Comments on: Why I think Apple OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” is for upcoming Atom-based devices

By: Random

Random — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:17:12 +0000

Hi,

It looks like you are wrong after all.

Sucker!!

By: Barrett

Barrett — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:29:07 +0000

As far as I can tell the Atom N270 and N280 that are found in most netbooks are NOT 64-bit compatible.

I have run Snow Leopard Build *286 on a Core 2 Duo TabletPC and most old drivers with the exception of audio (AppleHDA) just worked.

Of course I don’t think many of the OSX86 project kexts have been compiled for 64 bit yet, so when I ran the system with 64-bit kernel and extensions, I had to use an external keyboard/mouse on my laptop! Video BIOS seems to be the same.

It’s nice that unlike Win or Lin, with Mac the 64- and 32-bit versions of the OS are one and the same.

By: AGS

AGS — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:03:30 +0000

The ATOM processor DOES IN FACT support 64bit – as a matter of fact it makes a huge difference to run in 64bit mode on my FreeBSD 7.1/ZFS based NAS setup.

The processor (ATOM 230 @ 1.6Ghz – “Single Core”) is actually quite zippy for the ~4 watts that it uses. On the Windows side of things, it is almost unusable with XP 32bit, whereas with 64bit (even Windows Server 64bit) it works fine and is very usable.

By: zato

zato — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:07:09 +0000

Here is another possibility: Think about Apple/PA Semi. Why did Apple buy PA Semi? The only answer that fits all the developments is that Apple will introduce new Macs with Graphics Accelerators. Something like Intel X86 + Altivec. PA Semi will design the Accelerator chip. Snow Leopard will be the OS that takes advantage of it. This strategy has many advantages over multiple cores. Apple could then offer OSX to the PC world, yet Macs would still have this acceleration feature that PC clones wouldn’t, because Apple owns PA Semi.

By: Partners in Grime

Partners in Grime — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:53:55 +0000

Not to be catty, but I think Snow Leopard should be free.

By: Byron McCollum

Byron McCollum — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:17:54 +0000

Remember the supposed ‘Top Secret’ features of Leopard?
Remember the subsequent delay of Leopard?
Remember everyone asking what those ‘Top Secret’ features actually were after Leopard’s release?
Remember Safari for Windows, and it being described as ‘Like a Glass of Ice Water in Hell’?

Snow Leopard is the PC Release of Leopard.

It was the ‘Top Secret’ feature.
It was the source of the delay.
It never made the 10.5.0 cut.
It is now ready.

Think about it.
Intel only.
Cocoa only.
No new features.
Focus on stability and security.

And I have a feeling that ‘Snow Leopard’ won’t actually be 10.6. While a preview of 10.6 will be shown, Snow Leopard is just good old Leopard for PCs.

By: Will Deutsch

Will Deutsch — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:54:31 +0000

As I was talking about this idea on Twitter a while ago, @davechen pointed out a Gizmodo article that says 10.6 will still support PPC chips. But what caught my eye in the article was this little tidbit: “A number of drivers didn’t load on a Core 2 Duo MacBook, because it was using a 64-bit kernel and the drivers were only 32. The kernel was not only 64-bit though.” I could be completely wrong here, but I think the Intel Atom processor doesn’t have the 64-bit capabilities that the Core 2 processors do. So the seeming backwards step of not having 64-bit drivers could make sense for Atom.

The first IA32 macs weren’t Core2 based but Core based… Core doesn’t support 64bit so all Intel macs are not 64bit capable. (Blame Yonha – 32bit only).

Also – Atom is 64bit capable except the cheapest SKU.

By: David H Dennis

David H Dennis — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:52:48 +0000

But if Snow Leopard on this new device would look and act the same as MacOS X, even if it leaves out PowerPC support and the like, it seems like it would be advertised as the same product, with the differences invisible to the user. That’s very Apple.

Still … Snow Leopard does sound more like a companion than a separate thing. So we will just have to see.

With higher capacity iPhones, how about a way to suck photos down from your digital camera and use iPhone’s photo viewing interface to use them? I think that’s far more likely than a digital camera. The problem with a digital camera is that many people are just as passionate about their Nikons and Canons as they are about Macs.

The genius of Apple has been to find a product category in which products are disliked by their owners (like cellphones) or too complex for non-geeky people to use (like music players). I don’t think digital cameras are disliked enough by their owners for this to work.

However, you might partially get your way – I expect iPhone’s camera to improve significantly over the coming years and that may be a fair substitute. With the exception of the Digital SLR, which is used by people who really love to dabble in the complexity of photography, I expect the standalone photo market to decline as cellphone cameras improve.

By: stefn

stefn — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:41:52 +0000

This possibility in mind, imagine the “Apple of Your i” compact digital camera, with killer diller features. We incorrigible consumer types simply refuse to haul around DSLR monster cameras; we want the camera equivalent of the light and thin Macbook Air. And imagine a camera with OSX:

* MULTITOUCH: I can blow up the shot and see if I caught the spinach in Aunt Gertie’s teeth.

* WIFI: Let me mail my photos directly from the camera with WIFI.

* HDR: High dynamic range imaging, onboard the camera. If you ain’t seen HDR, check out Hydra or Photomatix. HDR makes great postcard photographers out of anybody. Can you say “photography for the rest of us”?

* And let me “HDR” my shots immediately while in the field. When I bracket a shot, make it happen automatically. Let me see it on a big bright screen.

* IVE: His design touch, a great lens, image stabilization, burst mode, auto bracketing, no shutter lag, a 1.6 sensor, and RAW file setting. Sell it for under $750 list, $650 street.

By: Josh Bancroft

Josh Bancroft — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 03:05:28 +0000

@PIF I’ve been running a nightly of K2 ever since WP 2.5 came out, and it’s generally been fine. I live on the edge, man!

Actually, I’ve been running K2 a lot longer than that. What I meant was that when I upgraded to WP 2.5, I grabbed the latest version out of SVN, to see if it worked, and it’s been fine.