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AFAIK this is an ARM IP module they can just add.
by api 6y ago
AFAIK this is an ARM IP module they can just add.
- saagarjha 6y agoA14 is rumored to have this already, it's not like they don't know how to do this but more that they had no reason to do so until now.
- ytch 6y agoParallel Desktop demos running linux on Apple Silicon in WWDC, maybe they have internal developer kit based on A14, but it cannot be made public.
- AlexCoventry 6y agoWhat's the reason to do it now?
- saagarjha 6y agoThey’re shipping Macs that need it by the end of the year.
- monocasa 6y agoDevelopers are something absurd like 20% of their install base, so Docker gets a first class seat at the table from a product requirements perspective? Albeit in aarch64 mode.
- pjmlp 6y agoDevelopers != Someone using macOS as pretty Linux to deploy on Linux. Also I am yet to see any benefit with docker in Apple platforms ecosystem.
- bostonsre 6y agoWSL
- api 6y agoMacs need virtualization to run guest OSes since Macs are big in the pro and developer market. There is no current use for VMs on a phone, so they probably just left that module out in past chips.
- monocasa 6y agoIt's not, it has to be heavily integrated into the processor core. Particularly the main piece of virtualization is an added level of indirection to the page table walking hardware. There's some IOMMU stuff that can be bought off the shelf (and ARM's SMMU for this is really good actually), but I imagine Apple would build their own (or acquire it) looking at the rest of their IP blocks. Edit: Actually I'm not even sure if they could pull an SMMU in. Do we have confirmation that they're using AXI/CHI or do they have something else for their NoC protocol?
- amluto 6y ago(Disclaimer: I know much more about x86 virtualization than ARM.) Apple isn’t really in the server business, and the kinds of high performance VMs that want direct hardware access seem unlikely to run on Apple silicon in the near future. It seems to me that virtualization could work just fine without an IOMMU in this scenario. (Certain GPU workloads would be an exception.) That being said, I would expect Apple to have an IOMMU at launch for a different reason: Thunderbolt or any other external PCIe connection. Doing this without an IOMMU is a security catastrophe, in contrast to doing it with an IOMMU, which is merely an enormous attack surface that no one secured properly.
- samatman 6y agoI wouldn't count Apple out of the server business for long. After they have a couple generations of laptop silicon under their belts, there's nothing stopping them from dogfooding a real server macOS for awhile and booting up an Apple Service Cloud. No special insight into whether they actually will, but it's a natural play.
- millstone 6y agoApple is really bad at building products which their leadership doesn't want to use personally. Ping and iAd come to mind, server would be the same. Yet Apple has quite the powerful chip family. If they were to spin off a subsidiary without the consumer-focused mission...well, that's what I would do!