Last year, Apple unveiled its first ARM-based computer featuring its first Apple M1. This chipset brings great performance and efficiency and dictates a future with more ARM-based computers. Due to the closed nature of Apple’s hardware, many enthusiasts have gone to great lengths to unlock and break this chip. According to recent reports, software developer Yifan Gu (Gu Yifan) found a way to extract Ethereum on the M1 MacBook Air and open it on GitHub.
According to reports, since the second half of last year, the global semiconductor industry has experienced an unprecedented shortage. This is affecting chip makers to console makers like Sony and Microsoft. It is worth noting that GPU chips are getting the hardest punch. NVIDIA, for example, unveiled a new generation of graphics cards last year, but has yet to deliver a decent stock of them. According to Harlan Sur, an analyst at Morgan Stanley in Japan, demand for chips exceeds current production capacity by 10% to 30%, which could take up to a year to achieve.
There is a shortage of graphics cards and mining performance is restricted by NVIDIA. Cryptocurrency miners naturally need to think in other ways, which is just providing new ideas for miners and developers. That was probably one of the reasons behind Gu’s effort to break down and make the Apple M1 a viable option for mining, or at least partially viable.
Cryptocurrency mining with MacBook Air with Apple M1 is only valid for beginners or initial users
According to the developer, the mining efficiency of the M1 MacBook Air is very average. It provides only 2MH / s and the power consumption is around 17-20 watts. It is only suitable for beginners and beginning users, with a daily income of around $ 0.14. While it is entirely behind NVIDIA’s dedicated CMP core, it can set a new direction for cryptocurrency mining. It is important to note that this is not the first effort made to make the M1 processor a valid option for mining. In December of last year, XMRig developers were trying to explore Monero with the Apple M1 MacBook Air.
The M1 is a chip manufactured by Apple, available on Apple devices like MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13-inch and Mac mini. By adopting the Arm architecture, Apple encourages developers to create native programs based on that architecture. Apple also provides Rosetta 2 on macOS to convert Intel-based applications to Arm architecture. As a result, Intel-based programs can also be run on the Apple M1.