Jul 29, 2026

Full validation run on the Big Mac completed in 6:19, which is proportional to its CPU power. Once the core problem was figured out the resolution was relatively straightforward. Basically macOS runs a linear search across all memory pages every 30 seconds, to identify evictable pages. As size grows the search cost exceeds 30 seconds, and the machine essentially locks itself up in a vain attempt to preserve memory, despite having a huge excess of memory. Easy for us to work around. Hard to take this operating system seriously.