Posted on 05/31/2006 12:32:56 AM PDT by Swordmaker
In recent weeks, the core feature set and low-level changes to the Mac OS X codebase have been firmed up in preparation for focused efforts to produce a "WWDC Preview" release in early August to be shared with developers in attendance of Apple's World Wide Developer Conference (Aug. 7-11).
This Preview Release will not include all of the high-level features and extra software that will be present in the final release due out next summer; nor will it be anywhere near production quality in terms of hardware support or crash-free reliability.
But it will, without a doubt, be the most stunning Mac OS release to date.
We have been following the development of Leopard since day one -- mere weeks after the release of the current version, Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger". A lot of ambitious ideas -- like the use of a BitTorrent bandwidth-sharing reward system to alleviate some of Apple's massive use of Internet bandwidth for the iTunes Store, Software Updates, et cetera -- that didn't make the cut in previous versions are being considered very seriously as part of the very ambitious Leopard feature set.
In today's "fresh look," we're going to examine a few of those rumored features, and changes to the Core Operating System that will make Leopard leap forward even more dramatically than its very successful predecessors. Each release of Mac OS X to date has been faster, more efficient, and easier to use than the one before. Leopard will be no exception to that rule; in fact, it will set a new precedent for just how much ass Apple can kick in a two-year development cycle while Microsoft's five-year-plus cycle produces a cheap, slower, buggier knockoff known as Windows Vista.....
More workload on the GPU
Mac OS X 10.3 introduced us to Quartz Extreme and use of the graphics accelerator chip for offloading many tasks that previously hogged the GPU. This allowed Mac OS X to be graphically rich with little to no performance hit and improved the performance-per-watt of modern Macs. Leopard will take this several steps further, introducing types of GPU-acceleration that had to be cut out of 10.4 Tiger due to a lack of sufficient debugging time and features missing from GPUs which were shipping at the time. Video, User Interface, 2D & 3D graphics, and even multi-tasking performance will all achieve quantum leaps in Leopard due to a large increase in GPU-offloading of these workloads.
Improved Multitasking, Threading, Multiprocessor efficiency
As we have reported previously, Leopard will employ powerful new 'thread-farming' technology that splits high-level application tasks into multiple low-level threads to improve efficiency and "symmetrical wear'n'tear" on multiple processor systems.
Apple is soon to introduce its "Mac Pro" line, which will sport Intel's "Conroe" desktop Core 2 Extreme processors with up to two four-core processors for a total of eight CPUs. Making good use of all those resources and avoiding current problems where one core may run at a significantly higher temperature than all the others, causing potential crashes and other problems down the line....is a huge challenge. Leopard is being focused like a laser beam on that task and the results will be very impressive. No other consumer operating system will even come close on comparable hardware and this will be a very strong draw for high-end Windows/Linux/UNIX users to Switch....
Rich new 3D interface elements
To take advantage of powerful new graphics accelerator features that can be found in even the low-end Intel Mac integrated chipsets like Intel's GMA950 in the MacBook and Mac Mini, as well as the GMA965 to be found in Intel's next-generation "Core 2" chipsets that will be introduced in August....Leopard will introdce a lot more moving, animated, flowing and interactive "living interface elements" to the Mac experience.
Similar, existing Tiger-era features like the spinning-cube effect in Fast User Switching and the Core Graphics effects in Front Row, iChat AV etc. are just the beginning.
For example, switching between applications will now give a much more obvious and graphically rich interface cue so that even novice Switchers will recognize what is occuring without having to look at the Dock, Menubar, et cetera for feedback. It will be very obvious as the interface moves and flows. Details of this rich-interface technology, designed to crush and put to shame Microsoft's "AeroGlass" interface in Vista, will come out from under embargo in June so stay tuned to Rumors for a lot more exciting details on this topic.
Spotlight Audio Search, iSight Gestures
Using an enhanced version of Apple's Speech Recognition technology that will be part of the Leopard Core OS featureset, users will be able to say for example "Spotlight: Business Spreadsheet" to search for a file which is named or contains the terms 'Business Spreadsheet.' Spoken audio-searches can be narrowed to specific storage volumes or by other criteria by adding a third term for example "Spotlight: Business Spreadsheet, on Macintosh HD."
Also being developed for Leopard is technology that will interpret the video stream from the built-in iSight that will be standard on almost every Mac by the time Leopard ships in mid-2007, and can create a wireframe model of the user's body outline and interpret hand/arm gestures to trigger Dashboard, ExposŽ actions, and so forth. Also, the technology can map the background and when the user stands up to walk away from the computer, can automatically set iChat's status to "Away" and change power-saving settings to an "Away" preset among other user-controllable actions. The sky is the limit, and Leopard will make some impressive inroads with the possibilities that are just beginning to be explored by third-party developers.
Core OS changes
Although many details of the new Darwin/Core OS changelog are heavily embargoed for obvious reasons with the WWDC Release still being two months away and the final Leopard release still a year off, we can summarize a few of the less closely guarded improvements being made according to sources in Cupertino:
What we've described in this article is impressive enough, but it barely scratches the surface of the voluminous Leopard featureset. As embargoes expire and the grapevine develops a clearer picture of Leopard rumors in the coming days and weeks, expect many more reports on this topic -- so stay tuned!
Take these rumors with a large grain of salt...
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AWESOME!! I am looking forward to this.
Mac OS Rumors is to AppleInsider as DU is to FR.
Oops. sorry about that... but still interesting...
Make it TEN blocks of salt... ;^)>
This one I know is real. You can enable Quartz 2D Extreme in 10.4. In that case, your whole desktop is pretty much an OpenGL scene, with very little processor power or main memory bandwidth used to render it. Video cards that can handle it have been on the market for a while.
ACtually - most of the "features" listed sound pretty accurate.
And, unfortunately for me, further relegate my Dual 1Ghz MDD desktop to the obsolete bin.... ugh...
Otherwise, the new features look pretty cool. This site hasn't been all that accurate but the new features strike me as pretty easy conceptually and I wouldn't be surprised if we see them in Leopard.
D
The problem with flip4mac is that it won't play WMV's with MS's new DRM scheme.
Indeed, but Microsoft doesn't plan ANY support for Macintosh in this area, so it's a mute point:
"Microsoft makes Windows Media DRM technology available for Windows operating systems and many device platforms. At this time, Microsoft has no plans to offer Windows Media DRM support on the Macintosh."
Sorry to pick nits, but that should be "moot point", not "mute".
moot: deprived of practical significance, made abstract or purely academic
Indeed you are right and my selection from the spell correction was wrong.
I stand corrected!
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