“It’s been nearly a year since Apple rolled out its groundbreaking new personal computer, the G5. A 64-bit platform, the G5 uses one or two of IBM’s PowerPC 970 chips, and adds more than just faster chips to the mix. In this article, we’ll take a look at what 64-bit computing means for Mac video editors and content creators, how it works, and see what software is taking advantage of this new capability,” Charlie White writes for Digital Media Online.
“What does the term ’64 bit’ mean, anyway? Think of the data flowing through your computer’s components as cars on a highway. The 32-bit highway is half the width of 64-bit, so a 64-bit highway can accommodate twice as many cars going the same speed. But that only tells part of the story. What really makes the difference in computing is the number of possible combinations of that data, and there are far more than double possible with this new wider pathway. When you’re talking about 32 bits, that translates into 4GB of data that can be handled at once, or more than 4.29 billion combinations. Move up to 64-bit processing, and then the number of combinations is so high it’s hardly comprehensible — 16 exabytes, or 16 quintillion (that’s a 16 with 18 zeros) possible combinations of data. That’s the theoretical limit of RAM that’s possible with 64-bit computing. Sounds crazy, but then 4GB sounded like an astronomical number when 32-bit computing was coming into its own at the beginning of the 1990s,” White writes.
Full article here.
Sputnik, you do realize that IT stands for “ignorant tool”, right? The “real IT world” is full of MS shills who push inferior MS technology because their livelihoods depend on it, not because it’s best for their company. Why am I telling you this? With your warped sense of reality, you must be one of them.
Microsoft is getting worried. There are TV commercials almost daily that tells how good the m$ products are.
They need Super Computer stuff badly.
Hopefully they publish it because it will be interesting to see how a “microsoft super computer” calculates wrong everything and proves that (george bush has IQ over 200) earth is flat
Mooo
Longhorn BBQ at my place!
you guys are funny
Longhorn is going to be released soon and that is a system deigned for the future.
You mean more like yesterday’s past! All the technologies that Microsoft has been touting in Longhorn has been done before;
WinFS – database-like filesystem ala BFS
Avalon/XAML – Gecko/XUL
Aero – QuartzExtreme, Project Looking Glass
.NET – Cocoa, Java, Perl, etc…
…more
Microsoft is only reinventing the wheel. They’re a maintenance company, not an innovation company. They embrace other ideas and extend it for their own purposes. Of course the morons that drink the MS flavored koolaid will buy into the marketing hoopla and other lame propaganda and claim that Microsoft has inventing everythingl and “if it wasn’t for Microsoft [place mythical claim here] bla, bla, bla…!
Sputnik’s post was hilarious! He’s got a strange sense of humour, but sometimes he can really put together the whoppers.
Heading a bit off topic again, did anyone else ever notice that the media treats Bill Gates like a visionary, yet none of his visions seem to ever come true? They’ll interview him at a meeting and he’ll say stuff like, “In 5 years, there will be no more personal computers. Everyone will have a hat with a computer built in.” Yet, 5 years down the line, he’s completely wrong. No one ever calls him on this kind of crap.
He does the same thing in his OS. A few years back, he was saying that the bootup time of Mac OS was too slow still, and that he expected Windows to boot up instantly, like your television set, rather than going through bootup times. He also made a bunch of other half-assed predictions around the same time about what was going to happen in the next versions of Windows. This guy has never been any kind of technical visionary, and yet people still listen to him.
And while I’m ranting, did you ever notice that Cnet.com spends like 50% of all their stories covering Longhorn? This is a possible future product (currently vaporware) that will not be out for like 3 more years minimum, yet cnet.com acts like it is around the corner. The only thing I can think is that MS owns cnet and uses it to keep everyones attention on Longhorn.
Whew! </rant>
Hey Sputnik: That dual Opteron looks pretty good. It should, for 5 grand. And it even comes with a floppy drive – how high-tech can ya get?
But seriously, it’s shipped with Windows XP Pro, not even half as much of a 64-bit OS as Panther (and Tiger next month). But the big thing is…. if you leave this Windows machine online overnight it’ll be riddled with viruses and adware and spyware by sunrise.
And Longhorn? It’s designed for the future all right, since it won’t be shipping til late 2006, if then. I’ll give em another year to get the serious bugs worked out of it, but I’ll betcha my G5 that it’s still gonna VERY vulnerable to viruses, adware and spyware. It’s Microsoft’s nature.
RE first post morons
the ability to say “first post” equates with the complete lack of life these people have that demonstrate their sole mechanism for excitement is to continuously hit refresh on their browser until a new article is posted waiting for that elusive chance to get a first post.
Really people… it is not something I would brag about.
Jimbo von Winskinheimer,
Billy Gates only had one vision. He wanted to be filthy rich. He saw his vision come to fruition big time.
You owe him an apology.
Hey Jimbo,
Bill Gates said the other day that the floppy drive was dead. Oh, sorry, that was not a vision, that was just reality. Now, did someone else have that vision a few years ago?
Bill Gates has been saying for the last 2 years that security is what his company is super-duper laser-focused on (how many MS buzzwords and initiatives can you cite?) – and where are we today? Oh, yes, 150 CEOs just said that this lack of security is costing them billions. Ah, that’s vision!!!
People don’t really listen to him for vision. They humor him to avoid being the target of his monopoly.
Capitalism.
Same reason they haven’t found a cure for AIDS. You should listen to Chris Rock more–you’d know this shit.
Finland, I think everyone who visits this site knows your distaste for our illustrious President. You can drop the cat calls its getting to be as bad as the 1st posters and the people that complain about the 1st posters. You are due your opinion but dont push it on us. Just realize that he is a human being just like you and makes mistakes. He has his opinions and he has a large support group of powerful people behind him. Kerry is a man without real opinions and the country is better off without him in control.
one guy in finland,
Why don’t you worry about your own country? No probs there huh? You’re like the windows posters who are “experts” on the mac.
‘Longhorn’�soon.
No, those words really don’t make sense in the same sentence, unless accompanied by ‘not expected anytime’.
Check this out:
http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/33995.html
This Apple partnership with Oracle further adds to Apple’s growing enterprise credibility. IT department credibility for Apple will encourage Mac purchases for the desktop. This is great!
Mac User
For all those critics of 1st Posters:
Next post — nah na-na-na naah!
Longhorn will be released before 2006 — I’d put money on it. Only they should call it Midhorn or Halfhorn ‘coz it’ll be XP+ by the time they get a half-stable, releasable version.
Wonder if Apple + Oracle’s roadshow has implications for the next iMac — perhaps a more enterprise-targeted spec list and form factor?
I recently learned that Avid/Digidesign is offering custom PCs to motion picture studios and encouraging them to switch to the PC versions of their software because of Apple’s competition in their market (they bought EMagic and have developed Final Cut Pro). Some studios are considering switching to an all-PC workflow (and some small ones already have) in part because Final Cut HD is significantly slower than Avid HD. In addition, Final Cut HD will not work with Avid’s shared network drives, and no such custom hardware exists yet for Final Cut HD. Avid/Digidesign is upping the ante. Soon we may see Mac support for Avid and ProTools where their PC support was a few years ago—lagging far behind. All of this causes me some concern becuase, while Apple may gain a few low-end users in the video and audio markets, they may actually be losing high-end users.
Concerned Observer- you should be concerned. The high-end DP G5s are terrible for pro audio because the power supply hardware bug that introduces chirping into high end audio systems (MOTU, ProTools, ETC). Really shameful .
http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?50@111.eLraan90nOH.1@.688f76ee
Look, let’s face the facts, as much as I would like to see an Apple dominated world, it is never going to happen. No matter how you bling it out, Windows will always be the Honda Civic of the computer industry while Mac remains a Ferrari. End of discussion. MS users don’t need (may want) but do not need a 5.8 liter, V12, 515hp machine to get around the internet. The are happy with thier Accords and blinged out Civics. For that matter, why argue what is the best selling car when we Mac users don’t even want to drive the best selling car or computer. I say, apples and oranges. I am fine with my BMW 3 series not being the hottest selling car on the road. I don’t even need to race the bliged out Civic. He is the one that is trying to look like me and I know what I am driving.
mac user 47
I will do that when USA stays in its territory and stops terrorising others.
Finland is high tech country where education is almost free, everybody has the right to vote, air is clean, water is clean, everybody can read and write, everybody speaks other languages.
From Finland comes mobile telephone technology, Linux, MySQL, IRC, SMS and so on. To name few.
We are older democracy than USA and we actually have original freedom and know what that is.
Everyman’s right in brief
Everyone may:
walk, ski or cycle freely in the countryside, except in gardens, in the immediate vicinity of people�s homes, and in fields and plantations which could easily be damaged
stay or set up camp temporarily in the countryside, a reasonable distance from homes
pick wild berries, mushrooms and flowers, as long as they are not protected species
fish with a rod and line
row, sail or use a motorboat on waterways, with certain restrictions;� swim or wash in inland waters and the sea
walk, ski and fish on frozen lakes, rivers and the sea
You may not:
disturb other people or damage property
disturb breeding birds, or their nests or young
disturb reindeer or game animals
cut down or damage living trees, or collect wood, moss or lichen on other people�s property
light open fires on other people�s property, except in an emergency
disturb the privacy of people�s homes, by camping too near them, or making too much noise, for example
leave litter
drive motor vehicles off road without the landowner�s permission
fish or hunt without the relevant permits
Freedom=Responsibility