As you ’ve probably hear , the next version of OS X , Snow Leopard , willnot wow uswith a crazy circus of feature like Time Machine and Boot Camp . So why would Apple expend a class programming an atomic number 76 that they ca n’t tout has over 300 fresh feature ? Here ’s a spry summing up of how Apple is totallyrebuilding OS Xto take advantage of Core 2 Duos , computer graphic card andparallel processing , in parliamentary law to deliver serious performance addition . And yes , that is a big hatful .
https://gizmodo.com/mac-os-10-6-snow-leopard-revealed-multi-core-optimized-5014789
This is not go to be a super proficient equipment failure ofparallel computingfor the super nerdy , just a rough overview for my mom . essentially , parallel processing is what it sounds like : Multiple computations or cognitive process or um , just “ things , ” are carried out or done at the same time , in parallel ( at the same fourth dimension ! ) . Multi - core mainframe like Intel ’s ubiquitous Core 2 Duo have quickly become mainstream . They ’re really in force are doing several thing at once , since each central processor core can cranch away on something - more cores , more coincidental Captain Crunching , more quicker . A glorious consumer appreciation of this was actuallyRosettaon OS X - on a dual - core group scheme , one heart and soul would be “ translating ” the code from the PPC version , while the other ran the program ( roughly speaking ) .
Sounds bonanza properly ? Well , as Steve alluded in his explanation of Snow Leopard , parallel programsain’t easyto write - they’re punishing than sequential I for sure , ’cause it requires the kind of math that can be broken up into slight component part you could solve severally and then put back together again . Artificial intelligence , for instance , is not cakey for this . On the other hand , something like tomography - a technique for creating 3D image - totally is , because it ’s highly vectorizable . Or video recording hooey ( cause you’re able to easily divvy up the chore ) , videogame artwork and physics , generally .
No surprisal that modern art cards are really really good at parallel processing , ’cause of the way they ’re architected and because they commonly have a buttload of cores - Nvidia ’s latest eminent - ending GeForce carte , the GTX 280 , has 240 . ( It ’s why they ’re suitablefor cheap supercomputer . ) Nvidia , for illustration , showed me some of the insane physics jujutsu the GTX 280 can get out off , it and ATI both havecrazy novel graphics cards ( FireStream 9250 and Tesla 10P)built for “ general purpose ” supercomputing . Sony ’s Cell issorta like thiswith multiple core , but none of these are very good general processors the room clobber is design now . ( You do n’t see any computers running on an ATI Radeon CPU , or Cell plow the main workload onToshiba ’s new laptop computer , do you ? )
https://gizmodo.com/nvidia-geforce-gtx-200-graphics-cards-makes-your-gaming-5016715
You ’ll note that part of Snow Leopard’sfeature listis OpenCL , an easy manner for developers to bug the parallel processing power of nontextual matter cards , in addition to being optimized for multiple core good manners of its “ Grand Central ” technical school set . So Snow Leopard is reasonably much all about parallel processing . ( Microsoft has n’t been too outspoken about Windows andparallel computation . )
From what Apple has said - and the whole “ Grand Central ” spate ( it “ takes full advantage by making all of Mac OS ex multicore aware and optimizing it for allocating tasks across multiple cores and processors”)-it ’s decipherable that Apple is completely re - architecting Snow Leopard around parallel processing , with Grand Central acting much like the real one , organizing , assigning and scheduling a whole clump of tasks / trains along a bunch of different track / track . It ’s a major task - Intel and Microsoft arethrowing a ton of moneyat analog computing themselves - and we ’re pretty curious about Apple is going to make parallel programing easier for software engineer in a way purportedly no one ’s done before .
Something we missed , or you still wanna be intimate ? Send any question about processors , prostates , Bananas or anything else to[email protect ] , with “ Giz Explains ” in the capable line .
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