No 64-bit kernel for pre-2008 systems

[walshlink]

YIKES!

"Additionally, the notes show hardware support for Snow Leopard's 64-bit kernel to remain limited to Macs introduced during the first half of the year, namely the early 2008 Mac Pro, early 2008 iMacs, and early 2008 MacBook Pro."

Very interesting!

 

[Cave Man]

Did you not see this in the very next sentence:

Apple will extend 64-bit kernel support to additional Macs as Snow Leopard development progresses.

I suspect we'll get the 64-bit kernel for all Santa Rosa-based MB, MBP and iMacs.

 

[Riemann Zeta]

I believe that those are the test machines recommended for the beta builds. Doubtless the final 10.6 version will support all i64 machines (Core2), but that will suck for anyone who has a first-gen i32 Mac, like the first MBP, or any kind of PPC machine, as they will be stuck on 10.5.

 

[Cave Man]

Doubtless the final 10.6 version will support all i64 machines (Core2),

Not all Core 2 Duo Macs have 64-bit memory controllers (e.g., Calistoga).

 

[QuantumLo0p]

I wonder if Snow Leopard will break EFI-X.

 

[Riemann Zeta]

Not all Core 2 Duo Macs have 64-bit memory controllers (e.g., Calistoga).

I thought that you only needed a 64bit memory controller if you wanted to access/address >4GB of RAM. As long as you have an i64 CPU, you should still be able to run i64 instructions--of course, it is questionable how useful this will be on a system with, say, 2GB of RAM (might actually slow things down to have to run 10.6's all-64bit kernel).