# Is OS X a 128 bit Operating System?



## frooyo (Jul 26, 2001)

To my understanding - the G4 is a 128 bit processor.  With that in mind - is OS X a 128 bit operating system.  If so, are applications for OSX developed with Cocoa 128 applications?

I understand there is a version of FreeBSD that is 64 bit and IRIX is 64 bit - but 128 bit seems way to far ahead of times to be supported for any type of system, including Apple.

. . . ?


frooyo


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## rharder (Jul 26, 2001)

In the sense you're meaning, OS X is a 32bit operating system. The G4's AltiVec Vector Processing Unit is 128 bits wide, but it would be misleading to say that it's a 128 bit processor since that implies that the instructions, addressing, etc is 128 bits wide.

Maybe with the rumored 64 bit G5, parts of OS X will be rebuilt with that width in mind, but we're still many years away from seeing 128 bit processors regularly.


-Rob


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## PoweMACuser (Jul 26, 2001)

G4 is 32-bit processor. OS X is said to be 64-bit operating system.
More details can be found in http://www.osdata.com


> _Originally posted by frooyo _
> *To my understanding - the G4 is a 128 bit processor.  With that in mind - is OS X a 128 bit operating system.  If so, are applications for OSX developed with Cocoa 128 applications?
> 
> I understand there is a version of FreeBSD that is 64 bit and IRIX is 64 bit - but 128 bit seems way to far ahead of times to be supported for any type of system, including Apple.
> ...


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## frooyo (Jul 26, 2001)

When you say that the G4 is 128 bit 'wide' - are your referring to the bus?  If not, what exactly does it mean that the G4 is 128 bit wide.

Thanks

frooyo


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## vic (Jul 27, 2001)

see... in the g4, there are two aliens, ok, one is 32 bits tall, and the other is 128 bits tall; this one is called AltiVec (the 128 one). the 32 one does most of the work in the city, it runs text processors, html editors etc, so it does a lot of things, but it's still shorter than our 128 bit alien; the 128 bit alien handles the tougher work in the our alien city, it runs videoediting apps, photosho... err... editing apps, music and math + science apps (molecules, chemicals, you know, the stuff u tried not to learn at school). so on the day to day basis the 32 bit one does more stuff than the 128 bit one, but slower. if u do a lot of activities on your computer that require a lot of vectoriserrrrfoooobarr mathhharghh , i don't recall the terms exactly, that you would use the 128 bit one more often... i hope i got this right it't prety confusing to me too...


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## Nachohat (Jul 27, 2001)

Ok dudes.  The thing with bit size in processors is just the size of the numbers that can be exchanged.  For many applications, 32 bits is just fine.  The maximum number that can be represented is 2 to the power of 32!!! That is a huge number and is also the limit in address of the processor.  That is why processors have a limit of RAM that they can access because if the address gets bigger than 2 to the 32, the number is out of range.  Some applications that are very intensive and mathematical, like Photoshop and Final Cut as well as math programs, use the extra bits  but not for addressing, for intense mathematical calculations with huge numbers.  Notice that numbers are expressed in twos complement, which means that you can tell if a number is negative or positive.  The max number shoots down to (2 power 14) -1.

Here is an example, I want to calculate pi.  With a 32 bit processor a huge (say 128 bit) number will have to be split in 4 then do the calculation and then order the results to the output. Do this over and over again and you lose a lot of computing power just swapping numbers, splitting them, etc.  With a 128 processor, you can do this in just one shot.

Processors will be getting to 64bits soon.  Think of INtels Itanium (that's a hidious name by the way!).  But these are not intended for the regular user, because they don't give much speed gain when used in common apps like Word, IE, Quicktime.  Os X is definatly a 32 bit architecture, but there is nothing wrong with that!!!


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## Techguy#2692 (Jun 4, 2018)

vic said:


> see... in the g4, there are two aliens, ok, one is 32 bits tall, and the other is 128 bits tall; this one is called AltiVec (the 128 one). the 32 one does most of the work in the city, it runs text processors, html editors etc, so it does a lot of things, but it's still shorter than our 128 bit alien; the 128 bit alien handles the tougher work in the our alien city, it runs videoediting apps, photosho... err... editing apps, music and math + science apps (molecules, chemicals, you know, the stuff u tried not to learn at school). so on the day to day basis the 32 bit one does more stuff than the 128 bit one, but slower. if u do a lot of activities on your computer that require a lot of vectoriserrrrfoooobarr mathhharghh , i don't recall the terms exactly, that you would use the 128 bit one more often... i hope i got this right it't prety confusing to me too...


So I hate to break to ya, but that is only a 32bit processor. Also the second alien is just a separate instruction set with in the chipset.-Yes, there will always be more than one instruction set in a processor but only one chipset. Each instruction set will go to that same chipset on the same processor.


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## SGilbert (Jun 4, 2018)

Techguy#2692,

Did you notice that this thread in 17 years old??


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## Doctor X (Jun 6, 2018)

It will take *vic* another 17 years to recover from the burn.

--J.D.


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## DeltaMac (Jun 19, 2018)

The thread is STILL 17 years old.


jonnybairstaw said:


> So far I know G4 is a 128-bit processor. To know more visit Hp printer support Os x is used in iPhone and it has so many features which should we know.


G4 was never a 128-bit CPU, 32-bit is where things happen.
I hope you know more about printer support, when you show limited knowledge about Apple's primary CPU during the first five years of this century.
(All it takes is a quick tour through wikipedia.  )


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