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Snow Leopard Revealed: Multi-Core Optimised, GPU Lovin' OS Upgrade Due In One Year
Posted by Wilson Rothman at 8:37 AM on June 10, 2008
Yep, you heard right: Apple showed off the OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, due out in a year, to the attendees at WWDC, and let some details slip to the public, including:
• Optimisation for multi-core processors
• GPU friendly
• Supports "breakthrough" amounts of RAM—16TB to be precise
• New "modern" QuickTime X platform
• Safari with 53% faster JavaScript implementation
Yes, as we've heard, this is a lot less about cool user features and more about boots-on-the-ground stability—or in Apple SVP for Software Engineering's words, "perfecting the world's most advanced OS." There's no mention of continuing PowerPC support, but then again, there's no word about discontinuing it, either. Here's more from the horse's, I mean, predatory feline's mouth:
Apple Previews Mac OS X Snow Leopard to Developers
SAN FRANCISCO, June 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple(R) today previewed Mac OS(R) X Snow Leopard, which builds on the incredible success of OS X Leopard and is the next major version of the world's most advanced operating system. Rather than focusing primarily on new features, Snow Leopard will enhance the performance of OS X, set a new standard for quality and lay the foundation for future OS X innovation. Snow Leopard is optimised for multi-core processors, taps into the vast computing power of graphic processing units (GPUs), enables breakthrough amounts of RAM and features a new, modern media platform with QuickTime(R) X. Snow Leopard includes
out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and is scheduled to ship in about a year."We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more," said Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world's most advanced operating system."
Snow Leopard delivers unrivaled support for multi-core processors with a new technology code-named "Grand Central," making it easy for developers to create programs that take full advantage of the power of multi-core Macs. Snow Leopard further extends support for modern hardware with Open Computing Language (OpenCL), which lets any application tap into the vast gigaflops of GPU computing power previously available only to graphics applications. OpenCL is based on the C programming language and has been proposed as an open standard. Furthering OS X's lead in 64-bit technology, Snow Leopard raises the software limit on system memory up to a theoretical 16TB of RAM.
Using media technology pioneered in OS X iPhone(TM), Snow Leopard introduces QuickTime X, which optimizes support for modern audio and video formats resulting in extremely efficient media playback. Snow Leopard also includes Safari(R) with the fastest implementation of JavaScript ever, increasing performance by 53 percent, making Web 2.0 applications feel more responsive.*
For the first time, OS X includes native support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in OS X applications Mail, iCal(R) and Address Book, making it even easier to integrate Macs into organizations of any size.
*Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection and other factors. Benchmark based on the SunSpider JavaScript Performance test on an iMac(R) 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system running Mac OS X Snow Leopard, with 2GB of RAM.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its
award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Kaiser-Machead is in your Macbook Pro!
Posted 9:19 AM 10/6/08
@Kaiser-Machead is in your Macbook Pro!: wait......I mean buy a new notebook as it's released. Time Machine's good, but not that good.
Kaiser-Machead is in your Macbook Pro!
Kaiser-Machead is in your Macbook Pro!
Posted 9:17 AM 10/6/08
@thechansen: lol what is that a "Yikes!" system? I'd look into upgrades. I'm going to get a new processor for my 1GHz G4, probably bump it up to 2GHz if it's still available. There's still GPU upgrades available too.
I probably won't be buying this though, as by the time it's released I'll already have a new notebook.
Kaiser-Machead is in your Macbook Pro!
kzooguy
Posted 9:15 AM 10/6/08
...whereas Windows 7 REQUIRES 16 TB of RAM.
:)
All joking aside, they better not charge for this.
kzooguy
AndyDuncan
Posted 9:15 AM 10/6/08
@endless: Well, they haven't said how much you're paying, but given Apple's recent "If we give you something we have to charge you, the feds made us do it" attitude, I'm guessing it won't be free. Hopefully it won't be the full $129.
AndyDuncan
bitfactory
Posted 9:09 AM 10/6/08
Real Outlook Exchange support? Or that half-ass OWA. (gag).
By the time this is out I predict our company will have dropped Outlook anyway. Figures, I've been looking for a way to hook into Exchange Server since X came out. Oh well.
bitfactory
fallenturtle
Posted 9:06 AM 10/6/08
Has there been talk of a price? Is there a chance it might be free or offer a much discounted upgrade price?
fallenturtle
ronnsprocket
Posted 9:04 AM 10/6/08
am i missing price?
ronnsprocket
thechansen
Posted 9:03 AM 10/6/08
There is nothing about this that I don't like. Only problem is my dual 867 g4 will be a sad leopard. No one is going to invite him to play in the snow.
thechansen
Marcelo
Posted 9:03 AM 10/6/08
Yeah, it's really nice to see them working under the hood and not crufting up the OS with a bunch of unnecessary features and apps. Good stuff. Makes me want to hold off buying a new Mac til next year.
Marcelo
itchytooth
Posted 9:02 AM 10/6/08
This is a refreshingly sober thing of them to do and I'm all for it. I do, however, kind of hope it will be a free upgrade for Leopard owners.
itchytooth
Jrsy
Posted 9:01 AM 10/6/08
meOW!
Jrsy
halcalanky
Posted 8:56 AM 10/6/08
I wonder if I can shoehorn 16TB of ram into my mac book pro..
halcalanky
endless
Posted 8:56 AM 10/6/08
won't run crysis.
i do like OSX, its nice.
but this really seems like paying for a service pack.
endless
nutbastard
Posted 8:50 AM 10/6/08
@Teh Emo Penguin:
it had to happen eventually...
nutbastard
Hiphopopotamus
Posted 8:48 AM 10/6/08
Can it film in 300FPS? Don't care then!
Hiphopopotamus
Teh Emo Penguin
Posted 8:42 AM 10/6/08
16TB OF RAM!!??!?
Teh Emo Penguin
CutePuppyz
Posted 9:38 AM 10/6/08
16 TB? I'm still on 1GB of RAM...16GB?!?!? I am stumped....I guess 3D CADs need it...rendering and all that stuff...
CutePuppyz
Absent Blue
Posted 9:35 AM 10/6/08
I thought OSX 10.5 could already handle 16TB of RAM, it's supposed to be full-on 64-bit from what I had heard. I've seen 64-bit apps running under it already... maybe it just wasn't true 64-bit? I dunno...
Can't wait for it though, I wonder if I'll be able to tell a difference. 10.5 has treated me pretty nicely so far so I'm not complaining.
Absent Blue
Nintenboy01
Posted 9:34 AM 10/6/08
Just one year eh? Should I even bother upgrading from Tiger to Leopard at all?
Nintenboy01
ltcmurray
Posted 10:25 AM 10/6/08
meh
I much prefer By-Tor and the Snow Dog
ltcmurray
kylo4
Posted 10:23 AM 10/6/08
I'll be skipping this and getting 10.7 when that comes out, my Macbook should be able to hand that when it's released. There's just not enough to warrant a purchase for this, especially so soon after Leopard.
kylo4
Grodesh
Posted 10:10 AM 10/6/08
Guys, it's not because it's all under the hood that it is not worth anything. In fact, it's great that they're doing this. Things like improving multicore and gpu performances are not trivial and are probably worth more than visual changes.
Grodesh
thechansen
Posted 10:00 AM 10/6/08
@Kaiser-Machead is in your Macbook Pro!: It runs leopard *AWESOME* (to the max, considering it's age). It's mostly a server at this point. I can't get rid of it, it was my first... But I wouldn't be opposed to [sonnettech.com]
I've had a fleet of Macs: Dual 867 g4, 1ghz G4 powerbook, 15" 800 mhz iMac, Santa Rosa macbook, and 20" 1st gen intel iMac. I'm down to three but I would have held on to the powerbook and iMac G4 if i could.
thechansen
oddgit
Posted 9:59 AM 10/6/08
Now all Apple need to do is make their 3d drivers and openGL support not suck. God forbid Modo or Maya run at windows speed on my MacBook Pro when it is booted to OS X.
oddgit
sergio_e
Posted 9:59 AM 10/6/08
right on time for my Mac Pro purchase. I figured the mac mini and I will part ways when I graduate next year. might as well make it a Snow Leopard Mac Pro.
sergio_e
stwf
Posted 9:57 AM 10/6/08
Someone finally admits that features and speed/stability are contrary. The only real way to get more secure is to let teh code mature and test,test,test...
Of course the cynical among us would say that Apple is officially pausing the Mac so they can dedicate all of their staff to iPhone development.
stwf
dagamer34
Posted 10:40 AM 10/6/08
Will they finally ditch Carbon as a API and move iTunes to Cocoa? God, let's hope so.
dagamer34
daftrok
Posted 10:33 AM 10/6/08
It better be free.
daftrok
regexp
Posted 10:27 AM 10/6/08
640GB of ram should be enough for anybody.
regexp
DeadWriter
Posted 11:18 AM 10/6/08
@Metkis: The proof that I am nearly a Neo-Luddite, I had to look up MGS4.
Rejected OS names:
Ketamine Kodkod,
Barbiturate Bobcat,
Ecstasy Jaguarundi,
and Weed Wildcat
DeadWriter
Metkis
Posted 11:03 AM 10/6/08
@DeadWriter: Opium Ocelot? Isn't that a MGS4 character? :P Kidding.
Metkis
DeadWriter
Posted 10:59 AM 10/6/08
Following Snow Leopard will be:
Crack Cougar,
Meth Margay,
Opium Ocelot,
OxyContin Oncilla,
Shroom Serval,
and LSD Lion.
DeadWriter
CTJoyce
Posted 11:44 AM 10/6/08
So basically they took everything they should have done for 10.5 made a service pack, and are going to charge $129 for it? Bravo mac, your proving everyday how much "better" your are than Windows.
CTJoyce
rudeadly
Posted 11:42 AM 10/6/08
meth margay, opium ocelot and LSD lion are all fucking awesome.
rudeadly
shenanigans61
Posted 11:36 AM 10/6/08
16TB of....WHAT?! SHIT!
shenanigans61
rcorrino
Posted 12:13 PM 10/6/08
@CTJoyce
I'm a mac "fanboy" though and through but damn!!! I wholeheartedly agree with you on this.
Apple at least better have an "upgrade path" for people who bought Leopard......
rcorrino
mmeister
Posted 12:38 PM 10/6/08
@CTJoyce: There is no mention of pricing, so it's premature to attack them on charging $129 when no one knows if that is the case. It could be a low cost upgrade ($29.95) or even a free upgrade (for Intel users).
Apple has always made a value case when charging $129 for the upgrades. If they decide to go that route, I'm sure they will make a similar case.
My gut is telling me that it may be free or fairly inexpensive ($10-$20) as they push towards Intel-only.
mmeister
x23
Posted 1:02 PM 10/6/08
@CTJoyce: you should submit a link to the story you read about the pricing of Snow Leopard.
cause i'd like to read it. so would a lot of other people i imagine.
oh... you read it in your imagination? my bad... i sort of assumed you read it in real life based on your sanctimonious attitude.
x23
OMG! Ponies!
Posted 1:01 PM 10/6/08
Screw it. I'll just wait until the dumb OS actually ships and have it preinstalled when I get a new MacBook.
Expected purchase date: 4 months after the MacBook refresh ships (I don't buy rev1 gear).
OMG! Ponies!
videoCWK
Posted 2:15 PM 10/6/08
Sounds good. I'll pay a maximum of $50 for it.
videoCWK
boomersooner9133
Posted 2:30 PM 10/6/08
throw in "Classic 2.0" please
boomersooner9133
elephantattack
Posted 3:15 PM 10/6/08
@Nintenboy01:
oooh that's a hard one... I can't imagine life without Leopard. It's pretty dang awesome. I don't know if it will be worth moving to snow leopard if it costs. I am thoroughly happy with the beauty that is Leopard.
If it were me, I'd get Leopard.
elephantattack
skierpage
Posted 3:00 PM 10/6/08
Snow Leopard further extends support for modern hardware with Open Computing Language (OpenCL), which lets any application tap into the vast gigaflops of GPU computing power previously available only to graphics applications. OpenCL is based on the C programming language and has been proposed as an open standard.
Nice bit of PR-speak. AFAICT Apple made up OpenCL, they haven't decided if it stands for "Open Computing Language" or "Open Compute Library", and the passive voice hides the fact that only Apple is doing the proposing and the rest of the world didn't know anything about this until today.
It's unclear how OpenCL compare's with Nvidia's CUDA and AMD's Close To Metal, maybe it's a library interface to a language abstraction of a virtual hardware interface to Vast Gigaflops(TM). Buzzword bingo!
skierpage
TonySmash
Posted 4:15 PM 10/6/08
am i the only one who preferred the simple "rawr?" speech bubble to this new one?
TonySmash
bobdobbs's MBA is gettin nasty with LindsayJoy's MBP
Posted 5:31 PM 10/6/08
@TonySmash: Not the only one. But likely the only one able to reply without shorting their keyboard with drool.
bobdobbs's MBA is gettin nasty with LindsayJoy's MBP
camo_r
Posted 5:26 PM 10/6/08
Is it going to have more drivers for 3rd party hardware, pretty much all i care about.
Optimize all you want, but at least allow me to install regular hardware without jumping through hopes.
Case in point, tried installing an intel wireless N card in my macbook pro, vista sees it and runs, leopard = still clueless.
camo_r
aussie
Posted 8:16 PM 10/6/08
Only 16TB of RAM, if it could do 17TB of RAM I might upgrade from my Apple 128K!
aussie
The Incredible OMG! Ponies!
Posted 9:09 PM 10/6/08
Ordinarily, I'd say that the 16TB of RAM is a typo. But the "theoretical" pretty much disproves that theory. 16TB of RAM and the short time between Leopard and SL* makes me think that Redmond got a mole inside of Cupertino whose mission is to bring down Apple through bad management.
Unless Apple comes out with a laptop with a case made from SDRAM chips, I don't see how the 16TB will become less theoretical and more real in the next year's time.
*SL, meaning Snow Leopard - NOT Second Life. I know this will piss off all 30,000 users of that crap program
The Incredible OMG! Ponies!
Zarian
Posted 11:19 PM 10/6/08
Remember 16 TB is probably what will be the maximum for the next version of the Xserve when it comes out.
Zarian
Kaiser-Machead is in your Macbook Pro!
Posted 2:49 AM 11/6/08
@The Incredible OMG! Ponies!: So you're that PONIES INFINITY guy on Second Life that just walks around blocking people and cursing? I deleted it because of you!
Kaiser-Machead is in your Macbook Pro!
The Turtle
Posted 4:39 AM 11/6/08
Have you ever seen a snow leopard? They have enormous long tails. As a result, way too often the far end of their tail has some poo stains on it.
The Turtle
Tobias104
Posted 10:58 AM 12/6/08
For the people who are wondering why they chose 16TB of RAM, that's the maximum supported by 64-bit.
Tobias104
TheTalkingHead
Posted 1:48 PM 10/6/08
Rawr --- kinda.... Technology today can't fit 16 gbs of ram into a single or multi-package chip anyway.
TheTalkingHead
zebramonkey
Posted 11:45 AM 10/6/08
16 TB will be a little spendie, no?
zebramonkey
oggdogg
Posted 8:55 AM 10/6/08
It must be a lonely day in Apple-free Gizmodo.
oggdogg
iHuman13
Posted 8:49 AM 10/6/08
Now how does one acquire 16 tb of ram?
iHuman13
Chouonsoku
Posted 8:47 AM 10/6/08
You know, for when you need to run 1,000 copies of Photoshop CS3, all rendering lighting effects on a 1,000,000 Megapixel image of the sun.
Chouonsoku