Linked by Jeremy T. Fox on Fri 11th Jul 2003 16:55 UTC
A recent article by Tony Smith from The Register titled "Mac OS X 10.3 Panther will not be a 64-bit OS" caused a good deal of confusion with many people, including me. It is also caused a heated argument here on OSNews. The basic point of the article is that Mac OS 10.2.7 and 10.3 are not "true" 64-bit OSes, but the article does not clearly explain what a "true" 64-bit OS is. This had led to a lot of claims that the article is false or misinformed, rather than just unclear, which is certainly is.
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The hacks the article refers to are the addressing window extensions. You can create a "window" of virtual memory and map in parts of a > 4GB chunk into that window. If you need to access memory outside the window, you move the window to where you need it. Its just like bank switching or segmentation for you old fogies that remember that. Its not pretty, but its hardly only suitable for large companies as the author suggests. Heck, anybody who wrote 16-bit code in DOS could handle it without problems.