64-Bit OS X questionq

alexisalexis
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Several people on this board have been speaking lately about how great it would be if OS X's "Panther" rendition would be 64-bit to coincide with the 970's 64-bit architecture. However, in most of the topics that I have read, there has not been any evidence given as to why this would be such a great thing. What types of benefits would be gained through "porting" Mac OS X from its current 32-bit archtecture to a new 64-bit based archtecture? Thanks for your time.



--Alexis

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 1
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Big reason #1 is memory. More addressable bits means you can allocate more memory to apps and the operating system itself. Big reason #2 is the size of data chunks that can be processed. Not many apps need precision past 32 bits, but for graphics apps that do a lot of filters and transformations, those extra bits that currently get rounded can have a major effect over time.



    There are some better experts on this matter that hang out in the Future Hardware forum ("moki" and "Programmer" come to mind) that know quite a bit about these things. You might should try searching and reading through some of the older PPC970 threads in there.
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