Hacker News with Generative AI: Apple Silicon

Show HN: KVSplit – Run 2-3x longer contexts on Apple Silicon (github.com/dipampaul17)
Run larger context windows and heavier LLMs on your Mac by applying different quantization precision to keys vs values in the attention mechanism's KV cache. KVSplit enables you to:

Apple Silicon, Optimization, Machine Learning

271 points by dipampaul17 7 days ago | 40 comments

Huawei's Kirin X90 may be the company's 'Apple Silicon' moment (tomshardware.com)

Huawei, Smartphones, Processors, Apple Silicon, Technology

23 points by xnhbx 13 days ago | 0 comments

Tiny-LLM – a course of serving LLM on Apple Silicon for systems engineers (github.com/skyzh)
Still WIP and in very early stage. A tutorial on LLM serving using MLX for system engineers. The codebase is solely (almost!) based on MLX array/matrix APIs without any high-level neural network APIs, so that we can build the model serving infrastructure from scratch and dig into the optimizations.

Machine Learning, Apple Silicon, Systems Engineering

297 points by sarkory 25 days ago | 35 comments

Launch HN: Cua (YC X25) – Open-Source Docker Container for Computer-Use Agents (github.com/trycua)
TL;DR: c/ua (pronounced "koo-ah", short for Computer-Use Agent) is a framework that enables AI agents to control full operating systems within high-performance, lightweight virtual containers. It delivers up to 97% native speed on Apple Silicon and works with any vision language models.

Artificial Intelligence, Open Source, Software, Virtualization, Apple Silicon

172 points by frabonacci 30 days ago | 73 comments

Development on Apple Silicon with UTM (rkiselenko.dev)
In this article, I'll show you how to use UTM VMs virtual machines to create Linux development environments on Apple Silicon.

Development, Apple Silicon, Virtual Machines

102 points by todsacerdoti 36 days ago | 72 comments

Apple M1 / M2 / M3 Core Support Might Soon Be Merged for the GCC Compiler (phoronix.com)
When it comes to compiler support for Apple Silicon and their hardware at large, Apple has long been focused on the LLVM/Clang toolchain given their long history with it, employing many of the developers, and Xcode being based on LLVM.

Apple Silicon, GCC, Compilers, Programming, Hardware

7 points by rbanffy 46 days ago | 0 comments

What Is the Future of (Asahi) Linux on Apple Silicon? (ycombinator.com)
Recently, Marcan stepped down from Asahi Linux. What are current plans for the project? Are there any alternatives to run Linux on Apple Silicon? I tried to read more on Marcan's Mastodon account, but it looks like it's closed/blocked

Linux, Apple Silicon, Operating Systems, Open Source

10 points by yu3zhou4 59 days ago | 7 comments

Triforce – a beamformer for Apple Silicon laptops (github.com/chadmed)

Apple Silicon, Hardware, Software, Audio

591 points by tosh 60 days ago | 210 comments

Show HN: Computer – Build Your Manus AI Agent with an OSS macOS Sandbox (github.com/trycua)
Create and run high-performance macOS and Linux VMs on Apple Silicon, with built-in support for AI agents.

MacOS, AI Agents, Open Source, Virtual Machines, Apple Silicon

11 points by f-trycua 68 days ago | 6 comments

Speed or security? Speculative execution in Apple Silicon (eclecticlight.co)
Making a CPU do more work requires more than increasing its frequency, it needs removal of obstacles that can prevent it from making best use of those cycles. Among the most important of those is memory access. High-speed local caches, L1 and L2, can be a great help, but in the worst case fetching data from memory can still take hundreds of CPU core cycles, and that memory latency may then delay a running process.

CPU Performance, Security, Apple Silicon, Memory Access

26 points by ingve 87 days ago | 1 comments

Linux userspace audio configuration for Apple Silicon Macs (github.com/AsahiLinux)
Linux userspace audio configuration for Apple Silicon Macs.

Linux, Apple Silicon, Audio Configuration

4 points by mpsq 88 days ago | 0 comments

New Apple Silicon Co-Maintainer Steps Up for the Linux Kernel (phoronix.com)
This week was the dramatic decision by Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin to step down as upstream kernel maintainer for the Apple Silicon (ARM) code following friction with other kernel developers over Rust affairs within the kernel.

Linux Kernel, Apple Silicon, ARM, Open Source, Software Development

46 points by LorenDB 103 days ago | 13 comments

Show HN: Lume – OS lightweight CLI for MacOS and Linux VMs on Apple Silicon (github.com/trycua)
lume is a lightweight Command Line Interface and local API server to create, run and manage macOS and Linux virtual machines (VMs) with near-native performance on Apple Silicon, using Apple's Virtualization.Framework.

MacOS, Linux, Virtualization, Apple Silicon

309 points by sandropuppo 110 days ago | 75 comments

Prevent a Mac laptop from turning on when opening its lid or connecting to power (apple.com)
A Mac laptop with Apple silicon automatically turns on and starts up when you open its lid or connect it to power. With macOS Sequoia 15 or later, you can change this behavior without affecting your ability to use your keyboard or trackpad to turn on your Mac.

Mac, Apple Silicon, Operating Systems, macOS

14 points by usaphp 113 days ago | 3 comments

Last Week on My Mac: A boot mystery solved? (eclecticlight.co)
When Apple silicon Macs were first released, they brought a new secure boot process with a huge advantage over that of T2 Intel Macs: it was possible to boot them from an external disk without affecting their security.

Mac, Boot Process, Apple Silicon

5 points by lapcat 124 days ago | 0 comments

Parallels can run x86 versions of Windows or Linux on Apple Silicon (arstechnica.com)
Virtualization software like Parallels and VMware Fusion give Mac owners the ability to run Windows and Linux on top of macOS, but for Apple Silicon Macs, that support was limited to the Arm-based versions of those operating systems.

Virtualization, Apple Silicon, Operating Systems, Mac, Windows

11 points by ksec 125 days ago | 4 comments

Running DeepSeek V3 671B on M4 Mac Mini Cluster (exolabs.net)
We just got the biggest open-source model running on Apple Silicon.

Open Source, Apple Silicon, Hardware

8 points by chadash 147 days ago | 3 comments

Fedora Asahi Remix 41 is now available (fedoramagazine.org)
We are happy to announce the general availability of Fedora Asahi Remix 41. This release brings the newly released Fedora Linux 41 to Apple Silicon Macs.

Linux, Fedora, Apple Silicon, Operating Systems, New Releases

6 points by sohkamyung 157 days ago | 0 comments

Tune for Performance: do more threads run faster? (eclecticlight.co)
One of the most distinctive features about modern Macs is that they have multiple cores, in Apple silicon models a minimum of eight.

Performance, Multithreading, Mac, Apple Silicon

5 points by ingve 164 days ago | 0 comments

macOS Build Farm for Apache NuttX RTOS (Apple Silicon) (lupyuen.github.io)
Folks on macOS: Compiling Apache NuttX RTOS used to be so tiresome. Not any more! run-build-macos.sh

macOS, Apache NuttX, RTOS, Software, Apple Silicon

15 points by lupyuen 167 days ago | 0 comments

M4 chips: Matrix processing and Power Modes (eclecticlight.co)
For much of the last four years, CPU and GPU core performance have been of primary importance to those using Apple silicon Macs.

Apple Silicon, Processors, Performance, Technology, Matrix Processing

7 points by ingve 177 days ago | 0 comments

Accelerating the Performance of Rosetta in Linux VMs on Apple Silicon (apple.com)

Apple Silicon, Linux, Performance, Virtual Machines

136 points by transpute 197 days ago | 45 comments

Linux on Apple Silicon with Alyssa Rosenzweig [audio] (softwareengineeringdaily.com)
Asahi Linux is a project that aims to port Linux to Apple Silicon chips, which use a custom ARM-based architecture.

Linux, Apple Silicon, Open Source

280 points by tosh 203 days ago | 226 comments

Battery charge limiter for Apple Silicon MacBook devices (github.com/actuallymentor)
This tool makes it possible to keep a chronically plugged in Apple Silicon Macbook at 80% battery, since that will prolong the longevity of the battery. It is free and open-source and will remain that way.

Apple Silicon, Battery Life, Software, Open Source

6 points by starbugs 222 days ago | 5 comments

Virtualizing iOS on Apple Silicon (nickb.website)
In this blog post, I explore how I achieved virtualizing iOS on Apple silicon Macs, exploring many internals along the way.

Virtualization, iOS, Apple Silicon, Operating Systems

357 points by walterbell 229 days ago | 155 comments

Apple to upgrade base Macs to 16GB RAM, starting from Apple M4 models (business-standard.com)

Apple, Hardware Upgrades, Memory, Mac, Apple Silicon

56 points by ripjaygn 270 days ago | 103 comments

Securing virtual machines on Apple Silicon (eclecticlight.co)

Apple Silicon, Virtual Machines, Security

9 points by tambourine_man 294 days ago | 0 comments

An Introduction to ARM64 Assembly on Apple Silicon Macs (github.com/below)

Assembly Language, Apple Silicon, Mac, Programming

300 points by udev4096 349 days ago | 83 comments

Vulkan1.3 on the M1 in one month (rosenzweig.io)

Vulkan, Apple Silicon, Graphics, Performance, Gaming

827 points by todsacerdoti 352 days ago | 355 comments

Possible firmware issues for Apple Silicon OpenBSD/ARM64 users (undeadly.org)

OpenBSD, Apple Silicon, Security, Firmware Issues

55 points by peter_hansteen 367 days ago | 18 comments