El explosive start of WWDC 2016 in San Francisco has brought great news for all Apple platforms. One of those that have almost gone unnoticed is also one of the will mean big changes in the medium term for all users in the use of previous devices.
This is the new file system for its discs in which Apple is working to update the HFS + in which it has been developing for almost 30 years. Even in an early period of development, no major advances have been revealed regarding this Apple File System, although we can advance some details.
Apple File System is the next generation file system designed to scale from an Apple Watch to a Mac Pro. APFS is optimized for Flash / SSD storage and designed with encryption as a core feature.
After the introduction of the imminent macOS Sierra operating system, there seems little chance that the new mac expected -maybe- for September, include these disk updates, so expected to be the successor to macOS Sierra the pioneer in developing the new Apple File System (APFS), from 2017.
Details about the APFS features are scant, but developers will be able to access all available information through this link, where you can already check some of the fundamental limitations that currently has the Apple File System:
- APFS volumes cannot be used as boot disks
- The titles of the files are limited to upper and lower case
- Backups in Time Machine are not available still on APFS volumes
- The APFS cannot be encrypted with FileVault
- Fusion Drive does not support APFS
- The APFS file system will not work with OS Yosemite nor with previous versions
What advantages does Apple File System offer
With the fundamental objective of being able upgrade all your systems and applications, always keeping the highest level of security, Apple decides to revamp its file system to meet the new demands of today's applications and new technologies to come.
APFS will work on 64-bit environments supporting 1 nanosecond of granularity in runtime, which is a 1 second improvement over HFS +. Supports scattered files and enables improved volume performance thanks to expansive block allocator, that allows you to store large files at random.
But, without a doubt, one of the most important advances of this Apple File System is the "Crash Protection". APFS has a design of copy-on-write metadata that allows autosave for ensure files are updated, making them safer and avoiding current overload which occurs on the HFS + file system.
We will continue to await updates on the Apple File System to check the advances and possible implementation of this technology in future Apple devices.