Apple M1 Pro / Max: Precise Kernel Management for macOS Always Smooth

One of the secrets of the smoothness of Apple Silicon Macs can not only be found in the chipset designed by Apple, macOS also plays a crucial role. The Mac OS was updated at the same time as the hardware update to get the most out of the latter. Cores are used as frugal as possible and especially for all background tasks, leaving powerful cores available for user interactions.

This division of labor has been revised for the new, more powerful chips that Apple introduced last month. Both the Apple M1 Pro and the Apple M1 Max have a CPU that can go up to ten cores with a different enterprise. They only have two energy-saving cores, half the size of the Apple M1, but up to eight powerful cores, twice the number of previous cores.

Unlike the first Apple Silicon chip, these newcomers don’t have enough frugal cores to rely solely on them for most tasks. As a result, developer Howard Oakley Appears on his blog That the organization is different and that the performance cores are more exploited on the MacBook Pro. However, Quality of Service that manages the priority of tasks is designed to keep the user as flexible as possible.

To achieve this, the developers at Cupertino rely on a three-level hierarchy of background tasks. Energy-saving cores are used as much as possible, as in the Apple M1. If they are strong enough to get the job done quickly, these are the only ones to be exploited, but they are usually paired with performing cores. Not all eight at once, however, and macOS itself will be limited to a maximum of four high-performance cores and leave the other four free. If the task requires more strength, the last 4 cores can be summoned, but they will return the hand as quickly as possible.

Thus the developer concludes that macOS tries to keep four free powerful cores on hand at all times. As long as they are not needed, they remain unused in background tasks, so they can be used immediately when the user takes action. This is the key to feeling smooth in use, as MacBook Pros always have spare parts available when the user needs them. It is also a key point to reduce consumption and provide excellent autonomy for these laptops.

Of course, if you do some CPU heavy operations, all cores will be exploited, and it wouldn’t make sense not to. Until then, macOS will attempt to free up half of the powerful cores, as this example recorded during a CPU-intensive task shows. Cores 7-10 are used less on average, and when the other six are not enough, they start.

Why leave four high-performance cores as free as possible? This number was not chosen at random, and it can be understood by taking a closer look at the chip designed by Apple, noting that the eight high-performance cores are grouped into two blocks of four, we are talking about ” Clusters of groups Because of this, macOS uses only four: Under the hood, the system prefers File cluster The second is left exploited as little as possible.