Category Archives: Mac

Benchmarking AES-256, SHA256 and CRC-64 on Apple Silicon

Just a quick one – I needed some numbers for crypto and hashing performance on Apple Silicon so I vibe coded something quick and dirty to establish some, hoping it is useful for someone out there.. I only have access to two Apple Silicon CPUs a M2 Macbook Air, and a M4 Pro Macmini. All numbers are warmed up and averaged across multiple runs

SHA-256

Using CC_SHA256 which provides hardware SHA2 acceleration.

Block size	M2 Mac Book Air (GiB/Sec)	M4 Pro Macmini (GiB/Sec)
4 KiB	2.33	2.97
8 KiB	2.45	3.13
16 KiB	2.51	3.18
32 KiB	2.54	3.21
64 KiB	2.55	3.26
128 KiB	2.56	3.27
256 KiB	2.57	3.28
512 KiB	2.57	3.28
1 MiB	2.57	3.27
2 MiB	2.57	3.27
4 MiB	2.57	3.27
8 MiB	2.57	3.28
16 MiB	2.56	3.28

AES-256

Via CCCrypt, using ECB mode.

Block size	M2 Mac Book Air (GiB/Sec)	M4 Pro Macmini (GiB/Sec)
4 KiB	6.43	8.66
8 KiB	7.73	10.89
16 KiB	8.59	12.45
32 KiB	9.12	13.46
64 KiB	9.21	13.84
128 KiB	9.28	14.32
256 KiB	9.35	14.56
512 KiB	9.39	14.53
1 MiB	9.40	14.63
2 MiB	9.41	14.66
4 MiB	9.43	14.70
8 MiB	9.42	14.66
16 MiB	9.37	14.49

CRC-64 PMULL

Since there is no specific support for CRC in CCCrypt, this is just hand-rolled using the ARM NEON PMULL instruction to accelerate the calculation (without it performance is in the hundreds of megabytes per second). This is using the ECMA constant 0x42F0E1EBA9EA3693.

Block size	M2 Mac Book Air (GiB/Sec)	M4 Pro Macmini (GiB/Sec)
4 KiB	58.89	67.50
8 KiB	49.98	61.30
16 KiB	53.52	63.76
32 KiB	51.17	63.15
64 KiB	50.74	63.09
128 KiB	50.79	62.95
256 KiB	50.35	62.50
512 KiB	50..36	61.72
1 MiB	50.28	57.87
2 MiB	50.34	61.36
4 MiB	50.27	61.58
8 MiB	50.29	61.38
16 MiB	49.67	61.01

Conclusion

Both the M2 and M4 Pro perform excellently here, worth noting that there is not a huge generational difference evident.

Radius Thunder IV GX

I recently acquired a Nubus Radius Thunder IV GX 1600, and it’s running nicely in my Macintosh IIfx, which I keep around for poorly defined reasons.

The primary reason for writing this article was to state that it does work under System 6, or at least 6.0.8. Running 1600 x 1200 in 24 bit color in a operating system released at the same time as Windows 2.0 is certainly amusing. However I couldn’t get QuickDraw acceleration to work, so the desktop felt sluggish, with acres of 24bit pixels taking literal seconds to redraw. Looking at System 6 desktop at 1600 x 1200 really does remind you how much real-estate this used to be. Larger default fonts have blunted the vast feel of such resolutions.

Under System 7.5.5 on the same box it’s a different story, QuickDraw acceleration moves things along nicely on the desktop, though the Control Panel apps are a little quirky. PhotoShop 3.0 with the PhotoEngine plugin performs well, adding some MMX like zip to the standard filters.

Unfortunately it’s not all roses. My KVM setup or Mac->VGA adaptor seems to add a little ghosting at 1600x1200x65hz, and there is a bit of flicker from time to time, and sync-on-green issues seem to randomly kick in. And if I’m being totally honest, a lot of vintage software starts running into issues with a desktop that large, and most games chug badly.

Mac Pro 2008 Not Turning On: Power Supply Problems

Just an aside, my trusty Mac Pro 2008 tower started behaving erratically a few weeks ago. Basically it wouldn’t power on, instead it would emit two faint relay type clicks a few seconds after pressing the power button. Leaving it unplugged overnight would occasionally result in it being boot-able the next morning.

Now I’ve been through a few spare parts on this particular computer – in particular graphics cards (it’s on its third). The overnight powerdown fix pointed me towards SMC problems, but replacing the motherboard battery didn’t resolve anything. Which lead me to the PSU. I tried using compressed air to blow the dust out of it in case it was some kind of thermal issue to no avail.

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