At 4:46 PM -0600 10/27/2010, Tina K. wrote:
the one thing about the upcoming release that I am curious about is
will Apple finally commit to 64 bit through and through, or is this
going to be another of several incremental steps toward 64 bit that
began with 10.4 Tiger?
IF Apple goes with a pure 64-bit kernel in Lion THEN they will have to:
a) cut off more Macs at the lower end (those that cannot do a 64-bit boot).
b) cut off a lot of 3rd party peripherals and cards that still
haven't been updated to have 64-bit drivers.
Doing (a) is pretty much what we've come to expect from Apple with
each OS release.
Doing (b) is, well, also par for the course. Apple has never given a
rats a** for the 3rd party products they blow off with each OS
release.
Now, Apple "could" retain the 32-bit boot capability, and thus
protect the end-user's investment in x86 Macs. But L'Jobs has never
cared about anything like that in the past, so...
Note please that some Macs have a 32-bit EFI. That does not preclude
them from booting a 64-bit kernel OS, however. This is an artificial
limitation put in place by Apple. Likewise, there are some MacBooks
that *do* have 64-bit EFI and yet still cannot boot 64-bit Snow
Leopard...
I expect there's a tech note that lists which Macs are or are not
permitted to do a 64-bit boot. Anyone have that link?
- Dan.
--
- Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth.
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