Can you taste it? No, we suppose you probably can't. While Microsoft has been happy to share Windows 7 with just about anyone with a taste for danger, Apple has followed the traditional route of development with
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, sharing it with developers alone. The good news is that things are starting to coalesce in the run-up to WWDC, with Apple just now informing developers that Snow Leopard's APIs are now frozen, with no more alterations planned before release. That means developers can work on their Snow Leopard-ready applications without much fear of Apple mucking things up with late game OS-level changes, and is a decent milestone towards what should presumably be a summer launch. The latest build also includes Chinese handwriting recognition for Macs with multitouch trackpads, similar to the functionality
included in iPhone Software 2.0, and also finalizes the Grand Central architecture, which lets developers address multiple processing cores without all the know-how and complication usually required.
Update: MacRumors is
also reporting that the new build includes Windows HFS+ drivers with Apple's Boot Camp utility, allowing Windows-on-Mac users to access their Mac OS X HFS+ partitions out of the box.
posted May 11th 2009 1:11PM
No. Grand Central is a technology that automatically breaks down your program into different threads for you, thus making your program maximally efficient on multi-core processors (because parallel programming is difficult and time consuming). OpenCL allows you to utilize graphics cards' processing power for non-graphics-related programs.
As far as I know OpenCL is meant to take advantage of "heterogeneous platforms consisting of CPUs and GPUs", not just GPUs. That's why I asked.
And if you're right about Grand Central, then where are they going to use OpenCL anyway? :P
Grand Central helps you more efficiently use multiple general-purpose CPUs without having to specifically code your app for that.
OpenCL lets you use your GPU (insane dedicated CPU on steroids) as a general-purpose CPU.
@HunterXI
I'm pretty sure that is incorrect. Parallelizing an app designed for single thread use would be very hard one the fly. There are just too many variables when it comes to synchronization and coherency. Most likely it is a set of API's that allow you to parallelize certain common programming design patters without having to worry to much about thread handling. The problem is that Apple is too tight lipped about this stuff so no one can be sure what it does yet. Windows currently has the Concurrency Runtime (ConcRT) for native code and Concurrency and Coordination Runtime for .Net which you can find videos and documents on.
Reading this is like reading someone on a car forum saying that the 2010 Ford Focus will do 0-60 in 1 second and get 200mpg. No, it really won't, and no, Grand Central won't do all that, and yes those claims are about equally ridiculous.
Automatic parallelization (that's not completely worthless) is nigh-on impossible. For anything but embarassingly parallelizable problems, it takes us months of research and experimentation to find a parallel equivalent of most tricky algorithms. And ultimately you can't get around Rice's theorem. Likewise, you can't treat a GPU like a CPU, no matter how you dress it up. Well you can, but performance will suck. There's all the same parallelization problems as you get with multi-core, and about an order of magnitude more. Different problem decomposition levels, synchronization limitations, memory access patterns, divergent branching, etc...
Damn, everyone beat me too it. :D
im way excited for this!
Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard
COMING THIS SUMMER TO A BLOG NEAR YOU.
You mean completely biased and boring facts?
mac mac mac useless mac
windows 7 is here
start getting jealous since the bitch has chosen windows 7 as his new lover xD
Aye-aye, slappy
EPIC EXCITED for Snow Leopard :D
Two awesome operating systems on the way. Microsoft have got Windows just right with 7 and Apple are finally focusing on underlying tech rather than silly features like stacks :D
An Apple Developer License is only $499 a year and allows a single hardware purchase where you get at least $500 in discounts on (when purchasing a 17" MBP at least). So if you have the cash for a top of the line MBP, you actually save a few bucks by buying the ADC license and using it to buy the MBP.
Heck, even on regular macbooks the ADC cut a hefty amount off. Like $1100 for a base aluminum macbook. So, with the purchase of a low end machine, it doesn't cost that much to enter the "developer" forum. It's even better when your work pays for it.
Hey, can i interest you in working for us for free? all it takes is for you to buy a 2700$+ laptop on which we make over 1000$ profit and some 500 bucks software we should actually give you for free!
"While Microsoft has been happy to share Windows 7 with just about anyone with a taste for danger"
What danger? Unlike Apple's software MS has been putting out some pretty dang solid betas. Watch. Snow Leopard will go to 10.6.1 within 3 weeks of release. Because that is how Apple Rolls: Beta test on paying customers.
They'd have to be some pretty amazing programmers to fix all these apparent bugs during a 3-week beta test.
Snow Leopard is available to developers so they can get work done before launch. Windows 7 is available to users because Microsoft needs the PR after the Vista debacle. The OS X Public Beta in 2000 was all about winning mind share.
Not that I'm saying Windows 7 is bad, mind you. I'm still using XP at home.
I'm hoping it will include the rumored Marble GUI.
The angle that everyone has missed so far is Apple certified HFS+ drivers for windows. If only they would create a good FOSS/Linux HFS+ driver, it could become the common FS for those interested in drive portability.
Today, anyone who would like to have a journaled external drive that they can move between 2 different (or more) OSes is pretty much out of luck. There is no good solution. There are many sub-optimal solutions, but not something you want to bet your photo library on.
I doubt it. HFS+ is a pretty crappy filesystem, and is on its way out, as evidenced by ZFS.
Hi all, I am about to purchase a new Macbook Pro and it will obviously have 10.5 Leopard on it. What I wanted to know is do you all think that Apple will give a free upgrade to people who had recently purchased a Mac, since it appears that 10.6 Snow Leopard will probably be released at or around the WWDC this year. And if not, how much do you think that the upgrade will cost? Thanks for any feedback!
there is a time period. I think it is like 30 or 60 days.
$129 for retail
$69 for academic
Apple fanbois, how are you guys enjoying your little mac talk??? Have you guys noticed there ain't any windows fans trolling around. Thats how it should be when windows fans talk about their Os, No trolls, fanbois and flames!!!
If there are no trolls in this thread, then what are you?
Yeah, no Windoze fanbois trolling here...except for you.
Loser.
I just love how anyone who calls Microsoft out for enforcing a tax on essentially every computer sold to the human species without an Apple logo on it, or who talks with anything other than disdain about one of the only remnants of the free market in the computer industry, is automatically ridiculed for not toeing the party line. (remainder of rant voluntarily withheld)
Show Computer desktop is a function of Expose. Assign it to a hotcorner. There are several modes of screenshot taking already in OS X. search it.