Apple targets Rosetta in new Mac OS X 10.4.8 builds
Apple Computer this past weekend released to its developers the second external builds of Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update, a stability and performance upgrade to its Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger operating system.
It's reported that on Friday, the Mac maker seeded Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update build 8L2122 for Intel Macs and build 8L122 for those systems with PowerPC processors.
The new builds follow the initial distribution of builds 8L2108 and 8L108, which were released to developers about two weeks ago.
Once again, Apple asked developers to focus their testing efforts on system components such as AFP, DVD Player, Graphics, Fonts, iCal, iPhoto, Mail Printing, Networking and Safari.
It also asked that developers extensively test scientific applications under the Rosetta PowerPC emulation environment, which has seen significant performance enhancements.
With the latest seeds, Apple is reported to have addressed issues with Image RAW, ImageIO, ColorSync, Xsan, Xsan File Manager, CoreImage and web images. However, the company told developers that simultaneously running Cisco VPN client and Parallels Desktop under the latest builds can cause kernel panics.
Mac OS X 10.4.8 is reportedly one of two maintenance updates that will be made to Mac OS X before the end of the calendar year.
It's reported that on Friday, the Mac maker seeded Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update build 8L2122 for Intel Macs and build 8L122 for those systems with PowerPC processors.
The new builds follow the initial distribution of builds 8L2108 and 8L108, which were released to developers about two weeks ago.
Once again, Apple asked developers to focus their testing efforts on system components such as AFP, DVD Player, Graphics, Fonts, iCal, iPhoto, Mail Printing, Networking and Safari.
It also asked that developers extensively test scientific applications under the Rosetta PowerPC emulation environment, which has seen significant performance enhancements.
With the latest seeds, Apple is reported to have addressed issues with Image RAW, ImageIO, ColorSync, Xsan, Xsan File Manager, CoreImage and web images. However, the company told developers that simultaneously running Cisco VPN client and Parallels Desktop under the latest builds can cause kernel panics.
Mac OS X 10.4.8 is reportedly one of two maintenance updates that will be made to Mac OS X before the end of the calendar year.
Comments
Excellent music!
*edit* The song is actually Rosanna, by Toto. It needs to be the "live in Amsterdam" version to work properly, as all the album versions don't sound like "Rosetta". If you heard the live version, you would see what I mean. It's very funny!! The words are like, "need you all the way, RosehhhehehetA!!"
This article just gave me an 80's-style idea! Rosetta Listen to the words... it's sounds like "Rosetta"!
Excellent music!
Only available in the Ireland store.
It is nice that they are working on making scientific apps run though. I know some statistics programs won't work because Rosetta gets the calculations wrong. Seems odd. What is more basic to an emulator than getting numerical calculations right?
Only available in the Ireland store.
It is nice that they are working on making scientific apps run though. I know some statistics programs won't work because Rosetta gets the calculations wrong. Seems odd. What is more basic to an emulator than getting numerical calculations right?
It's the tradeoff. Calculations that demand high precision take longer to run...more so under emulation. I'd wager Rosetta is dropping precision in favor of better performance...although as you can see, the tradeoff makes on group happy and pisses the other group off.
It is nice that they are working on making scientific apps run though. I know some statistics programs won't work because Rosetta gets the calculations wrong. Seems odd. What is more basic to an emulator than getting numerical calculations right?
Emulators don't operate at such a high level. All Rosetta does is translate PPC CPU instructions into x86 CPU instructions.
Even a very simple mathematical calculation may require somewhere on the order of 25-50 CPU instructions -- all of which need to be translated from one CPU type to another. And, as kim kap sol stated, if the numerical precision isn't retained throughout that translation process, then you can end up with some rather large errors.
Rosetta to me isn't a transitional utility, it is the REAL Trojan Horse for Windows. Yeah, Vista and company will evolve and MS will try to put landmines in it, but that will only make Windows more complicated and prone to errors and hopefully Rosetta's evolution (as the nimble marsupial) will be quicker than Vista (as the lumbering Apatasaurus) in the mid to long term ... at which time the Sabercat (talk about the ultimate version of Tiger, Leopard, etc.!!) will find its place at the top of the food pyramid!!
"Sabercat," you heard it here first. Think of the "X" logo with two dagger teeth on either side!
The only thing the Powerbook might be a second or so ahead in is in an aggressive filter test run, but in Photoshop it's all about layers, test and image manipulation. As far as I'm concerned my Macbook Pro runs Photoshop emulated better than the REAL THING.
in 10.4.8, Rosetta is significantly faster on Intel. Enough so that I would much rather use my 2gb, 2ghz Macbook Pro to run Photoshop than I would on my girlfriends top of the line powerbook with 2gb of ram. It really speaks volumes when a company can right on-the-fly-transparent-emulation, that's as faster if not faster than the real thing.
The only thing the Powerbook might be a second or so ahead in is in an aggressive filter test run, but in Photoshop it's all about layers, test and image manipulation. As far as I'm concerned my Macbook Pro runs Photoshop emulated better than the REAL THING.
That's really good to hear, webmail. Looking forward to using 10.4.8 when it's released.
It's the tradeoff. Calculations that demand high precision take longer to run...more so under emulation. I'd wager Rosetta is dropping precision in favor of better performance...although as you can see, the tradeoff makes on group happy and pisses the other group off.
in principle, i agree, BUT users on macfixit are reporting that basic units of measure in the adobe apps are off as well. precision on complex math processing, but we're talking 8.5 inches being not-quite-so-8.5 anymore. even if it's 8.500050001500 or whatever people are reporting, that's a big deal when sending a page to a web press where you need 500k-1M prints side-by-side. it's also screwing with making pixel-accurate web designs in illustrator (which, believe it or not, is a very good web page mockup tool).
As for MS Office, it runs fine, but that's not the problem. The poor interface and crappy experience is MSOffice makes it so long in the tooth, it's not even funny. And the next version is worse.
But the OO guys are just copying MSOffice, so our only hope is iWork. I just hope Apple stops thinking of iWork as a replacement to Appleworks, and instead build a pro-quality iWork 07, with the quality of Keynote, so we can all create beautiful documents.
I don't care when Office goes native. My hope is for iWork to live up to its potential and become the Office killer that there is an enormous market for.
Come on iWork 07...
hope is iWork. I just hope Apple stops thinking of iWork as a replacement to Appleworks, and instead build a pro-quality iWork 07, with the quality of Keynote, so we can all create beautiful documents.
Ditto. I bought the first iWork suite when it first came out, on the good looks and promise. But it didn't seem strong enough then. I use MS but only grudginly. And MS office is so slow, even on my 2GHz G5 PPC, you'd think it was running in emulation mode -- wait, what is that "exe" file I see ?!
Would love to have a great non-MS office suite to use instead. Go for it.
Even in an age of Parallels and BootCamp, a decent, transparent Rosetta will be Apple's key to market share in the 5-10 year range. Once people know that they can run all of their pre-2009 Windows apps with little delay and no viruses and not have to reboot or run a 3rd party app, they will pay the extra $100 for a Mac.
Rosetta to me isn't a transitional utility, it is the REAL Trojan Horse for Windows. Yeah, Vista and company will evolve and MS will try to put landmines in it, but that will only make Windows more complicated and prone to errors and hopefully Rosetta's evolution (as the nimble marsupial) will be quicker than Vista (as the lumbering Apatasaurus) in the mid to long term ... at which time the Sabercat (talk about the ultimate version of Tiger, Leopard, etc.!!) will find its place at the top of the food pyramid!!
"Sabercat," you heard it here first. Think of the "X" logo with two dagger teeth on either side!
What on earth does Rosetta have to do with Windows at all? Last I checked, there were no PPC Windows apps..
What on earth does Rosetta have to do with Windows at all? Last I checked, there were no PPC Windows apps..
What on earth does Rosetta have to do with Windows at all? Last I checked, there were no PPC Windows apps..
There are in fact some, but they're very, very rare (unless you count Xbox 360 games).
... [fade to memory sequence] I still remember going into the university computer store when PPC first came out and watching the Peter Gabriel music CD that was so cutting edge and hearing that the Mac would soon run Windows apps or at least they would be relatively platform agnostic ... those were giddy days .... [return to reality]
Actually I do use Adobe stuff alot and it has been a factor in me not replacing the TiBook yet.
Regarding iWork, I'm sure there is a fully loaded beta sitting in the basement, waiting for the time MS becomes more liability than not (which may be never). I'm sure with all of the code improvements that have gone along with platform transistions that they have been able to optimize the heck out of it without worrying about customer and compatibility issues. If they ever do bring it out, it should be 64bit and optimized with every Core Media framework applied. I would love to leave Word, it is the only program that seems to freeze my TiBook when memory becomes a problem, but we will only see the hobby version for a while longer.
Thank You.