Well, you don't seem to get it.
I'll try once more.
Fusion Drive is a feature of a
filesystem, not a feature of an operating system or cpu or soc.
Filesystems tends to be identical in different systems, for obvious reasons.
The logic goes: if a filesystem in intel-mac is the same than filesystem in a as-mac, and one of them supports Fusion Drive, then will also the other.
I took the time and connected my "fully external fusion drive test" to my 14"mbp.
Check what is below and ask, if you don't get it?
To conclude:
Yes, Apple does not need Fusion in as-macs.
But Apple needs to have same APFS in as-macs than in intel-macs.
And you can guess the third line here.
Apple's last Fusion Drive mac was introduced in 2020, and still sold as new in March 2022.
If there is usual 7 year support, then macOS released in 2028 or 2029 will be supported with "last Fusion mac".
Which means that first macOS with new APFS version, that do NOT to support Fusion Drive CAN be introduced in 2029 or 2030.
That said, filesystems tend to be fully backwards compatible, again for obvious reasons.
But of course Apple can do whatever they want with their close sourced filesystem.
They might just tweak it so, that you can still read/write to Fusion Drive, but you cannot create them.
Then again, you could boot to older OS or run it as virtual machine.
I guess that Apple could have made APFS without Fusion Drive and then just kept supporting booting newer OSses from HFS+. Butthey chose to support Fusion Drive. Maybe it was easier or just maybe, someones at Apple's filesystem department still thinks about long term evolution is more important than short term profits.
I wish that Apple would bring Fusion ssd's to macs. Where you could have that super fast soldered ssd as the faster part of Fusion and then uprgadeable standard ssd for the slower part. Most of what fills the ssd's in people's macs do not need speed.
Code:
toke-mbp@TokesM1roitsPRO ~ % diskutil apfs list
APFS Containers (4 found)
|
+-- Container disk3 8635CA58-DD6F-4C3A-88DF-CB7FA2E76A87
| ====================================================
| APFS Container Reference: disk3
| Size (Capacity Ceiling): 494384795648 B (494.4 GB)
| Capacity In Use By Volumes: 256275697664 B (256.3 GB) (51.8% used)
| Capacity Not Allocated: 238109097984 B (238.1 GB) (48.2% free)
| |
| +-< Physical Store disk0s2 30F1522E-53C9-49F0-82CF-E78652AE7058
| | -----------------------------------------------------------
| | APFS Physical Store Disk: disk0s2
| | Size: 494384795648 B (494.4 GB)
| |
| +-> Volume disk3s1 7BE1E26F-1FE6-442B-A9AE-572F841F2958
| | ---------------------------------------------------
| | APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk3s1 (System)
| | Name: Macintosh HD (Case-insensitive)
| | Mount Point: /System/Volumes/Update/mnt1
| | Capacity Consumed: 22096134144 B (22.1 GB)
| | Sealed: Broken
| | FileVault: No (Encrypted at rest)
| | |
| | Snapshot: 699EDCA1-FF46-46A6-A5CF-0135EFBB88A4
| | Snapshot Disk: disk3s1s1
| | Snapshot Mount Point: /
| | Snapshot Sealed: Yes
| |
| +-> Volume disk3s2 41A49895-019A-4E12-B059-3DBD1ABFA2BA
| | ---------------------------------------------------
| | APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk3s2 (Preboot)
| | Name: Preboot (Case-insensitive)
| | Mount Point: /System/Volumes/Preboot
| | Capacity Consumed: 1158619136 B (1.2 GB)
| | Sealed: No
| | FileVault: No
| |
| +-> Volume disk3s3 D8F5FD5F-28B7-4235-9E5F-A78CE9E75F15
| | ---------------------------------------------------
| | APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk3s3 (Recovery)
| | Name: Recovery (Case-insensitive)
| | Mount Point: Not Mounted
| | Capacity Consumed: 1644675072 B (1.6 GB)
| | Sealed: No
| | FileVault: No
| |
| +-> Volume disk3s5 68811CE0-1174-4EB3-98A2-E233EED38B30
| | ---------------------------------------------------
| | APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk3s5 (Data)
| | Name: Data (Case-insensitive)
| | Mount Point: /System/Volumes/Data
| | Capacity Consumed: 230538952704 B (230.5 GB)
| | Sealed: No
| | FileVault: No (Encrypted at rest)
| |
| +-> Volume disk3s6 D62AF045-BE6E-47AE-8452-8924053535BA
| ---------------------------------------------------
| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk3s6 (VM)
| Name: VM (Case-insensitive)
| Mount Point: /System/Volumes/VM
| Capacity Consumed: 20480 B (20.5 KB)
| Sealed: No
| FileVault: No
|
+-- Container disk6 3EAE78D3-EDF9-4BD9-B819-86691F8FD5BC
====================================================
APFS Container Reference: disk6 (Fusion)
Size (Capacity Ceiling): 979792330752 B (979.8 GB)
Capacity In Use By Volumes: 26244804608 B (26.2 GB) (2.7% used)
Capacity Not Allocated: 953547526144 B (953.5 GB) (97.3% free)
|
+-< Physical Store disk4s2 982A7E7D-CF71-4ACD-8BA5-A799513C2493
| -----------------------------------------------------------
| APFS Physical Store Disk: disk4s2 (Main, "Faster" Disk Use)
| Size: 479894224896 B (479.9 GB)
|
+-< Physical Store disk5s2 6021F9EC-43B5-4F10-82AD-75676D095B02
| -----------------------------------------------------------
| APFS Physical Store Disk: disk5s2 (Secondary, Designated Aux Use)
| Size: 499898105856 B (499.9 GB)
|
+-> Volume disk6s1 A0C8EE21-58E8-4456-8A4B-A4D5C3DBC123
| ---------------------------------------------------
| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk6s1 (Data)
| Name: testFusion - Data (Case-insensitive)
| Mount Point: /Volumes/testFusion - Data
| Capacity Consumed: 5356662784 B (5.4 GB)
| Sealed: No
| FileVault: No
|
+-> Volume disk6s3 16066CCC-B3F5-4B3E-8554-C9443FCFFC0C
| ---------------------------------------------------
| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk6s3 (System)
| Name: testFusion (Case-insensitive)
| Mount Point: /Volumes/testFusion
| Capacity Consumed: 9059868672 B (9.1 GB)
| Sealed: Yes
| FileVault: No
|
+-> Volume disk6s4 859E8AC1-618A-49BB-9490-7DFCBF141D84
| ---------------------------------------------------
| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk6s4 (Preboot)
| Name: Preboot (Case-insensitive)
| Mount Point: Not Mounted
| Capacity Consumed: 1869967360 B (1.9 GB)
| Sealed: No
| FileVault: No
|
+-> Volume disk6s5 1562F11B-FAA7-42D9-A369-81838188F7EA
| ---------------------------------------------------
| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk6s5 (Recovery)
| Name: Recovery (Case-insensitive)
| Mount Point: Not Mounted
| Capacity Consumed: 1146298368 B (1.1 GB)
| Sealed: No
| FileVault: No
|
+-> Volume disk6s6 35A75AF0-7084-46AC-925E-0D3AA5DD762F
---------------------------------------------------
APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk6s6 (VM)
Name: VM (Case-insensitive)
Mount Point: Not Mounted
Capacity Consumed: 20480 B (20.5 KB)
Sealed: No
FileVault: No
toke-mbp@TokesM1roitsPRO ~ %
Then how do you explain that a Mac can READ NTFS but cannot WRITE to NTFS without additional software being installed. By your logic then should be able to WRITE to NTFS as well.
or could it be that you still have to actually IMPLEMENT features still! Ie Apple would need to implement WRITING to NTFS as well as READ.
clearly NTFS has different features on a Mac compared to Windows Implementations in what can do with an NTFS file system.
Ubuntu can READ and WRITE to NTFS without 3rd party software however cannot repair NTFS if have issues and struggles to mount. You need to attach to a Windows PC and then repair then remount on Ununtu.
So clearly NTFS drivers or kernel modules on Ununtu is implemented differently to a Mac OS or Windows machine.
However is possibly to multi boot all 3 of those OS off the same set of hardware, so have the exact same hardware, with exact same externally formatted NTFS disk but you get different experience depending upon the OS that the machine running at the time due to the fact that the OS still have to have something coded and loaded to communicate with the NTFS volume.
simply Using APFS with ASi Mac does not mean will have all of the feature of APFS on Intel Mac UNLESS Apple IMPLEMENT Fusion support for APFS on ASi Mac.
As I stated then Apple has NO NEED to implement Fusion Support in APFS on ASi Mac as there are no ASi Mac that shipped it.
Why would Apple spend time implementing in APFS on ASi, something that they have no intention of using.
So APFS as implemented on ASi does not have to have all of the same features as APFS on Intel. It is clearly dependent upon what is implemented as to what can do with an APFS volume.
the structure of how appears to the computer HAS to be the same in that have an external drive formatted with APFS and move it between Intel Mac and ASi Mac without issue and read and write happily to the external disk.
but that does NOT mean that have to have Fusion support on the ASi Mac APFS implementation ( or just ASI Mac for shorter and less torturous to say and type). No ASi Mac shipped with Fusion or is likely to ship with Fusion as Apple exclusively ships 1 disk Mac’s and APPLES reason for Fusion is no there anymore.
giving the ASi Mac OS, the feature to create Volume and format with APFS still has to be coded. It doesn’t magically appear.
same goes for if wanted to mount an APFS disk in Windows. You would need to install a 3rd Party File System Driver in Windows such as Paragon’s APFS for Windows which allows to Read and Write but not Format APFS. Paragon would need to code into the File System Driver the ability to do formatting with APFS, however it would allow me to unmount my TB attached storage formatted with APFS from my Mac and mount on a TB equipped Windows PC with paragons NTFS file system driver and read and write files yet I can format them when attached to my Mac but not on windows despite being the same disks and same file system.
Apple has to do the same with the equivalent in Mac OS to be able to create Fusion Drives and format with APFS in Mac OS. Clearly has implemented in Mac OS on Intel But that does NOT mean has to be in Mac OS on ASi.
NOW do you understand! What you cannot or can do depends upon the File System Driver, Kernel Module , system extension etc that is loaded to work with the APFS volume and that is most definitely going to be down to what the vendor wants to implement in that piece of software AND can differ depending upon OS Or even flavours of OS if on different CPU architecture.
hence my comments originally
firstly what Fusion IS and WHY it came about. Performance boost without full cost of full SSD.
secondly the last Intel iMacs in 21.5” form still sold with fusion in entry model but dropped from all others as SSD come down in price
with these models still supported by Mac OS releases and Sonoma due to support then Apple still have to support Fusion with the latest OS.
hence why they cannot drop it like they did ZFS as you suggested they could as still have shipped macs with Fusion that would need rebuilding without Fusion to be supported.
thirdly as the last Intel Macs were 2020 and still supported then likely fusion support will drop with those Mac which will also be when drop Intel Support. as said later this is not because Intel CPU but no longer would have a shipped Mac configuration under support that had Fusion.
last part as I said no idea if Apple implemented on the ASi Mac but could not see why they would. No ASi Mac shipped with Fusion.
note here I said “ASi Mac“ not the “APFS Kernel Module or System Extension or Driver that is part of the MacOS running on the ASi Mac” as much more typing and much more mouthful to say if speaking to someone which is why people just type or say ASi Mac.
