Today we are introducing new machine types, Apple Silicon M2 machines. These machines bring reduction of build and test times for developers working on macOS, iOS or any other platform type supported by Apple Hardware.
Who are these for?
The new machines are suitable for all projects that are creating applications for Apple’s Ecosystem and use XCode 15 and above.
๐ New Machines Performance Benchmark
We’ve conducted benchmarks comparing the new M2 machine types against our existing AMD64 ARM machines using the XCode Benchmark repository.

Using the new a2-standard-4
machine type (Apple Silicon M2) can reduce your build times by up to three times.

Getting Started with Apple Silicon Machines
To utilize the M2 Silicon machines in your Semaphore projects, specify the machine type in your agent configuration:
version: 1.0
name: Apple Based Pipeline
agent:
machine:
type: a2-standard-4
os_image: macos-xcode15
Or use the Workflow Builder to select the machine type:

๐๏ธ Please note that the a2-standard-4
machine type only supports the macos-xcode15
image.
Conclusion
The new Apple Silicon machine types reduce build times ๐ for developers building applications for macOS, iOS, or any other platform supported by Apple’s hardware.
If your codebase supports XCode 15, you can switch to new a2-standard-4
machines starting today!
For more information check out the ๐ documentation.
Follow our YouTube ๐ฅ channel for future videos.
Have a benchmark you want to share with us or just want to talk? Join our Discord ๐ข!
Where can I see the costs per minute of these new machines?
Hi Sebastian! You can find them here: https://docs.semaphoreci.com/account-management/billing-overview/#price-per-machine-type. Happy building!