Monitoring Activity of the Apple Neural Engine

Neural Engine: Introduction

All modern Macs are equipped with an internal additional processor, optimized to provide the simulation of a Neural Network. Neural networks mimic the way a brain works. They are used to efficiently run Artificial Intelligence applications, especially Machine Learning.

Since the end of 2020, Apple has begun to add such a processing unit to every new Macintosh model series. This unit is called Apple Neural Engine (ANE), and is an Apple trade secret. There is no technical information or documentation, and no utility in the operating system to control or monitor the Neural Engine. Third-party applications cannot use the Neural Engine directly. They can only call Apple services in macOS indirectly, which then execute functions internally on the ANE.

However, System Monitor can monitor a specific aspect of the Neural Engine: If no program is currently using this auxiliary processor, it will be switched off to save energy. This fact can be exploited to detect whether the Neural Engine is currently in use or not.

Macs with Intel processors don’t contain a Neural Engine. This monitoring section is not available for older Macs.

If you like to monitor when the Neural Engine is active, perform the following steps:

1. Ensure the control window of System Monitor is open.
2. Select the item Information Sources > Neural Engine in the sidebar.
3. Make sure the check mark Monitor this item is set at the right side of the window.

When this option is enabled, a simple indicator will visualize whether the Neural Engine is on or off. The data shown is calculated live and updated about once per second.

Neural Engine: Menu Bar

The box Menu Bar controls in which form activity of the Neural Engine should be displayed. System Monitor offers a variety of icons and functions that you can combine in any order. The following elements can be used:

• The label ANE (Apple Neural Engine) in small, vertical print to designate activity of the Neural Engine processor and to separate it from other icons in the menu bar.
• The label ANE in large, horizontal print.
• An icon representing activity of the Neural Engine.
• A spacer to put more room between items.

Within the box, the upper bar simulates as a sample how this monitor section should be presented in the menu bar. You can grab the individual items by mouse and move them into a different order. You can remove an element by pulling it out of the bar. The lower bar contains the stock of items available. If you like to add a certain item to the menu bar, use the mouse to drag it from the lower to the upper bar. Pressing the button Default causes your current settings to be deleted, replacing it by a default suggestion for the menu bar.

Spacers are shown with dotted rectangles to make it easier for you to recognize and to move them. In the actual display, the rectangle will become invisible, so the spacer does its job providing a blank area within the menu bar.

If you mistakenly have removed all items of this monitoring section from the menu bar, a three-star-icon (⁂, asterism) will appear as a placeholder. This ensures that you still can open the associated menu.

You cannot drag items directly into the real menu bar.

Activity is shown by a simple graphical symbol which perfectly match the black-and-white design of the menu bar. If the Neural Engine is not active, a circle will be shown. Upon activity, an additional dot is shown within the circle. The presentation is similar to the activity indicators for network and disks.

If preferred, a colored light can be used as alternative indicator. In that case, activity will be presented by an orange-colored marker lighting up. Check the option Use colored symbol to choose this.

Neural Engine Activity: Menu Items

Because Apple doesn’t permit any further analysis of the Neural Engine, additional technical data is not available. The menu of this monitoring item does not contain any additional elements.