What I was more interested in was the true 64 Bit capability that was promised after the last exercise proved a little lacking. While I was researching this area, I was finding it increasingly difficult to find any verification of what extra 64 Bitness Apple had delivered. More and more I was finding that Tiger is still technically a 32-bit operating system with a 32-bit kernel, with added extensions to support a 64 Bit address space.. Hold On, isn’t that what Panther was. Surely there was some mistake. That explains why there isn’t such a transitionary shift with the new O.S, as is the case with XP x64, because basically they haven’t shifted anywhere. Mind you the immediate benefit for the 64 Bit landscape has always been in the area of memory addressing, as the more difficult task of porting Software over to native 64 Bit registers will still take some considerable time, however our fruit loving friends are again being less than up front with the true 64 Bit capability of the O.S, and in short, are generating nothing but hyperbole for the less knowledgeable and gullible. Sigh..

Microsoft’s official release of XP x64 was a very laid back affair, you wouldn’t even know it had been released if you logged onto the Company’s main page, a stark and glaring difference to the Circus that Apple created leading up to Tigers launch. Basically there was little or no fanfare, you cannot buy the OS commercially, as it is only available to OEM manufacturers, but they do offer an upgrade to those brave enough to hop on board. The transition to x64 is far more dramatic than Tiger, due to it being a true 64 Bit O.S, all hardware drivers need to be re-written to be compatible with the extended registers. Now although a lot of 32 Bit Software will still run fine under the new O.S, there is no benefit what so ever unless the software is capable of taking advantage of at least the added memory addressing, and/or at a higher level also the 64 Bit registers. I think Microsoft wisely held off the fanfare until there is at least some more tangible applications to crow about.

Last month I hinted at the true state of play in regards to 64 Bit capable Audio Applications, and how thin on the ground they are at the moment. Nothing much has changed. Here's the low down, Steinberg’s SX3.0/Nuendo 3.0 allows extended memory addressing, but it has been stated that it will not be ported to Native 64 Bit registers for the foreseeable future. Sonar has a Native 64 Bit version in a very early Public Beta, and Logic, DP and Protools have not announced anything in the way of 64 Bit support at either the addressing or register level. Throw that in with the issues I reported last month, and am still having with actually getting the syncro license to initialize correctly, and the slow uptake of 64 Bit Drivers for Audio Hardware, and I’d suggest that it still a fair way off before we have a tangible 64 Bit Audio environment.
However, now with both sides of the fence having officially announced and released their own variations of a 64 Bit OS, we will definitely see an increased effort in regards to Native 64bit Applications and Hardware support, so although its been a slow train coming, we should now be starting to pick up speed.

I’ll cover the ensuing Dual Core battle field next month, hopefully in the mean time Apple/IBM can actually get off their butts and fast track a Dual Core solution for the faithful, instead of focusing on Widgets and IPods.. :-)

Till Next Time,

Peace :-)