Posted On: Dec 2, 2021
Starting today, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) M1 Mac instances for macOS are available in preview. Built on Apple silicon Mac mini computers and powered by AWS Nitro System, EC2 M1 Mac instances deliver up to 60% better price performance over x86-based EC2 Mac instances for iOS and macOS application build workloads. EC2 M1 Mac instances also enable native ARM64 macOS environments for the first time in AWS to develop, build, test, deploy, and run Apple applications. Developers rearchitecting their macOS applications to natively support Apple silicon Macs can now provision ARM64 macOS environments within minutes, dynamically scale capacity as needed, and benefit from AWS’s pay-as-you-go pricing to enjoy faster builds and convenient distributed testing. Learn more and get started with EC2 M1 Mac instances preview here.
Today, millions of Apple developers across the globe are seeking to support Apple’s once-in-a-generation transition to a new family of custom silicon designed specifically for the Mac, starting with the M1 System on Chip (SoC). M1 is the first personal computer SoC built using cutting-edge 5-nanometer process technology, combines numerous powerful technologies into a single chip, and features a unified memory architecture for improved performance and efficiency. Apple-designed M1 SoC also enables ARM64 architecture for the first time on Apple macOS. Now with EC2 M1 Mac instances, Apple developers can enjoy up to 60% better price performance over x86-based EC2 Mac instances for iOS and macOS application build workloads, while enjoying the same elasticity, scalability, and reliability that AWS’s secure, on-demand infrastructure has offered to millions of customers for more than a decade. Customers rearchitecting their macOS applications to natively support ARM64 architecture on Apple SoC can now enjoy faster builds with bare metal performance and convenient distributed testing without having to procure, install, manage, patch, and upgrade physical build infrastructure. Customers can also consolidate development of cross-platform Apple, Windows, and Android apps onto AWS, leading to increased developer productivity and accelerated time to market. Similar to other EC2 instances, customers can easily use EC2 M1 Mac instances together with AWS services and features like Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) for network security, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) for expandable storage, Amazon Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) for distributing build queues, and Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for OS image orchestration. The availability of EC2 M1 Mac instances also offloads the heavy lifting that comes with managing infrastructure to AWS, which means Apple developers can focus on rearchitecting their macOS applications to natively support Macs with Apple silicon.
EC2 M1 Mac instances are powered by a combination of Apple silicon Mac mini computers—featuring the M1 chip with 8 CPU cores, 8 GPU cores, 16 GiB of memory, 16 core Apple Neural Engine—and the AWS Nitro System, providing up to 10 Gbps of VPC network bandwidth and 8 Gbps of EBS storage bandwidth through high speed Thunderbolt connections. EC2 M1 Mac instances are uniquely enabled by the AWS Nitro System, which makes it possible to offer Mac mini computers as a fully integrated and managed compute instances with Amazon VPC networking and EBS storage just like any other EC2 instance. EC2 M1 Mac instances also support both macOS Big Sur 11 and macOS Monterey 12 as Amazon Machine Images (AMIs).