Amazon Web Services on Thursdayannounced thatEC2 M1 Mac instances  are now available in preview. The newinstances let developers access machines built around Apple's custom-built M1 System on Chip (SoC), so they can re-architect their apps to support M1-powered Macs natively. 

Amazon first launched Mac EC2 instances during re:Invent 2020. EC2 Mac instances are dedicated Mac mini computers attached via Thunderbolt to the AWS Nitro System, making the Mac mini appear and behave like another EC2 instance. 

The new EC2 M1 Mac instances specifically use a Mac mini featuring an M1 SOC with 8 CPU cores, 8 GPU cores, 16GiB of memory, and a 16 core Apple Neural Engine. The AWS Nitro System delivers up to 10Gbps of VPC network bandwidth and 8 Gbps of EBS storage bandwidth.

The new M1 instances deliver up to 60% better price performance over the x86-based EC2 Mac instances for iPhone and Mac app build workloads, AWS said. 

AWS re:Invent

AWS ups its industry ground game at re:Invent 2021AWS CEO unveils new private 5G serviceAWS takes aim at mainframes with migration serviceAWS, CrowdStrike, and Presidio partner for ransomware mitigation kitAWS launches quartet of serverless, on-demand solutionsAWS targets auto and industrial sectors with FleetWise, TwinMakerProcessor roadmap adds Graviton3, Trainium, new instancesIoT RoboRunner aims to manage robot fleets

• AWS ups its industry ground game at re:Invent 2021
• AWS CEO unveils new private 5G service
• AWS takes aim at mainframes with migration service
• AWS, CrowdStrike, and Presidio partner for ransomware mitigation kit
• AWS launches quartet of serverless, on-demand solutions
• AWS targets auto and industrial sectors with FleetWise, TwinMaker
• Processor roadmap adds Graviton3, Trainium, new instances
• IoT RoboRunner aims to manage robot fleets