Swift Concurrency Resources:
DevForums tags: Concurrency
The Swift Programming Language > Concurrency documentation
Migrating to Swift 6 documentation
WWDC 2022 Session 110351 Eliminate data races using Swift Concurrency — This ‘sailing on the sea of concurrency’ talk is a great introduction to the fundamentals.
WWDC 2021 Session 10134 Explore structured concurrency in Swift — The table that starts rolling out at around 25:45 is really helpful.
Swift Async Algorithms package
Swift Concurrency Proposal Index DevForum post
Matt Massicotte’s blog
Dispatch Resources:
DevForums tags: Dispatch
Dispatch documentation — Note that the Swift API and C API, while generally aligned, are different in many details. Make sure you select the right language at the top of the page.
Dispatch man pages — While the standard Dispatch documentation is good, you can still find some great tidbits in the man pages. See Reading UNIX Manual Pages. Start by reading dispatch in section 3.
WWDC 2015 Session 718 Building Responsive and Efficient Apps with GCD [1]
WWDC 2017 Session 706 Modernizing Grand Central Dispatch Usage [1]
Avoid Dispatch Global Concurrent Queues DevForums post
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
[1] These videos may or may not be available from Apple. If not, the URL should help you locate other sources of this info.
Concurrency
RSS for tagConcurrency is the notion of multiple things happening at the same time.
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Hi, I am stuck moving one of my projects from Xcode 15 to Xcode 16. This is a SwiftUI application that uses in some places classic Threads and locks/conditions for synchronization. I was hoping that in Swift 5 mode, I could compile and run this app also with Xcode 16 so that I can start migrating it towards Swift 6.
Unfortunately, my application crashes via EXC_BREAKPOINT (code=1, subcode=0x1800eb31c) whenever some blocking operation e.g. condition.wait() or DispatchQueue.main.sync { ... } is invoked from within the same module (I haven't seen this happening for frameworks that use the same code that I linked in dynamically). I have copied an abstraction below that I am using, to give an example of the kind of code I am talking about. I have verified that Swift 5 is used, "strict concurrency checking" is set to "minimal", etc.
I have not found a workaround and thus, I'm curious to hear if others were facing similar challenges? Any hints on how to proceed are welcome.
Thanks,
Matthias
Example abstraction that is used in my app. It's needed because I have synchronous computations that require a large stack. It's crashing whenever condition.wait() is executed.
public final class TaskSerializer: Thread {
/// Condition to synchronize access to `tasks`.
private let condition = NSCondition()
/// The tasks queue.
private var tasks = [() -> Void]()
public init(stackSize: Int = 8_388_608, qos: QualityOfService = .userInitiated) {
super.init()
self.stackSize = stackSize
self.qualityOfService = qos
}
/// Don't call directly; this is the main method of the serializer thread.
public override func main() {
super.main()
while !self.isCancelled {
self.condition.lock()
while self.tasks.isEmpty {
if self.isCancelled {
self.condition.unlock()
return
}
self.condition.wait()
}
let task = self.tasks.removeFirst()
self.condition.unlock()
task()
}
self.condition.lock()
self.tasks.removeAll()
self.condition.unlock()
}
/// Schedule a task in this serializer thread.
public func schedule(task: @escaping () -> Void) {
self.condition.lock()
self.tasks.append(task)
self.condition.signal()
self.condition.unlock()
}
}
Hi, I'm trying to modify the ScreenCaptureKit Sample code by implementing an actor for Metal rendering, but I'm experiencing issues with frame rendering sequence.
My app workflow is:
ScreenCapture -> createFrame -> setRenderData
Metal draw callback -> renderAsync (getData from renderData)
I've added timestamps to verify frame ordering, I also using binarySearch to insert the frame with timestamp, and while the timestamps appear to be in sequence, the actual rendering output seems out of order.
// ScreenCaptureKit sample
func createFrame(for sampleBuffer: CMSampleBuffer) async {
if let surface: IOSurface = getIOSurface(for: sampleBuffer) {
await renderer.setRenderData(surface, timeStamp: sampleBuffer.presentationTimeStamp.seconds)
}
}
class Renderer {
...
func setRenderData(surface: IOSurface, timeStamp: Double) async {
_ = await renderSemaphore.getSetBuffers(
isGet: false,
surface: surface,
timeStamp: timeStamp
)
}
func draw(in view: MTKView) {
Task {
await renderAsync(view)
}
}
func renderAsync(_ view: MTKView) async {
guard await renderSemaphore.beginRender() else { return }
guard let frame = await renderSemaphore.getSetBuffers(
isGet: true, surface: nil, timeStamp: nil
) else {
await renderSemaphore.endRender()
return }
guard let texture = await renderSemaphore.getRenderData(
device: self.device,
surface: frame.surface) else {
await renderSemaphore.endRender()
return
}
guard let commandBuffer = _commandQueue.makeCommandBuffer(),
let renderPassDescriptor = await view.currentRenderPassDescriptor,
let renderEncoder = commandBuffer.makeRenderCommandEncoder(descriptor: renderPassDescriptor) else {
await renderSemaphore.endRender()
return
}
// Shaders ..
renderEncoder.endEncoding()
commandBuffer.addCompletedHandler() { @Sendable (_ commandBuffer)-> Swift.Void in
updateFPS()
}
// commit frame in actor
let success = await renderSemaphore.commitFrame(
timeStamp: frame.timeStamp,
commandBuffer: commandBuffer,
drawable: view.currentDrawable!
)
if !success {
print("Frame dropped due to out-of-order timestamp")
}
await renderSemaphore.endRender()
}
}
actor RenderSemaphore {
private var frameBuffers: [FrameData] = []
private var lastReadTimeStamp: Double = 0.0
private var lastCommittedTimeStamp: Double = 0
private var activeTaskCount = 0
private var activeRenderCount = 0
private let maxTasks = 3
private var textureCache: CVMetalTextureCache?
init() {
}
func initTextureCache(device: MTLDevice) {
CVMetalTextureCacheCreate(kCFAllocatorDefault, nil, device, nil, &self.textureCache)
}
func beginRender() -> Bool {
guard activeRenderCount < maxTasks else { return false }
activeRenderCount += 1
return true
}
func endRender() {
if activeRenderCount > 0 {
activeRenderCount -= 1
}
}
func setTextureLoaded(_ loaded: Bool) {
isTextureLoaded = loaded
}
func getSetBuffers(isGet: Bool, surface: IOSurface?, timeStamp: Double?) -> FrameData? {
if isGet {
if !frameBuffers.isEmpty {
let frame = frameBuffers.removeFirst()
if frame.timeStamp > lastReadTimeStamp {
lastReadTimeStamp = frame.timeStamp
print(frame.timeStamp)
return frame
}
}
return nil
} else {
// Set
let frameData = FrameData(
surface: surface!,
timeStamp: timeStamp!
)
// insert to the right position
let insertIndex = binarySearch(for: timeStamp!)
frameBuffers.insert(frameData, at: insertIndex)
return frameData
}
}
private func binarySearch(for timeStamp: Double) -> Int {
var left = 0
var right = frameBuffers.count
while left < right {
let mid = (left + right) / 2
if frameBuffers[mid].timeStamp > timeStamp {
right = mid
} else {
left = mid + 1
}
}
return left
}
// for setRenderDataNormalized
func tryEnterTask() -> Bool {
guard activeTaskCount < maxTasks else { return false }
activeTaskCount += 1
return true
}
func exitTask() {
activeTaskCount -= 1
}
func commitFrame(timeStamp: Double,
commandBuffer: MTLCommandBuffer,
drawable: MTLDrawable) async -> Bool {
guard timeStamp > lastCommittedTimeStamp else {
print("Drop frame at commit: \(timeStamp) <= \(lastCommittedTimeStamp)")
return false
}
commandBuffer.present(drawable)
commandBuffer.commit()
lastCommittedTimeStamp = timeStamp
return true
}
func getRenderData(
device: MTLDevice,
surface: IOSurface,
depthData: [Float]
) -> (MTLTexture, MTLBuffer)? {
let _textureName = "RenderData"
var px: Unmanaged<CVPixelBuffer>?
let status = CVPixelBufferCreateWithIOSurface(kCFAllocatorDefault, surface, nil, &px)
guard status == kCVReturnSuccess, let screenImage = px?.takeRetainedValue() else {
return nil
}
CVMetalTextureCacheFlush(textureCache!, 0)
var texture: CVMetalTexture? = nil
let width = CVPixelBufferGetWidthOfPlane(screenImage, 0)
let height = CVPixelBufferGetHeightOfPlane(screenImage, 0)
let result2 = CVMetalTextureCacheCreateTextureFromImage(
kCFAllocatorDefault,
self.textureCache!,
screenImage,
nil,
MTLPixelFormat.bgra8Unorm,
width,
height,
0, &texture)
guard result2 == kCVReturnSuccess,
let cvTexture = texture,
let mtlTexture = CVMetalTextureGetTexture(cvTexture) else {
return nil
}
mtlTexture.label = _textureName
let depthBuffer = device.makeBuffer(bytes: depthData, length: depthData.count * MemoryLayout<Float>.stride)!
return (mtlTexture, depthBuffer)
}
}
Above's my code - could someone point out what might be wrong?
I ran into a memory issue that I don't understand why this could happen. For me, It seems like ARC doesn't guarantee thread-safety.
Let see the code below
@propertyWrapper
public struct AtomicCollection<T> {
private var value: [T]
private var lock = NSLock()
public var wrappedValue: [T] {
set {
lock.lock()
defer { lock.unlock() }
value = newValue
}
get {
lock.lock()
defer { lock.unlock() }
return value
}
}
public init(wrappedValue: [T]) {
self.value = wrappedValue
}
}
final class CollectionTest: XCTestCase {
func testExample() throws {
let rounds = 10000
let exp = expectation(description: "test")
exp.expectedFulfillmentCount = rounds
@AtomicCollection var array: [Int] = []
for i in 0..<rounds {
DispatchQueue.global().async {
array.append(i)
exp.fulfill()
}
}
wait(for: [exp])
}
}
It will crash for various reasons (see screenshots below)
I know that the test doesn't reflect typical application usage. My app is quite different from traditional app so the code above is just the simplest form for proof of the issue.
One more thing to mention here is that array.count won't be equal to 10,000 as expected (probably because of copy-on-write snapshot)
So my questions are
Is this a bug/undefined behavior/expected behavior of Swift/Obj-c ARC?
Why this could happen?
Any solutions suggest?
How do you usually deal with thread-safe collection (array, dict, set)?
Hi everyone,
I’m planning to develop a cross-platform PDF viewer app for iOS and macOS that will read PDFs from local storage and cloud services (Google Drive, iCloud, WorkDrive, etc.). The app should be read-only and display both the PDF content and its metadata (author, title, creation date, etc.).
Key Features:
View PDFs: Local and remote (cloud storage integration).
Display metadata: Title, author, page count, etc.
Cloud integration: Google Drive, iCloud, Zoho WorkDrive, etc.
Read-only mode: No editing features, just viewing.
Questions:
Xcode Template: Should I use the Document App or Generic App template for this?
PDF Metadata: Any built-in libraries for extracting PDF metadata in a read-only app?
Performance: Any advice or documentation on handling large PDFs or cloud fetching efficiently?
Thanks in advance for any advice or resources!
Hi everyone,
I'm working on integrating object recognition from live video feeds into my existing app by following Apple's sample code. My original project captures video and records it successfully. However, after integrating the Vision-based object detection components (VNCoreMLRequest), no detections occur, and the callback for the request is never triggered.
To debug this issue, I’ve added the following functionality:
Set up AVCaptureVideoDataOutput for processing video frames.
Created a VNCoreMLRequest using my Core ML model.
The video recording functionality works as expected, but no object detection happens. I’d like to know:
How to debug this further? Which key debug points or logs could help identify where the issue lies?
Have I missed any key configurations? Below is a diff of the modifications I’ve made to my project for the new feature.
Diff of Changes:
(Attach the diff provided above)
Specific Observations:
The captureOutput method is invoked correctly, but there is no output or error from the Vision request callback.
Print statements in my setup function setForVideoClassify() show that the setup executes without errors.
Questions:
Could this be due to issues with my Core ML model compatibility or configuration?
Is the VNCoreMLRequest setup incorrect, or do I need to ensure specific image formats for processing?
Platform:
Xcode 16.1, iOS 18.1, Swift 5, SwiftUI, iPhone 11,
Darwin MacBook-Pro.local 24.1.0 Darwin Kernel Version 24.1.0: Thu Oct 10 21:02:27 PDT 2024; root:xnu-11215.41.3~2/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64
Any guidance or advice is appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Hi,
I have a complex structure of classes, and I'm trying to migrate to swift6
For this classes I've a facade that creates the classes for me without disclosing their internals, only conforming to a known protocol
I think I've hit a hard wall in my knowledge of how the actors can exchange data between themselves. I've created a small piece of code that can trigger the error I've hit
import SwiftUI
import Observation
@globalActor
actor MyActor {
static let shared: some Actor = MyActor()
init() {
}
}
@MyActor
protocol ProtocolMyActor {
var value: String { get }
func set(value: String)
}
@MyActor
func make(value: String) -> ProtocolMyActor {
return ImplementationMyActor(value: value)
}
class ImplementationMyActor: ProtocolMyActor {
private(set) var value: String
init(value: String) {
self.value = value
}
func set(value: String) {
self.value = value
}
}
@MainActor
@Observable
class ViewObserver {
let implementation: ProtocolMyActor
var value: String
init() async {
let implementation = await make(value: "Ciao")
self.implementation = implementation
self.value = await implementation.value
}
func set(value: String) {
Task {
await implementation.set(value: value)
self.value = value
}
}
}
struct MyObservedView: View {
@State var model: ViewObserver?
var body: some View {
if let model {
Button("Loaded \(model.value)") {
model.set(value: ["A", "B", "C"].randomElement()!)
}
} else {
Text("Loading")
.task {
self.model = await ViewObserver()
}
}
}
}
The error
Non-sendable type 'any ProtocolMyActor' passed in implicitly asynchronous call to global actor 'MyActor'-isolated property 'value' cannot cross actor boundary
Occurs in the init on the line "self.value = await implementation.value"
I don't know which concurrency error happens... Yes the init is in the MainActor , but the ProtocolMyActor data can only be accessed in a MyActor queue, so no data races can happen... and each access in my ImplementationMyActor uses await, so I'm not reading or writing the object from a different actor, I just pass sendable values as parameter to a function of the object..
can anybody help me understand better this piece of concurrency problem?
Thanks
Swift concurrency is an important part of my day-to-day job. I created the following document for an internal presentation, and I figured that it might be helpful for others.
If you have questions or comments, put them in a new thread here on DevForums. Use the App & System Services > Processes & Concurrency topic area and tag it with both Swift and Concurrency.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Swift Concurrency Proposal Index
This post summarises the Swift Evolution proposals that went into the Swift concurrency design. It covers the proposal that are implemented in Swift 6.0, plus a few additional ones that aren’t currently available.
The focus is here is the Swift Evolution proposals. For general information about Swift concurrency, see the documentation referenced by Concurrency Resources.
Swift 6.0
The following Swift Evolution proposals form the basis of the Swift 6.0 concurrency design.
SE-0176 Enforce Exclusive Access to Memory
link: SE-0176
notes: This defines the “Law of Exclusivity”, a critical foundation for both serial and concurrent code.
SE-0282 Clarify the Swift memory consistency model ⚛︎
link: SE-0282
notes: This defines Swift’s memory model, that is, the rules about what is and isn’t allowed when it comes to concurrent memory access.
SE-0296 Async/await
link: SE-0296
introduces: async functions, async, await
SE-0297 Concurrency Interoperability with Objective-C
link: SE-0297
notes: Specifies how Swift imports an Objective-C method with a completion handler as an async method. Explicitly allows @objc actors.
SE-0298 Async/Await: Sequences
link: SE-0298
introduces: AsyncSequence, for await syntax
notes: This just defines the AsyncSequence protocol. For one concrete implementation of that protocol, see SE-0314.
SE-0300 Continuations for interfacing async tasks with synchronous code
link: SE-0300
introduces: CheckedContinuation, UnsafeContinuation
notes: Use these to create an async function that wraps a legacy request-reply concurrency construct.
SE-0302 Sendable and @Sendable closures
link: SE-0302
introduces: Sendable, @Sendable closures, marker protocols
SE-0304 Structured concurrency
link: SE-0304
introduces: unstructured and structured concurrency, Task, cancellation, CancellationError, withTaskCancellationHandler(…), sleep(…), withTaskGroup(…), withThrowingTaskGroup(…)
notes: For the async let syntax, see SE-0317. For more ways to sleep, see SE-0329 and SE-0374. For discarding task groups, see SE-0381.
SE-0306 Actors
link: SE-0306
introduces: actor syntax
notes: For actor-isolated parameters and the nonisolated keyword, see SE-0313. For global actors, see SE-0316. For custom executors and the Actor protocol, see SE-0392.
SE-0311 Task Local Values
link: SE-0311
introduces: TaskLocal
SE-0313 Improved control over actor isolation
link: SE-0313
introduces: isolated parameters, nonisolated
SE-0314 AsyncStream and AsyncThrowingStream
link: SE-0314
introduces: AsyncStream, AsyncThrowingStream, onTermination
notes: These are super helpful when you need to publish a legacy notification construct as an async stream. For a simpler API to create a stream, see SE-0388.
SE-0316 Global actors
link: SE-0316
introduces: GlobalActor, MainActor
notes: This includes the @MainActor syntax for closures.
SE-0317 async let bindings
link: SE-0317
introduces: async let syntax
SE-0323 Asynchronous Main Semantics
link: SE-0323
SE-0327 On Actors and Initialization
link: SE-0327
notes: For a proposal to allow access to non-sendable isolated state in a deinitialiser, see SE-0371.
SE-0329 Clock, Instant, and Duration
link: SE-0329
introduces: Clock, InstantProtocol, DurationProtocol, Duration, ContinuousClock, SuspendingClock
notes: For another way to sleep, see SE-0374.
SE-0331 Remove Sendable conformance from unsafe pointer types
link: SE-0331
SE-0337 Incremental migration to concurrency checking
link: SE-0337
introduces: @preconcurrency, explicit unavailability of Sendable
notes: This introduces @preconcurrency on declarations, on imports, and on Sendable protocols. For @preconcurrency conformances, see SE-0423.
SE-0338 Clarify the Execution of Non-Actor-Isolated Async Functions
link: SE-0338
note: This change has caught a bunch of folks by surprise and there’s a discussion underway as to whether to adjust it.
SE-0340 Unavailable From Async Attribute
link: SE-0340
introduces: noasync availability kind
SE-0343 Concurrency in Top-level Code
link: SE-0343
notes: For how strict concurrency applies to global variables, see SE-0412.
SE-0374 Add sleep(for:) to Clock
link: SE-0374
notes: This builds on SE-0329.
SE-0381 DiscardingTaskGroups
link: SE-0381
introduces: DiscardingTaskGroup, ThrowingDiscardingTaskGroup
notes: Use this for task groups that can run indefinitely, for example, a network server.
SE-0388 Convenience Async[Throwing]Stream.makeStream methods
link: SE-0388
notes: This builds on SE-0314.
SE-0392 Custom Actor Executors
link: SE-0392
introduces: Actor protocol, Executor, SerialExecutor, ExecutorJob, assumeIsolated(…)
Notes: For task executors, a closely related concept, see SE-0417. For custom isolation checking, see SE-0424.
SE-0395 Observation
link: SE-0395
introduces: Observation module, Observable
notes: While this isn’t directly related to concurrency, it’s relationship to Combine, which is an important exising concurrency construct, means I’ve included it in this list.
SE-0401 Remove Actor Isolation Inference caused by Property Wrappers
link: SE-0401, commentary
SE-0410 Low-Level Atomic Operations ⚛︎
link: SE-0410
introduces: Synchronization module, Atomic, AtomicLazyReference, WordPair
SE-0411 Isolated default value expressions
link: SE-0411, commentary
SE-0412 Strict concurrency for global variables
link: SE-0412
introduces: nonisolated(unsafe)
notes: While this is a proposal about globals, the introduction of nonisolated(unsafe) applies to “any form of storage”.
SE-0414 Region based Isolation
link: SE-0414, commentary
notes: To send parameters and results across isolation regions, see SE-0430.
SE-0417 Task Executor Preference
link: SE-0417, commentary
introduces: withTaskExecutorPreference(…), TaskExecutor, globalConcurrentExecutor
notes: This is closely related to the custom actor executors defined in SE-0392.
SE-0418 Inferring Sendable for methods and key path literals
link: SE-0418, commentary
notes: The methods part of this is for “partial and unapplied methods”.
SE-0420 Inheritance of actor isolation
link: SE-0420, commentary
introduces: #isolation, optional isolated parameters
notes: This is what makes it possible to iterate over an async stream in an isolated async function.
SE-0421 Generalize effect polymorphism for AsyncSequence and AsyncIteratorProtocol
link: SE-0421, commentary
notes: Previously AsyncSequence used an experimental mechanism to support throwing and non-throwing sequences. This moves it off that. Instead, it uses an extra Failure generic parameter and typed throws to achieve the same result. This allows it to finally support a primary associated type. Yay!
SE-0423 Dynamic actor isolation enforcement from non-strict-concurrency contexts
link: SE-0423, commentary
introduces: @preconcurrency conformance
notes: This adds a number of dynamic actor isolation checks (think assumeIsolated(…)) to close strict concurrency holes that arise when you interact with legacy code.
SE-0424 Custom isolation checking for SerialExecutor
link: SE-0424, commentary
introduces: checkIsolation()
notes: This extends the custom actor executors introduced in SE-0392 to support isolation checking.
SE-0430 sending parameter and result values
link: SE-0430, commentary
introduces: sending
notes: Adds the ability to send parameters and results between the isolation regions introduced by SE-0414.
SE-0431 @isolated(any) Function Types
link: SE-0431, commentary
introduces: @isolated(any) attribute on function types, isolation property of functions values
notes: This is laying the groundwork for SE-NNNN Closure isolation control. That, in turn, aims to bring the currently experimental @_inheritActorContext attribute into the language officially.
SE-0433 Synchronous Mutual Exclusion Lock 🔒
link: SE-0433
introduces: Mutex
SE-0434 Usability of global-actor-isolated types
link: SE-0434, commentary
notes: This loosen strict concurrency checking in a number of subtle ways.
SE-0442 Allow TaskGroup's ChildTaskResult Type To Be Inferred
link: SE-0442
notes: This represents a small quality of life improvement for withTaskGroup(…) and withThrowingTaskGroup(…).
In Progress
The proposals in this section didn’t make Swift 6.0.
SE-0371 Isolated synchronous deinit
link: SE-0371
availability: Swift 6.1
introduces: isolated deinit
notes: Allows a deinitialiser to access non-sendable isolated state, lifting a restriction imposed by SE-0327.
SE-0406 Backpressure support for AsyncStream
link: SE-0406
availability: returned for revision
notes: Currently AsyncStream has very limited buffering options. This was a proposal to improve that. This feature is still very much needed, but it’s not clear whether it’ll come back in anything resembling this guise.
SE-0449 Allow nonisolated to prevent global actor inference
link: SE-0449
availability: Swift 6.1
SE-NNNN Closure isolation control
link: SE-NNNN
introduces: @inheritsIsolation
availability: not yet approved
notes: This aims to bring the currently experimental @_inheritActorContext attribute into the language officially.
I make some small program to make dots. Many of them.
I have a Generator which generates dots in a loop:
//reprat until all dots in frame
while !newDots.isEmpty {
virginDots = []
for newDot in newDots {
autoreleasepool{
virginDots.append(
contentsOf: newDot.addDots(in: size, allDots: &result, inSomeWay))
}
newDots = virginDots
}
counter += 1
print ("\(result.count) dots in \(counter) grnerations")
}
Sometimes this loop needs hours/days to finish (depend of inSomeWay settings), so it would be very nice to send partial result to a View, and/or if result is not satisfying — break this loop and start over.
My understanding of Tasks and Concurrency became worse each time I try to understand it, maybe it's my age, maybe language barier. For now, Button with {Task {...}} action doesn't removed Rainbow Wheel from my screen. Killing an app is wrong because killing is wrong.
How to deal with it?
Hello,
I am exploring real-time object detection, and its replacement/overlay with another shape, on live video streams for an iOS app using Core ML and Vision frameworks. My target is to achieve high-speed, real-time detection without noticeable latency, similar to what’s possible with PageFault handling and Associative Caching in OS, but applied to video processing.
Given that this requires consistent, real-time model inference, I’m curious about how well the Neural Engine or GPU can handle such tasks on A-series chips in iPhones versus M-series chips (specifically M1 Pro and possibly M4) in MacBooks. Here are a few specific points I’d like insight on:
Hardware Suitability: How feasible is it to perform real-time object detection with Core ML on the Neural Engine (i.e., can it maintain low latency)? Would the M-series chips (e.g., M1 Pro or newer) offer a tangible benefit for this type of task compared to the A-series in mobile devices? Which A- and M- chips would be minimum feasible recommendation for such task.
Performance Expectations: For continuous, live video object detection, what would be the expected frame rate or latency using an optimized Core ML model? Has anyone benchmarked such applications, and is the M-series required to achieve smooth, real-time processing?
Differences Across Apple Hardware: How does performance scale between the A-series Neural Engine and M-series GPU and Neural Engine? Is the M-series vastly superior for real-time Core ML tasks like object detection on live video feeds?
If anyone has attempted live object detection on these chips, any insights on real-time performance, limitations, or optimizations would be highly appreciated.
Please refer: Apple APIs
Thank you in advance for your help!
In Swift 6, stricter concurrency rules can lead to challenges when making SwiftUI views conform to Equatable. Specifically, the == operator required for Equatable must be nonisolated, which means it cannot access @MainActor-isolated properties. This creates an error when trying to compare views with such properties:
Error Example:
struct MyView: View, Equatable {
let title: String
let count: Int
static func ==(lhs: MyView, rhs: MyView) -> Bool {
// Accessing `title` here would trigger an error due to actor isolation.
return lhs.count == rhs.count
}
var body: some View {
Text(title)
}
}
Error Message:
Main actor-isolated operator function '==' cannot be used to satisfy nonisolated protocol requirement; this is an error in the Swift 6 language mode.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
FB: FB15753655 (SwiftUI View cannot conform custom Equatable protocol in Swift 6.)
When using conformance to ObservableObject and then doing async work in a Task, you will get a warning courtesy of Combine if you then update an @Published or @State var from anywhere but the main thread. However, if you are using @Observable there is no such warning.
Also, Thread.current is unavailable in asynchronous contexts, so says the warning. And I have read that in a sense you simply aren't concerned with what thread an async task is on.
So for me, that begs a question. Is the lack of a warning, which when using Combine is rather important as ignoring it could lead to crashes, a pretty major bug that Apple seemingly should have addressed long ago? Or is it just not an issue to update state from another thread, because Xcode is doing that work for us behind the scenes too, just as it manages what thread the async task is running on when we don't specify?
I see a lot of posts about this from around the initial release of Async/Await talking about using await MainActor.run {} at the point the state variable is updated, usually also complaining about the lack of a warning. But ow years later there is still no warning and I have to wonder if this is actually a non issue. On some ways similar to the fact that many of the early posts I have seen related to @Observable have examples of an @Observable ViewModel instantiated in the view as an @State variable, but in fact this is not needed as that is addressed behind the scenes for all properties of an @Observable type.
At least, that is my understanding now, but I am learning Swift coming from a PowerShell background so I question my understanding a lot.
I am building a MacOS desktop app (https://anukari.com) that is using Metal compute to do real-time audio/DSP processing, as I have a problem that is highly parallelizable and too computationally expensive for the CPU.
However it seems that the way in which I am using the GPU, even when my app is fully compute-limited, the OS never increases the power/performance state. Because this is a real-time audio synthesis application, it's a huge problem to not be able to take advantage of the full clock speeds that the GPU is capable of, because the app can't keep up with real-time.
I discovered this issue while profiling the app using Instrument's Metal tracing (and Game tracing) modes. In the profiling configuration under "Metal Application" there is a drop-down to select the "Performance State." If I run the application under Instruments with Performance State set to Maximum, it runs amazingly well, and all my problems go away.
For comparison, when I run the app on its own, outside of Instruments, the expensive GPU computation it's doing takes around 2x as long to complete, meaning that the app performs half as well.
I've done a ton of work to micro-optimize my Metal compute code, based on every scrap of information from the WWDC videos, etc. A problem I'm running into is that I think that the more efficient I make my code, the less it signals to the OS that I want high GPU clock speeds!
I think part of why the OS is confused is that in most use cases, my computation can be done using only a small number of Metal threadgroups. I'm guessing that the OS heuristics see that only a small fraction of the GPU is saturated and fail to scale up the power/clock state.
I'm not sure what to do here; I'm in a bit of a bind. One possibility is that I intentionally schedule busy work -- spin threadgroups just to waste energy and signal to the OS that I need higher clock speeds. This is obviously a really bad idea, but it might work.
Is there any other (better) way for my app to signal to the OS that it is doing real-time latency-sensitive computation on the GPU and needs the clock speeds to be scaled up?
Note that game mode is not really an option, as my app also runs as an AU plugin inside hosts like Garageband, so it can't be made fullscreen, etc.
I'm currently migrating a midsize (20k LOC) project to Swift structured concurrency. With complete checking turned on, it currently builds with only two warnings, both of which are related to the QLPreviewControllerDelegate protocol:
"Main actor-isolated instance method 'previewControllerDidDismiss' cannot be used to satisfy nonisolated protocol requirement; this is an error in the Swift 6 language mode" as well as the same warning but substituting 'previewController(_:transitionViewFor:)' for the method name.
I'm confused as to how to make these nonisolated, as they use UIKit classes/subclasses as arguments and/or return types.
I am using swiftui lately in my iOS mobile app, The Mobile app already has a pipeline that detect any experimental features and throw an error
I am using swift 5 and as you all know SwiftUI is using some of OpaqueTypeErasure utility types like "some"
I heard that in swift 6 the OpaqueTypeErasure is not experimental anymore
But upgrading the app swift version will be a very long process
Also changing the pipeline will be a very long and tiring process
So i want to know if there is a way to remove OpaqueTypeErasure from SwiftUI and what is the alternatives for bypassing the error that being thrown from the pipeline
I am attempting to do batch Transcription of audio files exported from Voice Memos, and I am running into an interesting issue. If I only transcribe a single file it works every time, but if I try to batch it, only the last one works, and the others fail with No speech detected. I assumed it must be something about concurrency, so I implemented what I think should remove any chance of transcriptions running in parallel. And with a mocked up unit of work, everything looked good. So I added the transcription back in, and
1: It still fails on all but the last file. This happens if I am processing 10 files or just 2.
2: It no longer processes in order, any file can be the last one that succeeds. And it seems to not be related to file size. I have had paragraph sized notes finish last, but also a single short sentence that finishes last.
I left the mocked processFiles() for reference.
Any insights would be greatly appreciated.
import Speech
import SwiftUI
struct ContentView: View {
@State private var processing: Bool = false
@State private var fileNumber: String?
@State private var fileName: String?
@State private var files: [URL] = []
let locale = Locale(identifier: "en-US")
let recognizer: SFSpeechRecognizer?
init() {
self.recognizer = SFSpeechRecognizer(locale: self.locale)
}
var body: some View {
VStack {
if files.count > 0 {
ZStack {
ProgressView()
Text(fileNumber ?? "-")
.bold()
}
Text(fileName ?? "-")
} else {
Image(systemName: "folder.badge.minus")
Text("No audio files found")
}
}
.onAppear {
files = getFiles()
Task {
await processFiles()
}
}
}
private func getFiles() -> [URL] {
do {
let documentsURL = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).first!
let path = documentsURL.appendingPathComponent("Voice Memos").absoluteURL
let contents = try FileManager.default.contentsOfDirectory(at: path, includingPropertiesForKeys: nil, options: [])
let files = (contents.filter {$0.pathExtension == "m4a"}).sorted { url1, url2 in
url1.path < url2.path
}
return files
}
catch {
print(error.localizedDescription)
return []
}
}
private func processFiles() async {
var fileCount = files.count
for file in files {
fileNumber = String(fileCount)
fileName = file.lastPathComponent
await processFile(file)
fileCount -= 1
}
}
// private func processFile(_ url: URL) async {
// let seconds = Double.random(in: 2.0...10.0)
// await withCheckedContinuation { continuation in
// DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + seconds) {
// continuation.resume()
// print("\(url.lastPathComponent) \(seconds)")
// }
// }
// }
private func processFile(_ url: URL) async {
let recognitionRequest = SFSpeechURLRecognitionRequest(url: url)
recognitionRequest.requiresOnDeviceRecognition = false
recognitionRequest.shouldReportPartialResults = false
await withCheckedContinuation { continuation in
recognizer?.recognitionTask(with: recognitionRequest) { (transcriptionResult, error) in
guard transcriptionResult != nil else {
print("\(url.lastPathComponent.uppercased())")
print(error?.localizedDescription ?? "")
return
}
if ((transcriptionResult?.isFinal) == true) {
if let finalText: String = transcriptionResult?.bestTranscription.formattedString {
print("\(url.lastPathComponent.uppercased())")
print(finalText)
}
}
}
continuation.resume()
}
}
}
I'm trying to use a SwiftUI view as UICalendarView decoration and I get Call to main actor-isolated instance method 'makeContentView()' in a synchronous nonisolated context; this is an error in the Swift 6 language mode in the following code:
class Coordinator: NSObject, UICalendarViewDelegate {
func calendarView(_ calendarView: UICalendarView, decorationFor dateComponents: DateComponents) -> UICalendarView.Decoration? {
.customView {
UIHostingConfiguration {
...
}
.makeContentView()
}
}
}
I've fixed using MainActor.assumeIsolated but is this the correct approach or is there a better one?
class Coordinator: NSObject, UICalendarViewDelegate {
func calendarView(_ calendarView: UICalendarView, decorationFor dateComponents: DateComponents) -> UICalendarView.Decoration? {
.customView {
MainActor.assumeIsolated {
UIHostingConfiguration {
...
}
.makeContentView()
}
}
}
}
I created an Object & Hand Tracking app based on the sample code released here by Apple.
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/visionos/exploring_object_tracking_with_arkit
The app worked great and everything was fine, but I realized I was coding on Xcode 16 beta 3, so I installed the latest Xcode 16 from the App Store and tested by app there, and it completely crashed. No idea why. Here is the console
dyld[1457]: Symbol not found: _$ss13withTaskGroup2of9returning9isolation4bodyq_xm_q_mScA_pSgYiq_ScGyxGzYaXEtYas8SendableRzr0_lF
Referenced from: <3AF14FE4-0A5F-381C-9FC5-E2520728FC65> /private/var/containers/Bundle/Application/F74E88F2-874F-4AF4-9D9A-0EFB51C9B1BD/Hand Tracking.app/Hand Tracking.debug.dylib
Expected in: <2F158065-9DC8-33D2-A4BF-CF0C8A32131B> /usr/lib/swift/libswift_Concurrency.dylib
It was working perfectly fine on Xcode 16 beta 3, which makes me think it's an Xcode 16 issue, but no idea how to fix this. I also installed Xcode 16.2 beta (the newest beta) but same error.
Please help if anyone knows what is wrong!
Running up Xcode 16.2 Beta 1, a lot of my code that used onPreferenceChange in Views to change @State properties of those views, such as some notion of a measured width is now complaining about mutating the @MainActor-isolated properties from Sendable closures.
Now I've got to hoop-jump to change @State properties from onPreferenceChange? OK, but seems a bit of extra churn.
Hello,
I'm trying to understand how dangerous it is to read and/or update model properties from a thread different than the one that instantiated the model.
I know this is wrong when using Core Data and we should always use perform/performAndWait before manipulating an object but I haven't found any information about that for SwiftData.
Question: is it safe to pass an object from one thread (like MainActor) to another thread (in a detached Task for example) and manipulate it, or should we re fetch the object using its persistentModelID as soon as we cross threads?
When running the example app below with the -com.apple.CoreData.ConcurrencyDebug 1 argument passed at launch enabled, I don't get any Console warning when I tap on the "Update directly" button. I'm sure it would trigger a warning if I were using Core Data.
Thanks in advance for explaining.
Axel
--
@main
struct SwiftDataPlaygroundApp: App {
var body: some Scene {
WindowGroup {
ContentView()
.modelContainer(for: Item.self)
}
}
}
struct ContentView: View {
@Environment(\.modelContext) private var context
@Query private var items: [Item]
var body: some View {
VStack {
Button("Add") {
context.insert(Item(timestamp: Date.now))
}
if let firstItem = items.first {
Button("Update directly") {
Task.detached {
// Not the main thread, but firstItem is from the main thread
// No warning in Xcode
firstItem.timestamp = Date.now
}
}
Button("Update using persistentModelID") {
let container: ModelContainer = context.container
let itemIdentifier: Item.ID = firstItem.persistentModelID
Task.detached {
let backgroundContext: ModelContext = ModelContext(container)
guard let itemInBackgroundThread: Item = backgroundContext.model(for: itemIdentifier) as? Item else { return }
// Item on a background thread
itemInBackgroundThread.timestamp = Date.now
try? backgroundContext.save()
}
}
}
}
}
}
@Model
final class Item: Identifiable {
var timestamp: Date
init(timestamp: Date) {
self.timestamp = timestamp
}
}
Hi!
I'm trying to implement Swift 6 in my code but can't fix one problem.
Here is my code example which could be run in playground:
import UIKit
import WatchConnectivity
public final class MulticastDelegate<T>: Sendable {
nonisolated(unsafe) private var delegates = [WeakWrapper]()
public init() { }
public var isEmpty: Bool {
return delegates.isEmpty
}
public func addDelegate(_ delegate: T) {
let wrapper = WeakWrapper(value: delegate as AnyObject)
delegates.append(wrapper)
}
public func removeDelegate(_ delegate: T) {
delegates = delegates.filter { $0.value !== delegate as AnyObject }
}
public func invokeDelegates(_ invocation: (T) -> Void) {
for (index, delegate) in delegates.enumerated().reversed() {
if let delegate = delegate.value as? T {
invocation(delegate)
} else {
delegates.remove(at: index)
}
}
}
public func invokeDelegatesCheckingResponse(_ invocation: (T) -> Bool) -> Bool {
var isHandled = false
for delegate in delegates {
if let delegate = delegate.value as? T {
if invocation(delegate) {
isHandled = true
break
}
}
}
return isHandled
}
private final class WeakWrapper: Sendable {
nonisolated(unsafe) weak var value: AnyObject?
init(value: AnyObject) {
self.value = value
}
}
}
@globalActor public actor WatchActor {
public static var shared = WatchActor()
}
@MainActor
@objc public protocol WatchCommunicatorDelegate: NSObjectProtocol {
@objc optional func watchCommunicatorDidRequestDataUpdate(_ controller: WatchCommunicator)
}
@WatchActor
@objc public final class WatchCommunicator: NSObject {
private let multicastDelegate = MulticastDelegate<WatchCommunicatorDelegate>()
}
extension WatchCommunicator: @preconcurrency WCSessionDelegate {
public func session(_ session: WCSession, activationDidCompleteWith activationState: WCSessionActivationState, error: (any Error)?) {
multicastDelegate.invokeDelegates { delegate in
Task { @MainActor in
delegate.watchCommunicatorDidRequestDataUpdate?(self)
}
}
}
public func sessionDidBecomeInactive(_ session: WCSession) {
}
public func sessionDidDeactivate(_ session: WCSession) {
}
}
I want to work with WatchCommunicator in global actor and WatchCommunicatorDelegate should be call in main actor and should have reference to WatchCommunicator.
Help please