10.6 64-bit kernel and HFS+ interaction?

[MShock]

Question: If the kernel for 10.6 is full 64-bit, then to take advantage of the benefits, would not the filesystem also need to be able to address 64-bit block sizes?

Question: Since HFS+ is currently 32-bit, would it not need to be substantially rewritten to work with the 10.6 kernel?

Final Question: With additional work to HFS+ to make it address 64-bit block length, wouldn't it be easier to just import a whole new filesystem (for example - ZFS)?

 

[MisterMe]

First off, accessing the hard drive is not a kernel function, it is an I/O function. Second off, 64-bit custom, vertical market, and commercial applications have been available on MacOS X for years and have run just fine on HFS+. What Snow Leopard is doing is bringing 64-bitness to the GUI.

 

[sidewinder]

What Snow Leopard is doing is bringing 64-bitness to the GUI.

That's not correct. Snow Leopard makes the whole OS 64-bit.

S-

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Question: If the kernel for 10.6 is full 64-bit, then to take advantage of the benefits, would not the filesystem also need to be able to address 64-bit block sizes?

Question: Since HFS+ is currently 32-bit, would it not need to be substantially rewritten to work with the 10.6 kernel?

Final Question: With additional work to HFS+ to make it address 64-bit block length, wouldn't it be easier to just import a whole new filesystem (for example - ZFS)?

Actually, no. As MisterMe said, the kernel and I/O operations don't much care about each other's bitness. Furthermore, HFS+ is already 64-bit aware - it has to be, so it can deal with hard drives bigger than 4GB.