Dissecting Apple's Sparse Image Format (ASIF) | schamper.dev
At WWDC 2025, Apple announced macOS 26 Tahoe. One of the new features in macOS Tahoe is a new disk image format: ASIF. Designed for use with virtual machines (its documentation lives under the Virtualization framework), ASIF takes a lot of inspiration from existing virtual disk formats. Practically, that means it’s another sparse virtual disk format, and functions very similar to sparse VMDK, VHDX or QCOW2 files (for the uninitiated, it allow you to store a large disk, or file, in a smaller, “sparse” manner).
2026-06-18 · 18 min read · Erik Schamper At WWDC 2025, Apple announced macOS 26 Tahoe. One of the new features in macOS Tahoe is a new disk image format: ASIF. Designed for use with virtual machines (its documentation lives under the Virtualization framework), ASIF takes a lot of inspiration from existing virtual disk formats. Practically, that means it’s another sparse virtual disk format, and functions very similar to sparse VMDK, VHDX or QCOW2 files (for the uninitiated, it allow you to store a large disk, or file, in a smaller, “sparse” manner). Shortly before the release of macOS…
saved by
related reading
- NYSRGnotes.ekzhang.com
- Reverse Engineering iWork - by Andrew Sampson - ./makeandrews.substack.com
- Assessing Claude Mythos Preview’s cybersecurity capabilities \ Anthropicred.anthropic.com
- It’s hard to justify Tahoe icons @ tonsky.metonsky.me
- Free ASCII Art Generator, Image & Video to ASCII | ASCII Magicascii-magic.com
- Free ASCII Art Generator, Image & Video to ASCII | ASCII Magicascii-magic.com
- Formatarrow.apache.org
- Online Image & Video Effect Generator – Free | Effect.appeffect.app
- start [Folk Computer]folk.computer
- Write your Own Virtual Machinejmeiners.com
- Architecture · OrbStack Docsdocs.orbstack.dev
- The Amazing Disk II Controller Cardbigmessowires.com