> Which Macs or OSXs are 64 bit? Can't answer that directly.
64-bit introduction has been gradual, having gone hand-in-hand with going-over to the Intel chipset from powerPC. Snow Leopard (10.6, 2009) is the first to proclaim more-or-less complete 64-bit support, plus discontinuing support for powerPC machines, like my daughter's Mac Mini, which I bought for her in 2004. My iMac (2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) came with Leopard pre-installed (10.5, 2009) and I upgraded to Snow Leopard as soon as it was released -- with zero problems (except a minor one with J, which I've documented on our wiki). But my iMac still supports 32-bit apps without fuss. So I baulk at calling it a 64-bit machine. Perhaps "optionally" 64-bit? Or "optionally" 32-bit? Apple have done a good job with making all this invisible to the user, even of 3rd-party apps, rightly judging it's a turn-off for non-nerds. QUOTE from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_10.6#64-bit_architecture 64-bit architecture Mac OS X Tiger added limited support for 64-bit applications on machines with 64-bit processors; Leopard extended the support for 64-bit applications to include applications using most of Mac OS X's libraries and frameworks. In Snow Leopard, most built-in applications have been rebuilt to leverage the 64-bit x86-64 architecture (excluding iTunes, Front Row, Grapher and DVD Player applications).[24] They will run in 32-bit mode on machines with 32-bit processors, and in 64-bit mode on machines with 64-bit processors. UNQUOTE ...the best summary of the situation I've been able to find in haste. BTW Wikipedia (rather than apple.com) seems to be the best summary source for Mac technical gen. Rough'n'ready criterion: if the Mac hardware spec has the word "Intel" in it, it's 64-bit, provided you run it with a 64-bit MacOS and 64-bit software. If it's got "powerPC" in the hardware spec it's 32-bit, period. QUOTE from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh The current Mac product family uses Intel x86-64 processors. Apple introduced an emulator during the transition from PowerPC chips (called Rosetta), much as it did during the transition from Motorola 68000 architecture a decade earlier. All current Mac models ship with at least 2 GB RAM as standard. UNQUOTE Rosetta is still important on Snow Leopard, for people like me who run heritage software, like back-copies of MS Excel 2004. (...Actually I think that's my only app that needs it.) Apple assumes you won't want Rosetta unless you're a dinosaur, so you have to install it explicitly, after many grudging disclaimers. At least it's free. QUOTE from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mac_OS * Mac OS 10 (Cheetah) * Mac OS 10.1 (Puma) * Mac OS 10.2 (Jaguar) * Mac OS 10.3 (Panther) * Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) * Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) * Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) * Mac OS 10.7 (Lion) UNQUOTE Ian On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 3:24 AM, Brian Schott <[email protected]> wrote: > Ian, > > Which Macs or OSXs are 64 bit? > > On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 10:05 PM, Ian Clark <[email protected]> wrote: >>> I guess neither Eric or Chris get a 64-bit mac for testing so that there >>> was no J64. > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
