8gb now possible in the new 15" Unibody. Firmware update for 2008 unibody?

[whitedragon101]

I have just watched the WWDC 09 presentation and the best change for me is the 8gb of RAM. As the underlying hardware is basically the same do you think there will be a firmware release to allow the late 08 15" unibody to use 8gb?



ps
Someone said Snow Leopard might fix this but these new 8gb unibody pro's are using Leopard and they work, which gives me the inkling that its more firmware based.

 

[Dwalls90]

It shouldn't be limited by hardware itself - AFAIK it hasn't changed. They may be using a different "Logic"-board. My guess would be that maybe space is tighter in the "classic" unibody MBP's, as 4Gb chips are larger than 2Gb chips.

And when in the past has Apple "unlocked" hardware features such as ability to use more memory in a firmware update?

 

[rogersmj]

My guess would be that maybe space is tighter in the "classic" unibody MBP's, as 4Gb chips are larger than 2Gb chips.

Haha, no that's not the case. 4GB chips physically fit into the same space as 2GB chips. It's all DDR3, it's all specced to fit in the same spaces.

There's been a lot of talk about this, but what it comes down to is that no one knows for sure if the older uMBPs will work with 8GB when Snow Leopard comes out. Maybe an engineer or someone that has a more current understanding of chipsets and memory controllers can chime in...I'm really out of date on this stuff.

 

[gorjan]

And when in the past has Apple "unlocked" hardware features such as ability to use more memory in a firmware update?

They unlocked wireless N on some Mac a couple of years ago, for a small fee of course.

 

[virtuatony]

I hope so, but won't hold my breath.

I don't like the RAM limit.

I'm installing snow leopard 10a380 on my macbook pro now but don't have any place to get 2x 4GB of ddr3 so-dimm to try it out.