“A critical component of not only Mac OS X 10.5 ‘Leopard,’ but also the Cocoa/Carbon for Windows package* will be new code co-developed with Intel that helps break up tasks into multiple threads — therefore achieving considerably better efficiency on the next generation of multi-core Intel processors. The results we’ve seen on systems with up to 16 cores of Intel’s next-generation ‘Conroe’ desktop CPU architecture were amazing….with 10.4.6 as-is, the first core bears the vast majority of the workload particularly when only one or two resource-intensive apps are running,” Mac OS Rumors reports.
“Even when lots of different applications, many of them efficiently multi-threaded, are run on 10.4.5 or 10.4.6 only the first two CPUs are used efficiently while the third and fourth are getting plenty of work….but aren’t quite living up to their full potential. Each added core after four seems to drop off in efficiency….not because OS X doesn’t handle lots of processors properly, it does. In fact it’s an industry leader in terms of being ready for the next generation of multicore, multiprocessor technology. It has been since day one and Apple has consistently kept it at the leading edge since then,” MOSR reports. “The problem is, simply, getting all of those core to have the maximum possible positive effect on the performance of each application. When simulating the realistic workloads of almost every kind of user, more than four cores rapidly lost any effect because there just weren’t enough threads, efficiently enough balanced, to make good use of more CPU’s.
“Leopard changes this in every way that Apple and Intel have been able to devise. The techniques employed include tricks that both companies have been holding at ready for years, and some new things that have been developed in the past year or so to specifically address the way the ‘Core’ (Yonah, Merom and Napa-Merom) and Codename ‘Conroe’ architectures work,” MOSR reports. “Leopard is going to kick ass from stem to stern.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy” for the heads up.]
* MOSR writes, “Rather than adding Windows application compatibility to OS X or even official dual-boot support to the latest “Macintel” computers….Apple’s emphasis in the 10.5 era will be on resurrecting ‘Yellow Box for Windows,’ a set of Cocoa (and potentially also Carbon) API’s for Windows that would allow Universal Binary applications to run on Windows with a mere 150MB software package installation. And best of all, there is no extra work to be done on the developer’s part to get fully native, rock-solid stable performance from their Xcode-developed Universal applications on Windows!” Full article here.
[UPDATE: 2:49pm EDT: Pulled “Red Box” note after reader feedback and re-reading MOSR article section.]
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