Please note our new Downloads page here
2023-01-19: APP 2.0.0-beta13 has been released !
!!! Big performance increase due to optimizations in integration !!!
and upgraded development platform to GraalVM 22.3 based on openJDK19
We are very close now to releasing APP 2.0.0 stable with a complete printable manual...
Astro Pixel Processor Windows 64-bit
Astro Pixel Processor macOS Intel 64-bit
Astro Pixel Processor macOS Apple M Silicon 64-bit
Astro Pixel Processor Linux DEB 64-bit
Astro Pixel Processor Linux RPM 64-bit
Is there any projected date for native support of the Apple M1 chip? Also, does APP gain any benefit from the M1 Max chip’s 32 core GPU? Or should I just stick with the 16 core GPU instead? Thanks! Rick
There is no projected date, we first are going to move to Java 11 and we need to see when we can implement the M1 native Java as well. Having more cores is always better though as APP does use those very efficiently when available.
@vincent-mod Thanks! I understand more CPU cores is useful. But what about more GPU cores?
That is a very good question to which I don't have an answer, it's very new technology at the moment so software is still catching up. I can imagine that if that simply means, faster GPU processing, then yes in the future it would benefit APP greatly. But GPU support is not yet available. The issue with the Mac system is that you can't upgrade internally, so that does mean you'd have to plan on something that is a bit unknown still. If you have the funds, I would choose more GPU cores, not only because of APP.
I saw this
https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/#jdk17-mac
Looks like the native version of version 17 is out, if I am reading that properly. Sounds like its time to upgrade to the newer version of Java for development 🙂
I actually have no idea what is involved there or where they are at with version 11 and M1. I just know I saw the specs for the M1max and am thinking how much faster it would be than my I7....... Even with the emulated intel code I would bet its faster.
Mike
Hi Michael, yes 17 is a nice LTS release as well, but something I can't decide to go for. 🙂 I already mentioned it to Mabula, but don't know if it's wise to jump from 8 straight to 17, it will require some testing for sure. From 11 to 17 is easier I believe.
The M1 is for sure faster than the i7 or even i9, when they compare it to last year's Macbook pro 16" i9. Must be a bit of a sour taste if you'd bought a maxed out 16" last year. 😉
Must be a bit of a sour taste if you'd bought a maxed out 16" last year. 😉
Yeah I did 🙁
I have a pretty good spec i7 macbook from work, my home machine is a hackintosh, i7, but the macbookpro with the m1 max is tempting a mac mini with that i would probably get
@mikecmp Yes, if I wasn't moving too often I would likely buy a mini as well. They are crazy fast now with these kind of chips. Not sure though if they'll add the pro and max to it.
@vincent-mod I'll admit that the 8 core 64 Gb MacBook is performing very well though 🙂
You're not wrong, the new macbooks are decent desktop replacement machines as is as powerful as they are getting. All those machines are more powerful than I need for work, it's the side stuff like APP that really pushes my machine. I imagine a M1 native version will just fly.
They were comparing benchmarks of the M1max to a Xeon machine, so......
Pixinsight results are coming in for the new M1 Max and Pro chips.
This one, a Max chip with 64 gb memory and a RAM disk, is crazy faster than the other similar machine with 64 gb memory but without a RAM disk.
With RAM disk
https://pixinsight.com/benchmark/benchmark-report.php?sn=252V3WJN9X019EI7PZ5JWQ3KXG51RGD8
Without RAM disk
https://pixinsight.com/benchmark/benchmark-report.php?sn=MWMN86ZK03D5TKR10573KWPS78MN08VM
However, with APP, RAM disks aren't recommended. I wonder why?
Rick
Just received my M1 Max and APP runs well under rosetta2, all CPU processing no GPU. I will be more than happy to help test any beta versions that target the Apple Silicon processors. Being able to leverage both the CPU and GPU cores would be fantastic.
Brent,
If I understand correctly, it would be more efficient to choose CPU instead of OpenGL????
I should receive my MacBook Pro with M1 Pro 10 cores shortly...
@andrecajolais Yes, I set it to CPU since I figured opengl wasn't supported.
I also saw that some developers using the M1 for android development, are using the Azul openjdk arm64 sdk with much success
and improved performance since nothing is running in rosetta2.
Maybe another jdk option for APP?
Hi, did you make any progress in this regards meanwhile?
How about JDK 11 status?
How about the Open GL /Metal shift?
Any timeline/roadmap when native M1 support will become available with APP?
thanks,
jochen
Hi, did you make any progress in this regards meanwhile?
How about JDK 11 status?
How about the Open GL /Metal shift?
Any timeline/roadmap when native M1 support will become available with APP?
thanks,
jochen
Hi Jochen @jochen-scharmann,
We are moving our code from JDK 8 to JDK 17 right now ! And afterwards probably to GraalVM (natively maybe even).
The Metal/Vulkan shift will take a bit more time, but it will probably part of implementing the first pieces of code that will run on the GPU.
Native Apple M1 support will be there in the next release, our move to JDK 17 makes this possible, because JDK 17 is compiled now directly on M1 hardware.
Mabula