It's nice to see Apple taking the steps to foster 64-bit development. I'm excited about the changes Tiger will bring to the world of Macintosh computing and even more excited about the prospects of true 64-bit computing as these applications are developed.

2005 will be remembered as the Year of the Tiger.

Tiger will not only bring about 64 bit Applications, it is going to bring about the long awaited resurgence of the Mac platform.

I expect to see exciting ground-breaking hardware and software applications launched in 2005 and 2006, from Apple and third party vendors.

64 bit apps are a good thing, but this isn't going to change anything for 99% of Apple's market, yet. Someday, but not yet.

64 bit apps in Tiger are command line only, no GUI, so we won't see photoshop, FCP, or anything else any of us use yet. This is for database and computational stuff only for now. They did show how to make a GUI app (which is 32 bit) control a 64 bit command line app, but that still isn't for stuff normal people use.

It's coming, but not yet to us.

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Jon Stanard wrote:
64 bit apps are a good thing, but this isn't going to change anything for 99% of Apple's market, yet. Someday, but not yet.

64 bit apps in Tiger are command line only, no GUI, so we won't see photoshop, FCP, or anything else any of us use yet. This is for database and computational stuff only for now. They did show how to make a GUI app (which is 32 bit) control a 64 bit command line app, but that still isn't for stuff normal people use.

It's coming, but not yet to us.

Let's not underestimate the value of Macintosh market penetration in the scientific, academic and growing cluster-computer markets. These sales are forming the backbone for growth in markets once thought long-lost for the Mac maker. The revenue from these sales helps to fund R&D and helps attract customers who might otherwise have looked to other enterprises to meet their demanding technology needs.

Many of us fail to appreciate the impact of iPods, iTunes, iTMS, QuickTime, and Tiger.

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Mace wrote:
Many of us fail to appreciate the impact of iPods, iTunes, iTMS, QuickTime, and Tiger.

Right. Those products boost margins and yields per customer. Tiger will add nicely to earnings because Apple writes down development costs as quickly as possible and the remaining capitalized costs costs will be recouped quickly from product sales.

All I was trying to point out is that 64 bit doesn't matter to most of us, even though it is important for the platform. Many people will read this, and think 64 bit Photoshop and FCP and other apps as well, but it does not.

64 bits is mostly a sales gimmick to lure the average consumer.

Scientists who need 16 exabytes already know the benefits, and have quite probably been working with 64 bit processors for the past 5 or 6 years.

More efficient and speedy architecture is what I look forward to. Pentium-M (dothan), athlon-64's with on-chip memory controllers, dual core G6's. Those are what I want. I don't have the money to have 16 exabytes of memory.

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Anonymous wrote:
64 bits is mostly a sales gimmick to lure the average consumer.

Scientists who need 16 exabytes already know the benefits, and have quite probably been working with 64 bit processors for the past 5 or 6 years.

More efficient and speedy architecture is what I look forward to. Pentium-M (dothan), athlon-64's with on-chip memory controllers, dual core G6's. Those are what I want. I don't have the money to have 16 exabytes of memory.

Few individuals practically speaking need or will pay for 16 exabytes of capacity and I think there's lots of room in the 64-bit world to accomodate the needs of users for real performance increases from 64-bit processing without a worry about memory limitations or theoretical capacity.

The fact remains Apple's move to 64-bit chips and the migration of OS X to a 64-bit OS provides the company with a competitive advantage. It will take Micorosoft years to release a 64-bit OS that will accomodate many of the features currently available in the 32-bit version of XP.

That is amazing when you consider how other areas have advanced so fast in terms of technology.

While I don't see a rash of apps to take advantage of the 64 bit platform I do believe that there are going to be apps in the near future that will have parts to goo 64 bits, it it is available.

The move to a dual platform allows Apple to shift all computer lines to 64 bits over the next 12 - 18 months. Because of the need to take care of their 32 bit customers for x number of years the faster they move to total 64 bits the better of they will be 5 to 10 yeas after the total shift. That should be the time that even the low end will come with "only" 2 gigs of memory.