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Panther Will Not be a 64-bit OS

Posted by pudge on from the call-your-senator dept.

rouge86 writes "The Register has an article on what Mac OS X 10.3 will be like. Mac OS X 10.3, aka Panther, will not be a 64-bit operating system, despite running on a 64-bit processor. Instead, the next major release of the Mac operating system will be a hybrid, much like version 10.2.7." You mean they didn't rewrite the entire operating system from the ground up? And that it will run on older, 32-bit, Macs? I am shocked!

4 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. You should not expect a 64bits OS yet by Smartcowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    On the PC scene:

    First 32 bits CPU: 386, 1985
    First somewhat 32 bits OS: Windows 95, 1995

    Hopefuly, it won't take so long for 64bits

  2. What's up with the news these days? by Duke+Thomas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Instead, the next major release of the Mac operating system will be a hybrid, much like version 10.2.7

    So what? This is already known. We know the OS itself will be capable of addressing 8 GB, that is, more than 32 bits. We also already know it will run on 32 bit processors since Panther made its debut on a G4.

    I don't mean to be snarky, and I know that post keynote is always slow, but it seems the ./ Apple news moderation hasn't been up to task lately. Yesterday we had "news" because someone managed to compile a some open source software using the new QT libraries (and did nothing else, from the looks of it). When I manage to build ImageMagick's shared libs under OS X, I'll be counting on it being on the front page. :P

  3. Amazing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's truly astounding to see how many people purport to have an understanding of what "64-bit" means, but in fact do not.

    There are three criteria that define "64-bitness."

    One: can an application running on a given combination of hardware and software address up to 18 billion gigs of virtual memory?

    Two: can an application running on said hardware and software read from and write to files that are up to 9 billion gigs long?

    Three: can an application running on said hardware and software do arithmetic with 64-bit integers and doubles?

    Existing Macs running Mac OS X have two and three down. File offsets are signed long longs (up to 2^63, or 9 billion billion), and any application can manipulate long longs and doubles.

    G5's running Mac OS X 10.2.7 will have one taken care of. Now, in the current generation G5, memory is actually limited in hardware to four thousand gigabytes, and limited in practical terms to eight gigabytes. But applications can, nonetheless, allocate and address up to 18 billion gigs of virtual memory. The OS won't stop them from doing that. (Pointers under 10.2.7 with the 64-bit compiler settings are unsigned long longs, 2^64, or 18 billion billion.)

    So by any meaningful criteria, Mac OS X 10.2.7 running on G5 hardware will be a 64-bit OS. So will Panther.

    The guy who wrote the register article basically doesn't understand what "64-bit OS" means.

  4. Re:It will be interesting by Steve+Cowan · · Score: 5, Insightful
    there are a lot of differences between the switch from 68k and PPC and that of PPC/32 to PPC/64. There isn't emulation required, nor is a bunch of code rewriting to get your app optimized for the G5. It's a matter of installing the dev tools update, and recompiling. Things weren't that easy in the 68k->PPC transition days...

    Agreed... a more accurate analogy might be waiting for AltiVec optimization. When the G4 was introduced, most software ran a bit faster on it, but certain apps saw incredible performance boosts when they were made AltiVec-aware.