[ebuddy]

A better OS maybe, but why so much talk about; "when Panther comes out, then run benchmarks, etc..." What is it about Panther that will make the computer so much faster? I can understand the Finder enhancements etc...,but what else is engineered here that will boost speeds?

[giantmike]

Every CPU has it's own prefered way of running instructions. Some instructions it runs faster than other, and some sets of instructions it runs faster in one order than another. By optimizing the code for the G5 (using more of the instructions it likes, in the correct order), large speed improvements can be seen (take a look at the new Cinebench test for example: optimized code was 25% faster than unoptimized).

If Apple could make the entire operating system run 25% faster, everything you run should be much faster (maybe not 25%).

Software optimizations can go a long way to making a machine run faster.

[stian]

When I upgraded to Jaguar om my Cube everything ran much quicker. Have no idea why, but it sure did.

Hope the same will happen on my new G5 when I install Panther, although it runs just fine now.

[cambro]

Writing a program is like conneting two points with a pencil.

There are all sorts of ways you can get the job done. You can draw a sweeping arc, a meandering maze, or a zig-zag lightning bolt. But there is only one fastest, most efficient way to connect those two points: a straight line.

Apple is making the line straighter at many system levels with each revision, and you are reaping the benefits of that efficiency in the form of speed.

[Ron Goodman]

The other assumption is that Panther will have additional support for the G5's 64 bit architecture, which would make the G5 run faster. I'm not sure how much more 64 bit support it will have, beyond the ability to use more RAM, already present in 10.2.7.

[D'Espice]

The ability to run 64-bit software is not going to make it any faster. What's important are CPU specific optimizations of machine code. Like giantmike already said, every CPU has its preferred way of running instructions, like for example instruction X can be incredibly slow on a G4 whereas it's incredibly fast on a G5 due to enhancements or debugging.

And if all the software out there avoids that instruction X because it was damn slow on the G4, bringing it back is going to speed up things.

[sodamnregistered2]

So will Panther load a CPU specific kernel like Linux? Linux has kernels for Athlons, K6, Pentium and SMP...

Will there be a G3/G4 and G5 kernel?

[D'Espice]

I guess you can say that, yeah. However Panther is not going to have a special G5 kernel methinks. It's probably just going to be a G5-optimized kernel that'll also do well on G4 microprocessors.

Also, it's not only the Kernel but all other binary files - they're probably going to be G5 optimized.

[The Godfather]

Perhaps memory management. I feel like improvements in that area would speed up Jaguar.

[Catfish_Man]

Originally posted by ebuddy:
A better OS maybe, but why so much talk about; "when Panther comes out, then run benchmarks, etc..." What is it about Panther that will make the computer so much faster? I can understand the Finder enhancements etc...,but what else is engineered here that will boost speeds?

New compiler: Generates programs that run faster on any processor, and specifically run faster on G5s (for example, one instruction that was useful for high performance on the G4 is bad on the G5)

More optimized code: They've had longer to find slow places and fix them up. Also, they have better tools for finding the slow places now.

New features: There's something called "2d on quartz extreme" (not the same as normal quartz extreme) that somehow allows the graphics card to speed up some drawing. I've found next to no info on it though.

Improved programming languages: the language used for Cocoa programming (Objective-C) now can be set to make things faster based on the assumption that you aren't going to send messages to nothing (technically this is one of those compiler improvements I mentioned).



Basically (and I say this from personal experience) Panther is a lot faster than Jag.