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Developer Transition Kit (2020)
The Apple Developer Transition Kit is an ARM-based Mac released exclusively to registered developers on June 22, 2020. The kit was designed to aid developers in the transition from Intel (x86_64) to Apple silicon (arm64) processors as part of the Universal App Quick Start Program. The program costs 500 USD, and supplies a Developer Transition Kit that must be returned after 1 year, or if Apple decides to recall all DTKs. The Developer Transition Kit takes form as a modified Mac mini (2018).
It shipped with macOS Big Sur Beta 20A5299w, a build built specifically for arm64. Like the M1 Macs that came after it, Developer Transition Kit contains a recovery mode accessible by pressing and holding the power button at boot. It also contains a DFU mode it can fall back to or be entered into.
Contents
Interfacing with Developer Transition Kit
The major external difference between the Developer Transition Kit and the Mac mini (2018) is that it contains 2 USB-C ports. They are electrically Thunderbolt 3 compatible, but this functionality is disabled on the Developer Transition Kit. It can be interfaced by plugging a cable between the USB-C port on the right and another computer. In iTunes on Windows and Apple Configurator on macOS, it is displayed as an iPhone in DFU mode.
The Developer Transition Kit also has a functional UART interface from the USB-C port.
Rosetta 2 compatibility
The Developer Transition Kit contains a working version of Rosetta 2, Apple's binary translation layer that allows Intel applications to run as-is on ARM Macs. However, the A12Z, unlike A14, doesn't support 4 KiB memory pages, meaning most 3rd party web browsers like Chrome and Firefox stopped working. Both Chrome and Firefox released fixes that allow it to run under Rosetta 2 on the DTK platform. Many Electron apps, and apps using older versions of the Chromium Embedded Framework will not run or load pages on the DTK.
Application processor
The Developer Transition Kit (2020) makes use of the Apple A12Z Bionic SOC.
the A12Z is a rebranded A12X as it uses the same T8027 CPU found in the 2018 iPad Pro, with the exception that it has an improved 8-core graphics processor.
Variants
The Developer Transition Kit has a model ID of ADP3,2, and model number of A2330 (EMC 3568), J273a. This is the variant that was seeded to developers. It reports to macOS as "Apple Developer Platform".
In the macOS 11 Big Sur IPSW, there exists references to a variant of the Developer Transition Kit, model ADP3,1 / J273, which has a nearly identical DeviceTree to ADP3,2; the only differences are that it reports as "J273" instead of "Apple Development Platform", and only has 6 GB of RAM, like the iPad Pro 2020, instead of 16 GB, which Developer Transition Kit ADP3,2 has. Whether the external appearance is the same or not is unknown.
In there also exists a model, T485, which is a completely unknown model, with an A12Z processor and a display. Its DeviceTree varies considerably from the iPad Pro (2020) DeviceTree. It is not known what this device looks like.
Specifications
- Size: 197 mm (7.7 inches) (width) x 197 mm (7.7 inches) (length) x 36 mm (1.4 inches) (depth)
- Color: Space Grey
- Weight: 1.16 kg (2.54 lb)
- Storage: 512 GB, connected using Apple Fabric
- RAM: 16 GB (for ADP3,2 released to developers)
- Wireless:
- Wi-Fi: Dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
- Bluetooth Bluetooth 5.0
- Connectors:
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What's in the box
Watch a reupload of the AppleInsider DTK unboxing video
- The Developer Transition Kit system
- A power cable
- Documentation is kept in a small box with the following text:
The future of Mac
is yours to write.
- A special card with the following text:
Congratulations on being one of the first
developers for Mac powered by Apple silicon.
Go to developer.apple.com/mac to find
everything you need to get started.
- Manual with warranty. At least in the US version, it is in English and Spanish. It may or may not be copied from the Mac mini with all references replaced with "Developer Transition Kit"
- 2 Apple stickers
