[Peter753]

When they first announced the core due iMac I was so excited I didn't really take any notice of it, but upon reading about Intel's Core Duo on Wikipedia I noticed that it is indeed a 32 bit processor. To me its more supprising than disappointing as it benches far better than than the current 64 bit G5s, but it seems like a step backwards in a way, especailly after then made such a big deal out of the switch to the 64 bit G5. Now I'm aware that almost all of Intel's current hardware is 32 bit and that their hardware benches with the best of them, but I would think they'd plan on going 64 bit soon as well. I'm not sure how far ahead on the roadmap that is, perhaps someone here can provide some insight, but I was wondering too if that switch would intale a whole new wave of optimization to take advantage of that, or if the current universal binaries are coded with that in mind. Will any of the work that went into G5 64 bit optimization pay off once again when that switch it made?

I'm not looking to bitch and moan about the bit switch to Intel, in fact I'm so phsyched that I've already ordered a maxed out 20". I just thought it was interesting. Do you all think the powermac intels will be 64 bit? And again if so what would that imply as far as optimization and the current universal binaries?

And one more thing...

Because its 32 bit, does that mean that the current Core duo architecture is limited to 2 Gigs of ram? This wikipedia article seems to indicated that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_Duo
Not that it's a big deal for most consumers, but that's a ceiling that if not now then very soon could really become cripling. I hadn't thought about it before but I gues that is why the G5 iMac maxed out at 2.5 gigs of ram while the new one maxes out at 2 gigs. The current G5's maxing out at 16 gigs of ram I can only assume that the Intel powermacs will be 64 bit and do at least that too.

[harrisjamieh]

The Core Duo supports 4 gig of RAM, though im not sure the iMac does... even if they come out with 2 gig SODIMMS, i dont know if the iMac will be able to use them. I might be wrong though.

[Peter753]

Mmm mmm okay yeah 2^32 is 4,294,967,296 which is 4 gigs, I was mistaken. All the same though I would think the next powermacs would have to support far more than that.

[harrisjamieh]

... and the probably will, hence the reason they didnt introduce intel powermacs at macworld...

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Peter753

When they first announced the core due iMac I was so excited I didn't really take any notice of it, but upon reading about Intel's Core Duo on Wikipedia I noticed that it is indeed a 32 bit processor. To me its more supprising than disappointing as it benches far better than than the current 64 bit G5s, but it seems like a step backwards in a way, especailly after then made such a big deal out of the switch to the 64 bit G5. Now I'm aware that almost all of Intel's current hardware is 32 bit and that their hardware benches with the best of them, but I would think they'd plan on going 64 bit soon as well. I'm not sure how far ahead on the roadmap that is, perhaps someone here can provide some insight, but I was wondering too if that switch would intale a whole new wave of optimization to take advantage of that, or if the current universal binaries are coded with that in mind. Will any of the work that went into G5 64 bit optimization pay off once again when that switch it made?

I'm not looking to bitch and moan about the bit switch to Intel, in fact I'm so phsyched that I've already ordered a maxed out 20". I just thought it was interesting. Do you all think the powermac intels will be 64 bit? And again if so what would that imply as far as optimization and the current universal binaries?

And one more thing...

Because its 32 bit, does that mean that the current Core duo architecture is limited to 2 Gigs of ram? This wikipedia article seems to indicated that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_Duo
Not that it's a big deal for most consumers, but that's a ceiling that if not now then very soon could really become cripling. I hadn't thought about it before but I gues that is why the G5 iMac maxed out at 2.5 gigs of ram while the new one maxes out at 2 gigs. The current G5's maxing out at 16 gigs of ram I can only assume that the Intel powermacs will be 64 bit and do at least that too.

Unless you're using >4GB RAM, 64-bit very rarely matters. Look around at the piles and piles of benchmarks: 5-10% gain in most apps, with a few seeing no gain and even fewer seeing huge gains. Intel will have new low-power 64-bit chips out in the second half of this year.
I still thing 64-bit is a lot of hype. Some pros and power users need the >4GB RAM so it's great they can get it, but it's useless for the majority of consumers and confuses them (think of the bit myth like the Mhz myth).

Much of the optimization work that went into the G5 wasn't 64-bit specific. Intel's compilers support 64-bit code, so when developers use them they'll get all the 64-bit optimizations that Intel has come up with. I think Apple will wait for low-power 64-bit chips from Intel (skipping Sossaman altogether) before they switch the pro desktop Macs, because going from 16GB max to 4GB max would be a step backward for the pros.

Both Core Duo compatible chipsets, 945GT for desktops and 945PM for laptops, support 4GB RAM. You just have to wait for 2GB DDR2-5300 SO-DIMMs to hit the market, which I predict will happen before the second half of the year.

[mduell]

Double post, cursed forum software.