ricky is pretty much right, but I thought I'd clarify a few things by answering the questions in a little more detail.
Originally posted by hugheba
Okay, these are a couple of questions for you tech heads out there.
1) Are the current processors in our Apple machines 32 bit?
Yes, all current PowerPC processors in Apple desktops and laptops are only 32 bit.
2) How does the 128bit Altivec technology fit in?
Altivec is a vector unit. What this means is that it can process chunks of data all at once. I don't know if you know anything about matrices in math, but it's basically like that -- you have a matrix that has some data, and you can add it to another matrix that has some more data, which basically adds up all corresponding elements of each matrix to form a new matrix. The advantage of the Altivec unit is that it can do it all at once, without having to go through 4 add cycles.
The amount of data that can be processed at once depends on the kind of data involved, but an Altivec unit can process up to 4 times the amount of data at once than the processor (since the processor is only 32 bit while Altivec can process data chunks up to 128 bits).
I should note that current G4 processors in the G4 towers (I'm not sure about the TiBook or the G4 iMac) have _4_ Altivec units. However, not all data can be processed through the Altivec units, so you won't see a 4-fold increase in performance.
3) If 1 is true, do you think we'll see a 64bit processor from Apple in the near future? What will we have to gain from this..better / faster rendering?
From all the rumor sites, the upcoming G5 processor will be a 64-bit processor, with 32-bit backwards compatibility. What the 64 bit means is that the processor can process data twice as fast, and since this is the PROCESSOR, you'll probably see close to a two-fold increase, as opposed to adding Altivec units that doesn't necessarily increase the performance as dramatically.
Of course, applications will need to take advantage of the 64-bit processing technology, so you probably won't see much of a performance increase on 32-bit applications, except in the fact that the 32-bit processing will probably be improved on the G5 as well as adding 64-bit processing.
4) I heard that they had some G5's that were upgraded to a higher bit chunck, 64bit possibly?
Like I said in the previous question, the G5 is going to be a 64-bit processor with 32-bit backwards compatibility.
5) Would Mac OSX be able to handle the increase. What changes to applications would have to be made or is the OS the buffer/translatore to the processor?
Mac OS X would have to have 64-bit processing programmed into it. Rumor has it that Apple is in the process of doing this so that it can take advantage of the G5 processor when they finally release it.
Applications would have to be retooled to take advantage of the 64-bit processing to what extent I don't know. However, rumors say that the G5 will have 32-bit backwards compatibility, which means that current applications will run, without modification, on the new G5 processor. This is VERY important, because all current applications are 32-bit, and if the G5 processor was solely a 64-bit processor, no application would run on the G5 until reprogrammed, essentially crippling the market for the G5 processor.
