandwidth than an 8-slot dual-CPU motherboard. Break out some PCIe lanes, stick linux on it, ship it. The closest thing they have to a competitor is ampere's vaporware.


You're quite the fan of shitting on people doing good open source work.

Yeah, yeah.. Making a server chip is that easy. Whatever you said. 3x perf-per-watt? Versus Intel and AMD server chip? Keep dreaming.

Shitting on peope doing open source work? Butthurt much? Read again all my post.

[Developer12]

Yeah, yeah.. Making a server chip is that easy. Whatever you said. 3x perf-per-watt? Versus Intel and AMD server chip? Keep dreaming.

It's already there in perf-per-watt. Probably higher actually.

You can compile a linux kernel on an M1 macbook faster than a beefy ryzen desktop.....while sipping power from only the battery. Lasting for 24 hours. And that was on an Asahi kernel that doesn't have proper CPU power management. This thing sucks damn near no power at all.

Datacenters *love* that. It's a decently powerful chip, but it would also absolutely slash their operating costs.

peope

'nuff said.

[Developer12]

And another reviewer confirmed that the slots is protected by Apple software. So, nope. You cannot self-upgrade your mac. Must via apple.

Dear god you're both ignorant.

No, they're not NVMe modules, and no they're not software-locked. Do some fucking research.

What those modules hold are raw flash chips. The SSD controller is on the M1 die itself. It's firmware is loaded by iBoot, if I recall correctly. Also allows for a lot of bandwidth between the SSD and CPU cores.

If you swap the modules, it's like swapping individual flash chips between two SSDs. Nothing but corrupted data structures. However, you can easily recover from this using configurator 2 or whatever the stupid provisioning tool is that apple provides, as marcan has demonstrated and written about at length.

Yes, doing that wipes the data on the SSD storage. But that's unavoidable considering you just swapped the raw flash between SSDs.

EDIT: Unfortunately, while there's no software lock preventing you from stuffing larger modules in, the flash chips do appear to be custom-made for apple. Good luck sourcing some to make 3rd party modules.