64-bit Mac OS X

G

georgelien

Registered
Just to confirm that there is a 64-bit version of Mac OS X.

There should be two versions of OS X, right?

One running at 64 while the other runs at 32?

Please confirm.


Best Regards,
George Lien
 
If I'm not mistaken, the current Mac OS X is 32-bit only. As for native 64-bit support, I can only imagine that it would come out with 10.4 or a later release.
 
MBHockey said:
G5's aren't taking advantage of their 64 bit chips yet?
Click to expand...

As far as I know, they aren't really. Consider the fact that the OS is still 32-bit for backwards compatibility with 32-bit systems. Aside from that, even if the operating system was 64-bit, most apps right now are 32-bit so the 64-bit goodness still wouldn't be fully experienced.

For now, the only way to actually have a 64-bit OS on either 64-bit PCs and Macs is to install Linux and compile the kernel for 64-bit processor support. I think we might see 64-bit support in 10.4 or on later version of OS X. But for now, Panther is still 32-bit. :confused:
 
Well, applications can actually make good use of the 64bit processor. But no, Panther itself is not a 64bit operating system. For 10.4/10.5, Apple will probably have parts of the OS in two versions.
 
MIPS R4000 was SGIs first 64-bit processor and was released in 1991 and first used in 1993. The first 64-bit version of IRIX (version 6.0.1) wasn't until the end of 1994 but was limited to only a few higher end systems. The first 64-bit version for all major systems was 6.2 and was released in March of 1996 (and happens to be the version I'm using).

In the almost three years from the first 64-bit processor system to the first major 64-bit operating system, SGI was able to make sure that 6.2 was binary compatible with IRIX 5.3 (the previous major OS version which was 32-bit).

If Apple makes a transition, I would expect no less a smooth transition. On my 64-bit OS I run 32-bit and 64-bit apps side by side seamlessly. For example, if I didn't know that both Photoshop 3.0 and Illustrator 5.5 were 32-bit, I couldn't tell by how they run on my system.

I don't know if Apple has two versions... I wouldn't think that would be needed at this point, it is making sure that current 32-bit apps don't suffer from the move is what Apple should be working on. If they do, I would expect that a 64-bit version of Mac OS X Server would come first.
 
How apple does it is that there are G5 libraries which can take advantage of the increased power of the G5, but the finder is mostly the same code whether you have a G5 or not.
Photoshop does the same thing, and I'm sure some of the more hardcore processing applications also.
 
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