Apple has revealed it created its own datacenter stack – servers using its in-house silicon and operating system – at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) on Monday. Cupertino hasn't actually announced the servers or OS (and never addressed rumors of its plan to make datacenter-grade processors). Instead, references to the chips and OS can be found scattered across the blizzard of announcements about AI features and product updates .
Those AI features rely on what Apple's called "Private Cloud Compute" – an off-device environment where the iGiant runs "larger, server-based models" that do AI better than the models Cupertino loads onto its iThings. Apple describes the devices in Private Cloud Compute as "custom-built server hardware that brings the power and security of Apple silicon to the datacenter." Cupertino also uses the term "compute node," but it's unclear if that’s a synonym for "server.
" Apple has further confused matters by discussing a "Private Cloud Compute cluster" as being pressed into services when iThing users turn to the cloud for AI resources unavailable on their devices. Whatever the correct term for the machines, and their configuration, Apple says they use "the same hardware security technologies used in iPhone, including the Secure Enclave and Secure Boot." The machines run a new operating system that Apple's described as "a hardened subset of the foundations of iOS and macOS tailored to support Large Language Model (LLM) inference workloads.