Panther Will Not be a 64-bit OS 229
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!
Names... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Names... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Names... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Names... (Score:2)
We'd really have to worry, though, if they named it Silvester.
Re:Names... (Score:5, Informative)
The cartoon gave him a girl's voice, and he's an feminine looking cat.
Re:Names... (Score:4, Funny)
Damn you !!!!!!
(Actually, thanks for clearing that up...)
Re:Names... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Names... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Names... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Names... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Names... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Names... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Bill the Cat Codename Question (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Names... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Names... (Score:2)
Re:Names... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Names... (Score:2, Funny)
And then the mouse could be called Jerry..
Re:Names... (Score:2)
Heathcliff, Heathcliff no one should
Terrify their neighborhood
But Heathcliff just won't be undone
Playing pranks on everyone
There's a race to be on top
The competition doesn't stop
Mixing it with the ladies man
Being charming debonair
The gang will rein supreme And no one can deny
They'll make some history
And always have an alibi
So join in the jubilee
The cats are great, they'll all agree
You'll find in each calamity
The cat's superiority.
Huh, ah oh, oh ah oh, ah uh.
Huh oh a
Re:Names... (Score:2)
Would that be any relation to the Dogcow?
Re:Names... (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, no. It is a reference to the Nickelodeon animated show about a creature that is half dog half cat -- the front ends of both animals joined at the mid section and pointing in opposite directions. Read more about it here [nick.com]. But the dogcow would have been much more inline with the Mac culture; howver, it is not a cat reference.
It struck me that OS X on the x86 (would that be OSx86 ??) would be an odd combination and should have an appropriately odd mascot -- catdog!
Re:Names... (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple isn't stupid, they will never release a version of OSX that runs on x86. if you are talking about the old rhapsody builds then its not OSX, but rather OpenStep on steroids.
I'm not looking to start a flame war, i'm just wondering exactly what you're referring to.
Re:Names... (Score:3, Interesting)
Ah, I see I should have included the winky smiley face after my No! Seriously! comment. The ill fated attempt at humor would have been much more apparent.
Re:Names... (Score:3, Interesting)
We are not talking about making an x86 port, a port existed with the codebase Apple obtained when it purchased NeXT. If Apple would not continue to maintain the x86 port as a hedge bet against Motorola's lack of ability to ramp up the speeds of their PowerPC chip, then they took a very big risk.
Continuing to keep the x86 codebase in line with the recent ver
Re:Names... (Score:3, Insightful)
So you didn't notice that Apple announced that they'll be using an IBM processor [slashdot.org] in their next PowerMac desktop line?
You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:5, Insightful)
First 32 bits CPU: 386, 1985
First somewhat 32 bits OS: Windows 95, 1995
Hopefuly, it won't take so long for 64bits
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:4, Funny)
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:2, Interesting)
First 64-bit CPU: DEC Alpha, 1993
First 64-bit OS: DEC OSF/1, 1993
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:5, Informative)
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:5, Funny)
Quit clouding the issue with facts!
This is
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:2)
When making statements about an OS's bitsize, the real issue is what size are the pointers that it allows users to deal with as flat addresses.
In that sense, AmigaDos was at least 24-bit from the very beginning. I don't recall when it correctly dealt with the full 32 bits. But I don't believe it ever had any constructs that forced memory to be be dealt with in 64 KB chunks -- which is what I would expect of a "16 bit" OS.
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:5, Informative)
The first 32 bit program [computer50.org]: 1948
The first 32 bit OS: ???
At least, as far as a quick Google finds. There may be other systems that predate those. As for IBM PC compatables, Coherent 4.0 (1992), BSDi and 386BSD (1990?) and Linux (1991, usenet announcement) all ran on 80386s in 32 bit mode. I remember seeing other OSes in Dr. Dobbs that claimed to be 32 bit as well. SCO Xenix was not 32 bit in the earlier versions (despite what the other reply claims)... SCO Xenix (and Coherent and other *nixish OSes for the PC lineage) predate the 80386.
--
Evan
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:2)
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:2)
--
Evan
MAC OS 1 (Score:5, Informative)
1984 (Score:4, Informative)
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:4, Informative)
> First somewhat 32 bits OS: Windows 95, 1995
Actually there was a Windows/386 (Windows 2.0 with 386 32-bit memory support in 1989). There was also a truly 32 bit operating system known as OS/2 V2.0 in 1992.
You also forget the numerous UNIX on Intel implementations, such as Interactive (now owned by Sun) and Xenix (SCO).
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:3, Funny)
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:5, Funny)
GNU/Linux 0.2 was available in 1991.
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:2)
First somewhat 32 bits OS: Windows 95, 1995
No. On the "somewhat 32 bits OS", you'd go with Windows 3.11, ca. 1993. If you're feeing particularly generous, you might even go back to Windows/386, ca. 1988.
On the "completely 32 bits OS", you'd go with Windows NT 3.1, ca. 1993 or OS/2 2.0, ca 1992.
Or even the original Linux release, ca. 1991. Personally I wouldn't put that up there with a full OS, but Slackware was out in 1993, two years before Windows 95.
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:4, Informative)
Re:You should not expect a 64bits OS yet (Score:3, Informative)
The history of OS/2 [prodigy.net]. OS/2 2.0 was the first 32-bit version.
64-bit OS's can run on 32-bit processors (Score:2)
Therefore backwards compat is not an acceptable excuse.
Re:64-bit OS's can run on 32-bit processors (Score:3, Insightful)
on 32-bit processors.
Re:64-bit OS's can run on 32-bit processors (Score:2, Informative)
HOW does it address 8GB of memory (Score:2)
It will be interesting (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It will be interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Superficially it does. However, 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...
Re:It will be interesting (Score:2)
Re:It will be interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
What are you getting at, pudge? (Score:5, Interesting)
All of the BSDs and Linux support 64-bit, and as far as I know, they weren't rewritten "from the ground up." They are all also compatible with both 32- and 64-bit machines, so I don't see legacy hardware compatability being a huge problem.
Re:What are you getting at, pudge? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What are you getting at, pudge? (Score:2)
Re:What are you getting at, pudge? (Score:2)
You are confusing 64-bit support with a 64-bit OS. You shouldn't.
Yeah, I guess I have been too. Care to go for a +5 Informative and school me on the difference?
Re:What are you getting at, pudge? (Score:2)
Re:What are you getting at, pudge? (Score:5, Informative)
And I don't know why people are ripping on this strategy. This way Apple doesn't have to Ship 10.3 for the G5 and a seperate 10.3 for the G4. That just confuses customers and pisses off people who have a G4 and a G5. Now Apple can ship one version and only have small changes between the G4 and G5 versions, and let the installer make the appropiate changes. Also, Solaris did the same thing. Alot of there utilities were 32-bit for a long long time after 64-bit support came out, programs like top simply do not receive any advantages from being 64-bit.
Re:What are you getting at, pudge? (Score:3, Funny)
You obviously haven't seen my MP3 catalogue.
Re:What are you getting at, pudge? (Score:2)
Martin
Some benefits of 64-bit support (Score:5, Funny)
Re-write? (Score:5, Informative)
For instance, the Linux kernel was made 64-bit safe in version 2.0, when they added support for the Alpha architecture. It's one code base that can be compiled for different architectures, some 32-bit, some 64-bit. There's not a whole lot of 64-bit specific code.
Most Open Source programs are 64-bit clean now. I'd think Apple's programmers would have been working to make sure all the Mac OS X code is 64-bit clean.
Re:Re-write? (Score:2)
Re:Re-write? (Score:5, Informative)
Getting apps to take advantage of this is a matter of a recompile, and Apple released the tools at WWDC to get your apps to suppoer the 64 bit features. I imagine they binaries will ship in the same package- either the OS will discriminate, or there will be two binaries in the package.
Re:Re-write? (Score:5, Informative)
As far as binaries containing 32-bit and 64-bit versions, NeXT has long had "fat binaries". (Not sure if MacOS had fat binaries in the transition from 68K to PowerPC.) The executable would have versions for multiple CPUs, and the OS would chose the right one. I suspect that's still easily supported in Mac OS X.
As the article said though, often you'll have a 32-bit app with a few optionally-used 64-bit sections.
Re:Re-write? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Re-write? (Score:5, Informative)
Apps can easily ship with 32-bit and 64-bit combined.
Multiple Architectures in Bundle (Score:2, Interesting)
The currently known architectures are:
ppc
i386
m68k
hppa
i860
m88k
sparc
ppc601
ppc603
ppc604
ppc604e
ppc750
ppc7400
ppc7450
ppc970
i486
i486SX
pentium
i586
pentpro
i686
pentIIm3
pentIIm5
m68030
m68040
hppa7100LC
What's up with the news these days? (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
Re:What's up with the news these days? (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, damn those dot slash Apple news moderators!
Re:What's up with the news these days? (Score:2)
Er, uh, wha...? (Score:5, Interesting)
According to El Reg, Panther is not a true 64-bit operating system. However, Panther can do 64-bit tricks. So many 64-bit tricks that it works and behaves as a 64-bit OS would, accessing more than 8 GB of RAM, and so forth, if asked... but its not 64-bit.
I think I'll file under 'makes no difference to me'.
Uhm (Score:4, Interesting)
Don't Pentiums with PAE have this ability. 64 bit doesn't mean "double" the addressability. A fully 64bit address is 2^32 * 2*32 or roughly 4 billion SQUARED. Somone needs to learn binary
The Opteron doens't have full 64bit addressing either... I think its like 42 or 48bits.
Re:Uhm (Score:2)
Re:Uhm (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Uhm (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe Samwise would have been more appropriate? Actually, why name it after LoTR characters at all considering everything was rendered on Dells? I would say name it after Nemo, but that movie was rendered on Intel processors too. Too bad the CEO of Pixar doesn't know anyone at Apple.
Re:Uhm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Uhm (Score:4, Funny)
You should've been shot for that.
Triv
Re:Uhm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Uhm (Score:3, Funny)
Well, thank you very much for ruining the plot of RoTK for me...next time preface your spoiler posts as such. I'm sure that there are a lot of
Amazing. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Amazing. (Score:5, Informative)
The PPC 970 only implements 42 virtual address bits. Similarly, other current 64 bit microprocessors only implement a subset of the available 64 bits in their MMU. In short, an application running on a PPC 970 processor will only be able to address 2^42 bytes, or 4 terabytes of memory.
Re:Amazing. (Score:3, Funny)
DJCC
Re:Amazing. (Score:3, Informative)
It is also important to note that these values are a per program basis if you are willing to change around some special registers in your context switches.
Re:Amazing. (Score:2)
Also, the 80 bit address is an intermediate value used in the hashed page table calculation and is not exposed to the user.
Re:Amazing. (Score:2)
There are three address types:
Effective: This is the address that the program sees. This may (and often does) have very little to do with the real address
Virtual: This is used only within the MMU and Page tables.
Physical (Real): This is the actual address in the memory.
Now, the link you provided states 42bits of real address.
Re:Amazing. (Score:2)
Re:Amazing. (Score:3, Insightful)
So while the G5 can handle 64-bit math and memory/file addressing, it sounds like 10.2.7 and apps running on it aren't going to be using those. They're going to be using the existing emulations, and a few extra hacks bolted on a the last minute to get a few extra bits on the memory address space.
IMHO, if it's still thunking 64-bit o
Re:Amazing. (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong and right. Any program that runs on the G5 will get 64-bit math automatically. File addressing is already 64-bit. Memory addressing will continue to be 32-bit until you recompile with -mpowerpc64.
They're going to be using the existing emulations, and a few extra hacks bolted on a the last minute to get a few extra bits on the memory address space.
Wrong. The kernel will use full 64-bit addressing; it already does so in 10.2.7. No emulation will be necessary, at any level. Applications will have 32-bit pointers unless they're specifically compiled for 64-bit pointers. This is, incidentally, a good thing. Applications with 64-bit pointers do not use cache as efficiently as those with 32-bit pointers. Take the same application and compile it in 32- and 64-bit versions, and the 32-bit version will be measurably faster on the same hardware.
IMHO, if it's still thunking 64-bit operations down to 32-bit operations in software, it's not really 64-bit.
IMHO, if you don't know what "64-bit" actually means, you should probably think twice before posting in a thread like this. Just friendly advice.
Re:Amazing. (Score:4, Insightful)
Umm...does that mean a 16-bit and 8-bit versions will be measurably faster on the same hardware too? Just checking...thanks.
Re:Amazing. (Score:5, Informative)
In the case of the PowerPC 970, it is the exact same instruction set, in 32-bit or 64-bit modes. The only difference is the data being processed. If you don't *NEED* to use 64-bit data, then 32-bit mode will be faster, as you're not 'padding' the data with an extra 32-bits of unecessary info. The PowerPC architecture was designed from the get-go to be 64-bit, with 32-bit as a subset of it. Until now, there haven't been any PowerPC processors that have been capable of processing the full 64-bit width of data though. (Yes, the original PowerPC 601 could theoretically be redesigned to allow 64-bit data, and it wouldn't take too terribly much work.)
It's not at all like the IA-32 (386-Pentium 4/Xeon/AthlonXP,) AMD-64 (Athlon64/Opteron,) or the IA-64 (Itanium) architectures.
IA-32 was a kludge of the existing 16-bit instruction set. AMD-64 is a further extension of the old 16-bt set. IA-64 is an all-new instruction set, not at all compatible with the old IA-32. (The Itanium Processors have hardware IA-32 decoders in them, but the IA-64 spec doesn't call for it at all. Intel could make a later Itanium that cannot run existing 32-bit code at all, and it would be fully compliant with the IA-64 spec.)
Re:Amazing. (Score:2, Informative)
Another idiot.
The kernel is just a program. Okay? If compiled with -mpowerpc64, the kernel will have 64-bit pointers. The Smeagol and Panther kernels (indeed, the Darwin 7.0 preview kernel that's available for download already) are compiled -mpowerpc64.
Any "userland" (how cute) program will get 64-bit pointers if compiled with -mpowerpc64. Whether or not t
Re:Amazing. (Score:3, Interesting)
This is really no different than using hacks like emm386
I'm not so sure about that... (Score:2, Informative)
That sounds rather limited to me.
Re:I'm not so sure about that... (Score:2, Informative)
That's true, but only if you don't recompile your applications specifically for the G5. If you rebuild (or do a separate build) with the compiler option -mpowerpc64, you get LP64 (longs and pointers are 64-bit, in other words). When you do that, you can malloc to your heart's content, up to 18 b
Re:I'm not so sure about that... (Score:4, Informative)
There was a discussion at the WWDC developer bash about getting 64-bit aware system call traps and libSystem (combination of libc, libm, libinfo, etc...) in some future release/update. But getting 64-bit address support for all 300+MB of frameworks in Mac OS X will be a long time coming.
It's the end of the Mac (Score:5, Funny)
Well there ya go. Obvious testament that the beleaguered company is doomed to fail. The nerve!
I wonder how long it will take for someone to be serious about how Apple is failing because of this. Bets anyone?
This is ignorance (Score:3, Insightful)
Dumb
Many answers for the 64bit question ! (Score:5, Informative)
1. An OS could be called "64bits OS" because it allows programs running on the computer to use 64bits-instructions, while leaving them with 32bits pointers. This is typically done by offering a 64bits datatype (int64_t/uint64_t in C99 compliant environments) and a compiler that will emit the right instruction sequences. It also requires that the underlying OS will be made somehow "64bits aware", ie that it will save/restore the full 64bits content of processor registers on context switches. My understanding is that Panther/10.3 will allow that, or at least most of that.
2. An OS could be called "64bits OS" because parts of the kernel (VM / buffer cache,
3. An OS could be called "64bits OS" because it allows the usage of more than 4GB of memory by all userland processes, while any given process is still limited to 4GB (32 bits pointers). My understanding is that Panther will do that.
4. An OS could be called "64bits OS" because the kernel code is compiled to follow a 64bits ABI (Application Binary Interface). In such an ABI, pointers are 64bits entities and some integer types are also 64bits. While an ABI covers _a lot more_ ground than just the size of the common C types, those sizes are often used to characterize the ABI. The most common 64bits ABI is known as LP64 (aka I32LP64) where "int" remain 32bits, while "long" and "void*" are 64bits. By comparison the most common 32bits ABI is known as ILP32 (int, long, void* are all 32 bits). I don't think any "common" OS offered a ILP64 model (Cray maybe?). Windows64 is a different beast, being LLP64 (aka IL32 LLP64), where int and long are 32bits, while "long long" and pointers are 64bits. My understanding is that this will _not_ be the case for Panther, the kernel code will be compiled with a ILP32 ABI.
5. An OS could be called "64bits OS" because it offers a 64bits ABI to userland applications compiled in "64bit mode". My understanding is that this will _not_ be the case for Panther, all code will be compiled with the traditional ILP32 ABI.
My "belief"/"understanding" of the Panther situation comes from reading the WWDC reports, rumours reports and also the Darwin development mailing list where one Apple employee said that OS X won't offer an LP64 ABI until much later (not in Panther, at _least_ not in 10.3.0 and I doubt any 10.3.x release).
Most current users of 64bits systems will only use criterion 5, but I expect Apple PR to try to muddle the issue. And I won't blame them much, the issue is not as clear cut as some users think.
Some tidbits related to 64bits platforms:
- HP-UX 11.00 shipped as two different kernels, one 32bits kernel and one 64bits kernel. 64bits machines could run either of them, while 32bits machines were restricted to the 32bits kernel.
On the 64bits kernel a user could run 32 and/or 64bits processes, while the 32bit kernel could only run 32bits processes.
It sometimes made sense for the owner of a 64bits machine to only install the 32bits kernel, if they didn't intend to run any 64bits application and didn't have more than 4GB of ram (rare then). Running the 64bits kernel typically consumed a bit more memory and consumed a bit more memory bandwidth.
- Linux on 64bits machines is "pure" 64bits (today, this may change due to ISV pressure). It doesn't run anything but programs compiled with the 64bits ABI (I32LP64). A special case is Linux IPF (IA64) which also runs 32bits apps, but those aren't "native" applications using the Itanium ISA but x86 binaries running using the hardware (now) or software (future) emulation. Another special case will be Linux on x86-64 which also has to run "emulat
About 64/32 bit compat... (Score:2, Informative)
Native compatibility with 32-bit application code
For PC users, going from 32-bit to 64-bit computing requires migrating to a 64-bit operating system (and purchasing the 64-bit applications that will work on it) or running a 32-bit operating system in slow-as-molasses emulation mode. The PowerPC G5, however, offers a seamless transition to 64-bit performance: Current 32-bit code -- such as Mac OS X, the Mac OS 9 Classic environment and existing applications -- runs natively at processor s
Re:Not surprising..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:History teaches... (Score:4, Informative)
The emulator was entirely software. The emulator initially wasn't particularly fast, but since most Mac applications spend a great deal of time in the Toolbox, Apple made the most heavily used traps native.