New & Noteworthy: G5 CPU and Mac OS X 10.2?

The Register on G5 CPUs and OS X 10.2 An article in The Register states: "Motorola taped out the PowerPC 8500 - aka the G5 - last week and is set to go into volume production real soon now at speeds of up to 1.6GHz...We don't know the ship date either, though we've been told that Apple is shooting to get boxes out for a January launch...Apple will launch Mac OS X 10.2 around the same time, we're told, and offer it as a 64-bit version. To do so would surely limit users of older hardware to 10.1 and its updates, but that hasn't stopped the company making such moves in the past. The G5's 32-bit support will allow apps to be carried forward, and developers have been told they will be able to make '64-bit clean' apps with a simple recompile."

However, other sources have cast doubt on the accuracy of this report. For example, the MDJ writes: "Credibility vanishes when writer Tony Smith starts talking about Mac OS X and a 64-bit version of OS X. Addresses in Mac OS programs have been 32 bits wide for over a decade. Changing a program so that every pointer and handle is 64 bits wide instead would take a massive testing and re-engineering effort, one Smith apparently doesn't have the experience to recognize."