Do the M1 Macs "shutoff" RAM or CPU Cores? Question
Is there any new way the M1 Macs manage memory or long running processes that would explain the behavior I describe below? I wanted to investigate what I might not know about the M1s before chalking it up to a software bug.
Background
When I run BOINC (via Rosetta2) it runs without issue with one project per CPU core. But after some time of inactivity it seems that certain cores are &quot;shutdown&quot;. I have observed this happening one core (bionic task) at a time with about 30secs between the next &quot;shutdown&quot;.  The BOINC software seems to interpret this as the system not having enough memory. As can be seen in the image each project needs &lt;1GB of RAM to run. With the Mac having 16gb of RAM all tasks can run.

TLDR
M1 MacBook Air with 16gb seems to &quot;shutdown&quot; cores or parts of RAM after a predictable amount of time of inactivity.
Post Script
No, the issue you're seeing is not in any way caused by the M1 &quot;turning off memory&quot; or &quot;turning off cores&quot;. It is entirely caused by the manner in which this particular software program is structured.
Remember to check your BOINC settings - you can actually decide how large a part of your RAM that BOINC can use. The lower you set it (all else being equal), the more you'll see &quot;Waiting for memory&quot;.