Skip to content

R for macOS Big Sur

14 messages · Gregory Coats, Brandon Hurr, Patrick Schratz +6 more

Original
Gregory Coats
# 
I purchased a new 13 inch Apple MacBook Pro with the M1 System on a Chip. I understand that R is not yet available compiled for the M1 SoC hardware, and so I am using Apple?s Rosetta 2. 
However, this MacBook Pro requires Apple macOS Big Sur. From what I see at https://mac.r-project.org/ R has not been compiled for macOS Big Sur. Is there an executable of R for macOS Big Sur available to download?
Greg Coats
Brandon Hurr
# 
It is my understanding that R is working via Rosetta 2 but I don?t have an
M1 machine yet to test.
See here:
https://developer.r-project.org/Blog/public/2020/11/02/will-r-work-on-apple-silicon/index.html

There is rapid movement on native ARM compatibility across all languages
and software. Stay tuned but plunge in and report issues when you can.

B

On Sun, Jan 10, 2021 at 16:39 Gregory Coats via R-SIG-Mac <
r-sig-mac at r-project.org> wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Patrick Schratz
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
There is a [native arm64 big sur 
binary](https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/8a6807be6abb44634e7d6d153348b6bba2a5ddc6/Formula/r.rb#L16) 
in homebrew since some days.

        
On 10 Jan 2021, at 22:39, Gregory Coats via R-SIG-Mac wrote:

        

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Dr Eberhard W Lisse
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
I use the homebrew R for the Intel and then install.packages(), update.package() from scripts and??Rstudio?s Tools->.

I don?t have an M1 (yet) but would be interested in seeing how that works on the M1. Probably this will pull the sources and hence I would be grateful to read about that.


greetings, el

?
Sent from Dr Lisse?s iPhone

        
On 11 Jan 2021, 10:05 +0200, Patrick Schratz <patrick.schratz at gmail.com>, wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Denis-Alexander Engemann
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
I have been using both Rosetta emulation and the homebrew builds and
everything looks very good so far.

Here are two Twitter threads on M1 benchmarks.

https://twitter.com/fxcoudert/status/1342598509418176514?s=20

https://twitter.com/dngman/status/1342580260815200257?s=20

Best,
Denis

        
On Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 10:11 AM Dr Eberhard W Lisse <el at lisse.na> wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Jean Thioulouse
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
Hi

Both versions seem to run fine indeed, but on my Mac mini M1, the arm version (homebrew R) is much slower than the intel version (CRAN R), which is quite disappointing.

The speed ratio I get is about 4 times slower for the arm version compared to the intel version, both in single processor and parallel computing mode.

Any idea about why I get these results ?

Thanks,
Jean

?-
Jean THIOULOUSE - orcid.org/0000-0001-7664-0598
http://lbbe.univ-lyon1.fr/-Thioulouse-Jean-.html
https://www.springer.com/fr/book/9781493988488

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Kasper Daniel Hansen
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
Jean: _guessing_ this may be about parallel processing in BLAS? Does your
timing include linear algebra?

On Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 2:38 PM Jean Thioulouse <

        
jean.thioulouse at univ-lyon1.fr> wrote:

        

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Jean Thioulouse
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

          

      
      
      
    

        
Yes it is mostly linear algebra, but the slowdown is the same in parallel processing and in single processor mode (4 times slower in both).

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

  
  


  


      

    

    
3 days later

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Gregory Coats
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
macOS Big Sur has shipped with all Apple Mac computers since Thu 2020-11-12.
The web site https://mac.r-project.org/ shows that as of Thu 2021-01-14 00:56 
1. R compiled for Big Sur for Macs with the Intel CISC x86_64 chip is not available.
2. R compiled for Big Sur for Macs with the Apple M1 RISC chip (=ARM64) FAILED to compile.
So, R is not available to any of us who have bought Apple Mac computers in the past 2 months.

A note posted to R-SIG-Mac on Thu 2021-01-14 by Brian Ripley says 
"The goal remains to release a native binary distribution with R 4.1.0 about April 2021."
A similar note posted on Fri 2021-01-08 said 
"We hope this will be solved by the end of January 2021."

Waiting until April 2021 to run an application on a computer purchased in Nov 2020 seems like a very long wait. I suggest a goal of releasing R compiled for Big Sur for Macs with the Intel CISC x86_64 chip before the end of January 2021.
Greg Coats

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Jean Thioulouse
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
Hi

- On Intel Macs:

R 4.0.3 binary is available for macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) and higher (including Big Sur).

- On M1 Macs (Big Sur) :

You can use the above R binary in Rosetta mode (faster than on most intel macs)

And, if you are "intrepid" (according to Prof. Ripley): There is an experimental R-devel build of the R framework at https://mac.r-project.org/.  That page reports 'failed' but usually the framework is complete.

Both are doing quite well on my Mac Mini M1 and run faster that on my Intel Core i5 2018 MacBook Pro.

And you can also use RStudio in Rosetta mode.

Jean

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Gregory Coats
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
The web site https://mac.r-project.org/ <https://mac.r-project.org/> specifically shows that as of Thu 2021-01-14 00:56 
1. R compiled for Big Sur for Macs with the Intel CISC x86_64 chip is NOT available.
2. R complied for "high-sierra? for Macs with the Intel CISC x86_64 chip IS available.
However, my Mac is running Big Sur OS, and my Mac is too new to be able to run the older High Sierra OS.
Greg Coats

            

      
      
      
    

        

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Duncan Murdoch
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
On 14/01/2021 1:06 p.m., Gregory Coats via R-SIG-Mac wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
You are being quite rude, repeating the same incorrect information.

Prof Ripley's notes were not about your system, they were about the M1 Macs.

For your system,

https://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/

contains a build of R 4.0.3 that is "for macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) and 
higher".  That's what Jean Thiolouse was referring to.

It's possible that the package on CRAN doesn't work on your system, but 
it doesn't sound as if you've tried it.

Duncan Murdoch

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Marc Schwartz
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

          

      
      
      
    

        
Hi,

You are mis-reading that page.

With respect to Apple Silicon (M1/arm64), the *development* version of R 4.1.0, which is not yet released, and is a nightly, unstable, build, does not compile:



That version is not intended for production use.


At the top of the page, you will find the following:




The current, stable, release version of R, which is 4.0.3, works just fine on Intel based Macs running Bug Sur:

  https://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/ <https://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/>

I am running that version on my Intel Mac, running Big Sur 11.1.

If you follow Prof. Ripley's updates on the list, regarding Apple Silicon specifically, you will see additional information, including CRAN package testing:

  https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-sig-mac/2021-January/013870.html <https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-sig-mac/2021-January/013870.html>

Marc Schwartz


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-sig-mac/attachments/20210114/d8e7e727/attachment-0001.html>

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Screen Shot 2021-01-14 at 2.43.48 PM.png
Type: image/png
Size: 45232 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-sig-mac/attachments/20210114/d8e7e727/attachment-0002.png>

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Screen Shot 2021-01-14 at 2.44.57 PM.png
Type: image/png
Size: 71905 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-sig-mac/attachments/20210114/d8e7e727/attachment-0003.png>

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Kasper Daniel Hansen
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
Greg,

Perhaps you're confused by the wording? It says "R compiled for High Sierra
OR HIGHER". This is a minimum OS version. It doesn't mean you need to run
High Sierra to use this binary.

Best,
Kasper

On Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 8:32 PM Gregory Coats via R-SIG-Mac <

        
r-sig-mac at r-project.org> wrote: