The Mac Pro is a workstation computer manufactured by Apple Inc. The machines are based on Xeon microprocessors, but are similar to the Power Mac G5 they replaced in terms of outward appearance and expansion capabilities. They are currently one of three desktop computers in the current Macintosh lineup. The Mac Pro is currently the fastest computer that Apple has to offer.
The Mac Pro was formally announced on August 7, 2006 at WWDC.[1] Along with the Mac Pro, a new Xeon-based Xserve was also announced, completing Apple's transition from the PowerPC to x86 architecture. On January 8, 2008 Apple unveiled the first 3.2 GHz, dual quad-core Intel Xeon (Harpertown 45 nm) -based Mac Pro.[2] The current Mac Pro was unveiled on March 3, 2009, featuring the new Intel Xeon processors based on the Nehalem micro-architecture as well as a lower entry price.
Overview
An Intel-based replacement for the Power Mac G5 had long been expected prior to the release of the Mac Pro. The iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook and MacBook Pro had moved to an Intel-based architecture starting in January 2006, leaving the Power Mac G5 as the only machine in the Mac lineup still based on the PowerPC. Speculation about the G5's eventual replacement was common. Rumors initially expected the machine to differ physically from the existing G5 and considered a number of different possible internal configurations based on different chipsets. But the coincidence of Intel releasing a new Core 2-based Xeon workstation platform just prior to the 2006 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) made it fairly obvious that the resulting machine would be based on it. Even the naming was "obvious"; Apple had dropped the term "Power" from the other machines in their lineup, and started using "Pro" on their higher-end laptop offerings. As such, the name "Mac Pro" was widely used before the machine was announced.[3]
The Mac Pro is a high-end computer, similar to higher end Unix workstations from vendors such as Sun Microsystems. Although the high-end technical market has not traditionally been an area of strength for Apple, the company has been positioning itself as a leader in non-linear digital editing for high-definition video,[4] which demands storage and memory far in excess of a general desktop machine. Additionally, the codecs used in these applications are generally processor intensive and highly threadable, speeding up almost linearly with additional processor cores. Apple's previous machine aimed at this market, the Power Mac G5, had up to two dual-core processors, but lacked the storage expansion capabilities of the newer design. In order to serve this market, Apple sells a variety of standardized bundles combining a Mac Pro with fairly high-end components; for instance, all available setups can support the 30" Cinema Display.
In general, the Mac Pro has been well received in the press.[5] The combination of high performance, reasonable expandability, very quiet operation and superb mechanical design makes it routinely appear as the comparison system against which other systems are measured. The Xeon platform is, however, Intel's "high end" system and not aimed at more general purpose use. Nevertheless, current-generation Xeons are priced competitively with their high-end desktop platforms, allowing Apple to sell a very powerful system at price points that are considered quite competitive, even by reviewers who do not normally review Apple systems.[6]
Original marketing materials for the Mac Pro generally referred to the middle-of-the-line model with 2 × dual-core 2.66 GHz processors. Previously, Apple featured the base model with the words "starting at" or "from" when describing the pricing, but the online Apple Store listed the "Mac Pro at $2499", the price for the mid-range model. The base model could be configured at US$2299, much more comparable with the former base-model dual-core G5 at US$1999, although offering considerably more processing power. Post revision, the default configurations for the Mac Pro includes one quad-core Xeon 3500 at 2.66 GHz or two quad-core Xeon 5500s at 2.26 GHz each.
The Mac Pro is the only machine in Apple's lineup with industry standard PCI express (PCIe) slots for graphics cards and other expansion cards.
Description
Processors
The current Mac Pro uses either one or two Xeon 5500 "Gainestown" or Xeon 3500 "Bloomfield" (both based on the Intel Nehalem microarchitecture) 64-bit CPUs for a total of four or eight processor cores. Each CPU has an 8 MB on-chip L3 cache shared among its processor cores.[9] Because the most recent revision is based on the Nehalem microarchitecture, the old Front Side Bus technology has been replaced by the Intel QuickPath Interconnect interface. Both of these processors are capable of Intel's Turbo Boost technology (similar to Intel's SpeedStep technology), which dynamically boosts the clock rate of a core in intervals of 133 MHz if the CPU temperature is below average conditions.
Memory
The original Mac Pro's main memory used 667 MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMMs; the early 2008 model used 800 MHz ECC DDR2 FB-DIMMS, the current Mac Pro uses 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC DIMMs. In the original and 2008 models, these modules are installed in pairs, one each on two riser cards. The cards have 4 DIMM slots each, allowing a total of 32 GB of memory (8 x 4 GB) to be installed [10]. Notably, due to its FB-DIMM architecture, installing more RAM in the Mac Pro will improve its memory bandwidth, but may also increase its memory latency.[11] With a simple install of a single FB-DIMM the peak bandwidth is 8 GB/s, but this can increase to 16 GB/s by installing two FB-DIMMs, one on each of the two buses, which is the default configuration from Apple. While electrically the FB-DIMMs are standard, Apple requests that users use larger-than-normal heatsinks on the memory modules that they install. Problems have been reported by users who have used third party RAM that had normal sized FB-DIMM heatsinks.[12](see notes below).
Hard drives
The Mac Pro has room for four internal standard 3.5" hard drives, in sizes up to the current maximum available running at 7200-rpm or 15,000-rpm, each with its own SATA-300 port. With the addition of a SAS capable RAID card, SAS drives can be used with the SATA ports. The hard drives are mounted on individual trays (also known as 'sleds'), provided with the machine, by captive thumbscrews similar to the one used for the PCIe slots. There are no cables to be attached, the SATA and power connectors are firmly attached to the case, and the drive is connected to them simply by pushing it in. The case lock on the back of the machine locks the trays into position. The Mac Pro now offers an optional hardware RAID card.[13] Two optical drive bays are available, each with a SATA-300 port and an ATA-100 port. Many optical drives still use the older ATA ports, including those currently being shipped with the machines.
The Mac Pro has 1 P-ATA port (for up to two P-ATA devices) and a total of 6 SATA ports, 4 integrated in to the drive bays, and two internal SATA ports that are not connected to drive bays. These extra SATA ports can be put into service through the use of after-market extender cables, for use with internal Optical drives, or to provide eSATA ports with the use of an eSATA bulkhead connector.[14]
Overall, a built to order Mac Pro can be configured with up to 4 TB of storage (four 1TB disks) but can support any four SATA hard drives so 8TB is possible with aftermarket 2TB disks.
Expansion cards
For internal expansion the current Mac Pro has four PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 expansion slots. The 2008 model had two PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 expansion slots and two PCI Express 1.1 slots, providing them with up to 300 W of power in total. The first slot is double wide and intended to hold the main video card, arranged with an empty area the width of a normal card beside it in order to leave room for the large coolers modern cards often use. In most machines, one slot would be blocked by the cooler. Instead of the tiny screws typically used to fasten the cards to the case, in the Mac Pro a single "bar" holds the cards in place, which is itself held in place by two "captive" thumbscrews that can be loosened by hand without tools and will not fall out of the case.
The PCIe slots can be configured individually to give more bandwidth to devices that require it, with a total of 40 "lanes", or 13 GB/s total throughput. When running Mac OS X, the Mac Pro currently does not support SLI or ATI CrossFire, limiting its ability to use the latest "high-end gaming" video card products; however, individuals have reported success with both CrossFire and SLI installations when running Windows XP.[15] SLI/CrossFire is largely a function of software.
The bandwidth allocation of the PCIe slots can be configured via the Expansion Slot Utility included with Mac OS X only on the August 2006 Mac Pro. The Mac Pro (Early 2008) has its slots hardwired as follows.
External connectivity
For external connectivity, the Mac Pro includes five USB 2.0 and four FireWire ports, two of the latter being FireWire 800. Networking is supported with two built-in Gigabit Ethernet ports, while 802.11 a/b/g/draft-n[16] Wi-Fi is supported via an optional AirPort Extreme card. Bluetooth is now standard.
Digital (TOSlink optical) audio and analog 1/8" stereo mini jacks for sound in and out are included, the latter available on both the front and back of the case.
Unlike other Mac products, the Mac Pro does not include an infrared receiver (required to use the Apple Remote). Beginning with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Front Row can be accessed on the Mac Pro (and other Macs) using the ⌘-Esc key combination.
Case
The exterior of the aluminum case is very similar to that of the Power Mac G5, with the exception of an additional optical drive bay, and a new arrangement of I/O ports on both the front and the back. The case can be opened by operating a single lever on the back, which unlocks one of the two sides of the machine, as well as the drive bays. All of the expansion slots for memory, PCIe cards and drives can be accessed with the one panel removed, and require no tools for installation.
The Xeon processors generate much less heat than the previous dual-core G5s, so the size of the internal cooling devices has been reduced significantly. This allowed the interior to be re-arranged, leaving more room at the top of the case and thereby allowing the drives to double in number. Less heat also means less air to move out of the case for cooling during normal operations; the Mac Pro is very quiet in normal operation, quieter than the already-quiet Power Mac G5,[17][18] and proved difficult to measure using common decibel meters.[19]
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Mac Pro
iMac G5
The iMac G5 was a series of desktop Macintosh computers designed and built by Apple Inc. using the PowerPC chip architecture. It was the last line of iMac computers that used a PowerPC chip, making it the last of the iMacs that could run Mac OS 9 (Classic) applications. In August 2004, the iMac design was overhauled. By this time, the PowerPC 970 chip had been released and was being used in the Power Macintosh G5 line. Famously, the Power Macintosh G5 needed multiple fans in a large casing because of the larger heat output from the PowerPC 970. Apple's new iMac design managed to incorporate the PowerPC 970 into an all-in-one design with a distinctive form factor. The new design of the iMac used the same 17 and 20-inch widescreen LCDs, with all of the main logic board and optical drive mounted directly behind the LCD panel; this gave the appearance of a thickened desktop LCD monitor.
The iMac G5 was updated in October 2005 with a thinner design, an iSight webcam mounted above the LCD, and Apple's Front Row media interface. This version had a slightly bowed back and lacked the VESA Flat Display Mounting Interface of the earlier iMac G5s.
There are many consumer posted reports on the Internet[1] linking the iMac G5 with overheating issues most typically related to the bad capacitor plague affecting both the first and second generation iMac G5 motherboards, and power supply units. Also, some owners reported a "vacuum cleaner mode", where the iMac G5 beeps three times and starts its processor fan at full speed, also due to hardware problems[citation needed]. There was also a problem in the internal SuperDrive, which could throw discs instead of ejecting them, due to problems in the drive bezel[citation needed]. The possible defect renders the machine useless with respect to damages like a burnt out logic board, a smoked power supply, and other internal component failures. Apple has extended warranties on specific serial-numbered iMac G5 models, but has not issued a recall.
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iMac G4
The iMac G4 was a computer that was produced by Apple from the beginning of 2002 to mid 2004. It replaced the aging iMac G3. The computer had a new design compared to older Macs. It had a 15-inch LCD which was mounted on an adjustable arm above a hemisphere containing a full-size, tray-loading optical drive and a sixteenth-generation CPU (the PPC 74xx-series). This LCD computer was known and sold as The New iMac throughout its production life, while existing egg-shaped iMac was renamed the iMac G3 and continued to be sold for a few months. After the New iMac was discontinued, it was retroactively labeled iMac G4 to distinguish itself from the succeeding iMac G5.
Apple advertised it as having the flexibility of a desk lamp and it was nicknamed the "iLamp", similar to "Luxo Jr.", who was featured in a short film produced by Pixar, another venture of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. It was featured in an ad, sitting in a store window and "reacting" to every move made by a passer-by on the street. At the end, when the man sticks out his tongue, the iMac responds by opening its optical drive.
The iMac G4 was incrementally upgraded. They were made available with 17-inch (43 cm) and then 20-inch (51 cm) widescreen LCDs over the following two years. By then, Apple had all but eliminated the CRT machines from its product line. However, the LCD iMacs were unable to match the low price point of the previous iMac G3s, largely because of the higher cost of the LCD technology at the time.
The iMac G3 was, by this point, obsolete and low-cost machines were particularly important for the education market. It was still being sold for a while after the iMac G4 debuted, until the G3 found a permanent replacement in April 2002 with the eMac. The eMac was a G4-powered Macintosh that resembles the original iMac G3 with the egg-shape encasing a flat 17-inch CRT in an all-in-one design. It was initially sold only to the educational market (the "e" stands for "education"), but Apple started selling it to the general public a month later. The eMac was essentially the 17-inch iMac that consumers had been requesting a few years earlier. By 2005 Apple had returned to selling the eMac exclusively to the educational market, presumably because of the introduction of the low-cost Mac mini, targeted at the same market.
The iMac G4 was replaced by the iMac G5 on August 31, 2004. Reaction to the iMac G5 was mixed, though it was a more powerful computer, reviewers commented that it was less aesthetic since it did not retain the flexible adjustable arm.
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iMac G3
The iMac G3 was the first model of the iMac line of personal computers made by Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Computer, Inc.). The iMac G3 is an all-in-one personal computer, encompassing both the monitor and the system unit in a single enclosure. Originally released in striking bondi blue and later a range of other brightly colored, translucent plastic casings, the iMac shipped with a keyboard and mouse in matching tints.
History
Steve Jobs streamlined the company's large and confusing product lines immediately after becoming Apple's interim CEO in 1997; toward the end of the year, Apple trimmed its line of desktop Macs down to the beige Power Macintosh G3 series, which included the iMac's immediate predecessor, the G3 All-In-One, which featured nearly identical specifications and was sold only to the educational market. Having discontinued the consumer-targeted Performa series, Apple needed a replacement for the Performa's price point. The company announced the iMac on 6 May 1998[1] and started shipping it on 15 August 1998.
Aesthetically, the iMac was dramatically different from any other mainstream computer ever released. It was made of translucent "Bondi Blue"-colored plastic, and was egg-shaped around a 15-inch (38 cm) CRT. There was a handle, and the computer interfaces were hidden behind a door that opened on the right-hand side of the machine. Dual headphone jacks in the front complemented the built-in stereo speakers. Jonathan Ive, currently Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple, is credited with the industrial design. The iMac was the first computer to exclusively offer USB ports as standard,[2] including the connector for its new keyboard and mouse,[3] thus abandoning previous Macintosh peripheral connections, such as the ADB, SCSI and GeoPort serial ports.
A radical step was to abandon the 3½-inch diskette drive (which had been present in every Mac since the first one in 1984). Apple argued that recordable CDs, the internet, and office networks were quickly making diskettes obsolete. Apple's move was considered ahead of its time and was hotly debated. At the iMac's introduction, third-party manufacturers offered inexpensive external USB diskette drives.
The keyboard and mouse were redesigned for the iMac with translucent plastics and a Bondi Blue trim (Apple USB Keyboard and Apple USB Mouse). The keyboard was smaller than Apple's previous keyboards, with white letters on black keys, both features that attracted debate. The mouse was of a round, "hockey puck" design, which was instantly derided as being unnecessarily difficult for users with larger hands. Apple continued shipping the round mouse, adding a divot in later versions so that users could distinguish where the button was. Eventually, a new oblong optical mouse, known as the Apple Mouse (formerly "Apple Pro Mouse"), replaced the round mouse across all of Apple's hardware offerings.
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Apple to launch Verizon iPhone in Q3 2010
Rumor : Verizon and Apple Already Testing 4G iPhon
This rumor simply has to be taken with a grain of salt, but word has it that Verizon and Apple are testing a version of the iPhone on Verizon’s upcoming 4G LTE network.
For those unfamiliar with the landscape, 4G is essentially the next-generation of cellular networks, designed to carry data and increase the speed and capacity of mobile networks. Although the rumor is unconfirmed, it would make a lot of sense for Apple to hold out for the LTE deployment in order to get more mileage out of the R&D dollars it needs to spend to make a version of the iPhone compatible with Verizon’s network.
The rumor sources note that Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam has been making bi-monthly trips to Mountain View to visit with Google (), culminating in an announcement of Android phones coming to Verizon. Apple’s headquarters are a mere 8.5 miles away, lending further anecdotal evidence to the idea.
We know that Verizon is steadily making progress on their next-gen LTE (Long Term Evolution) network, having already begun successful testing of data calls. We also know there are many logical reasons to expect that AT&T exclusivity for the iPhone will end, with analysts and pundits alike all placing the timeframe in 2010 for this to happen. Even the Department of Justice is taking an interest in getting the iPhone onto more networks.
What remains unknown are the specific details. It does seem like it fits with Apple’s M.O. to want to make a big splash with a 4G iPhone launch on the U.S. largest carrier, but keep those salt shakers at the ready until we get some official confirmation.
If you’re a current iPhone owner, would you consider ditching AT&T for Verizon if the option were available? If you’re not an iPhone owner, would you consider picking one up if it came to another carrier? Let us know in the comments.
iPhone
Mac OS X v10.6 "Snow Leopard"
Main article: Mac OS X Snow Leopard
Mac OS X v10.6 "Snow Leopard" was released on August 28, 2009. Rather than delivering big changes to the appearance and end user functionality like the previous releases of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard focuses on under the hood changes, supposedly increasing the speed, efficiency, and stability of the operating system. For most users, the most noticeable changes are: the disk space that the operating system frees up after a clean install compared to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, a more responsive Finder rewritten in Cocoa, faster Time Machine backups, more reliable and user friendly disk ejects, a more powerful version of the Preview application, as well as a faster Safari web browser.
The rewrite of Finder in Apple's native Cocoa API allow the Finder to take advantage of the integrated 64-bit technology as well as Grand Central Dispatch, use a more user-friendly disk eject (clearer dialogs will notify the user of what services or programs are using a given disk), and provides it a more responsive feel overall.
The new Safari 4 includes a boost in JavaScript and HTML performance, which results in faster web browsing. The majority of this performance boost is enabled by the new SquirrelFish JavaScript interpreter, improving the JavaScript rendering speed of Safari by over 50%.[82] The new Top Sites also displays the most frequently visited and/or bookmarked sites in a panorama view, allowing the user to easily access their favorite sites along with a new Cover Flow view for the user's browsing history. Safari 4 is now also more crash resistant, being able to isolate plug-ins which are the number one cause of web browser crashes.[83]
Mac OS X v10.6 also features Microsoft Exchange Server support for Mail, iCal, and Address Book, new 64-bit technology capable of supporting greater amounts of RAM, an all new QuickTime X with a refreshed user interface and more functionality that used to be only available to Quicktime Pro owners.
Back-end platform changes include improved support for multi-core processors through Grand Central Dispatch which attempts to ease the development of applications with multi-core support, and thus improve their CPU utilization. It used to be that developers needed to code their programs in such a way that their software would explicitly take advantage of the multiple cores, which could easily become a tedious and troublesome task, especially in complex software. It also includes advanced GPU performance with OpenCL (a cross platform open standard for GPGPU distinct from CUDA, Dx11 Compute Shader or STREAM) by providing support to offload work normally only destined for a CPU to the graphic card's GPU. This can be especially useful in tasks that can be heavily parallelized.
Snow Leopard supports only machines with Intel CPUs, and drops default support for applications built only for the PowerPC architecture (Rosetta can be installed as an additional component to retain support for PowerPC-only applications).
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Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard"
Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger"
- A PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor running at 333 MHz or more
- Built-in FireWire
- At least 256 MB of RAM (512 MB or 1 GB recommended)
- At least 3 GB of available hard disk space; 4 GB of disk space including the Xcode 2 Tools
- DVD drive (CD media exchange was available; offer ended 19 March 2007)
Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther"
- PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor (at least 233 MHz)
- Built-in USB (indicative of a New World ROM being present)
- At least 128 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended, 96 MB supported unofficially)
- At least 1.5 GB of available hard disk space
- CD drive
- Internet access requires a compatible service provider; iDisk requires a .Mac account
- 333 MHz or faster PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
- broadband Internet access (100 kbit/s or faster)
- Compatible FireWire DV camera or web camera
Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar"
Jaguar was the first Mac OS X release to publicly use its code name in marketing and advertisements, a practice that has continued in subsequent releases of the operating system.
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Mac OS X v10.1 "Puma"
Mac OS X version 10.1, code named “Puma”, is the second major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server operating system. It superseded Mac OS X v10.0 and preceded Mac OS X v10.2. Version 10.1 was released on September 25, 2001 as a 'free update' to version 10.0. Starting with version 10.1.2, Apple made Mac OS X the default operating system on new Macs.[1]
The operating system was handed out for no charge by Apple employees after Steve Jobs' keynote speech at the Seybold publishing conference in San Francisco.[citation needed] It was subsequently distributed to Macintosh users on October 25, 2001 at Apple Stores and other retail stores that carried Apple products. The operating system was better received than Mac OS X version 10.0, although critics claimed that the operating system was still lacking features and was plagued with bugs.
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Mac OS X v10.0 "Cheetah"
Mac OS X version 10.0, code named “Cheetah”, is the first major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server operating system. Mac OS X v10.0 was released on March 24, 2001 for a price of US$129. It superseded the Mac OS X Public Beta and preceded Mac OS X v10.1.
Mac OS X v10.0 was a radical departure from the previous “classic” Macintosh operating system and was Apple’s long awaited answer to the call for a next generation Macintosh operating system. It introduced a brand new code base completely separate from Mac OS 9's, as well as all previous Apple operating systems. Mac OS X introduced the new Darwin Unix-like core and a totally new system of memory management. It proved to be a rocky start to the Mac OS X line, plagued with missing features and performance issues, although it was praised for being a good start to an operating system still in its infancy, in terms of completeness and overall operating system stability.[who?]
On March 24, 2001, Apple released Mac OS X v10.0 (internally codenamed Cheetah).[67] The initial version was slow, incomplete, and had very few applications available at the time of its launch, mostly from independent developers. While many critics suggested that the operating system was not ready for mainstream adoption, they recognized the importance of its initial launch as a base on which to improve. Simply releasing Mac OS X was received by the Macintosh community as a great accomplishment, for attempts to completely overhaul the Mac OS had been underway since 1996, and delayed by countless setbacks. Following some bug fixes, kernel panics became much less frequent.
System requirements.
The system requirements for Mac OS X v10.0 were not well received by the Macintosh community, as at the time the amount of RAM standard with Macintosh computers was 64 megabytes of RAM, while the Mac OS X v10.0 requirements called for 128 megabytes of RAM. As well, processor upgrade cards, which were quite popular for obsolete Power Mac G3 computers, were not supported (and never officially have been, but can be made to work through third-party utility programs).
* Supported Computers: Power Macintosh G3, G3 B&W, G4, G4 Cube, iMac, PowerBook G3, PowerBook G4, iBook (The original "Kanga" PowerBook G3 was the only G3-based Mac not to be supported by Mac OS X).
* RAM required:
o 64 MB minimum
o 128 MB recommended
* Hard Drive Space: 1.5 gigabytes
o 800 MB for the minimal install
Features
* Dock – the Dock was a new way of organizing one's Mac OS X applications on a user interface, and a change from the classic method of Application launching in previous Apple Operating Systems.
* XNU kernel – the Unix-like kernel was a first for Macintosh operating systems, and was one of the largest changes from a technical standpoint in Mac OS X.
* Terminal – the Terminal was a feature that allowed access to Mac OS X's underpinnings, namely the Unix core.
* Mail (e-mail client)
* Address Book
* New word processor replacing SimpleText called TextEdit.
* Full preemptive multitasking support, a long awaited feature on the Mac.
* PDF Support (create PDFs from any application)
* Aqua Interface
* Built on Darwin, a Unix-like operating system
* OpenGL
* AppleScript
* Supports Carbon and Cocoa APIs
* Sherlock desktop and Internet search
* Protected memory – memory protection so that if an application corrupts its memory, the memory of other applications will not be corrupted.
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Mac OS X Public Beta "Kodiak"
Apple released to the public, on September 13, 2000, a "preview" version of its new operating system (internally codenamed Kodiak) in order to gain feedback from users.[66] It cost $29.95 and came with a t-shirt. The "PB" as it was known marked the first public availability of the Aqua interface and Apple made many changes to the UI based on customer feedback. Mac OS X Public Beta expired and ceased to function in Spring 2001.
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Features
One of the major differences between the previous versions of Mac OS and OS X was the addition of the Aqua GUI, a graphical user interface with water-like elements. Every window element, text, graphics, or widgets is drawn on-screen using the anti-aliasing technology.[42] ColorSync, a technology introduced many years before, was improved and built into the core drawing engine, to provide color matching for printing and multimedia professionals.[43] Also, drop shadows were added around windows and isolated text elements to provide a sense of depth. New interface elements were integrated, including sheets (document modal dialog boxes attached to specific windows) and drawers.Apple has continued to change aspects of the OS X appearance and design, particularly with tweaks to the appearance of windows and the menu bar. One example of a UI behavioral change is that previewed video and audio files no longer have progress bars in column view; instead, they have mouse-over start and stop buttons as of 10.5.
The human interface guidelines published by Apple for Mac OS X are followed by many applications, giving them consistent user interface and keyboard shortcuts.[44] In addition, new services for applications are included, which include spelling and grammar checkers, special characters palette, color picker, font chooser and dictionary; these global features are present in every Cocoa application, adding consistency. The graphics system OpenGL composites windows onto the screen to allow hardware-accelerated drawing. This technology, introduced in version 10.2, is called Quartz Extreme, a component of Quartz. Quartz's internal imaging model correlates well with the Portable Document Format (PDF) imaging model, making it easy to output PDF to multiple devices.[43] As a side result, PDF viewing is a built-in feature.
In version 10.3, Apple added Exposé, a feature which includes three functions to help accessibility between windows and desktop. Its functions are to instantly display all open windows as thumbnails for easy navigation to different tasks, display all open windows as thumbnails from the current application, and hide all windows to access the desktop.[45] Also, FileVault was introduced, which is an optional encryption of the user's files with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-128).[46]
Features introduced in version 10.4 include Automator, an application designed to create an automatic workflow for different tasks;[47] Dashboard, a full-screen group of small applications called desktop widgets that can be called up and dismissed in one keystroke;[48] and Front Row, a media viewer interface accessed by the Apple Remote.[49] Moreover, the Sync Services were included, which is a system that allows applications to access a centralized extensible database for various elements of user data, including calendar and contact items. The operating system then managed conflicting edits and data consistency.[50]
As of version 10.5, all system icons are scalable up to 512×512 pixels, to accommodate various places where they appear in larger size, including for example the Cover Flow view, a three-dimensional graphical user interface included with iTunes, the Finder, and other Apple products for visually skimming through files and digital media libraries via cover artwork.[51] This version includes Spaces, a virtual desktop implementation which enables the user to have more than one desktop and display them in an Exposé-like interface.[52] Mac OS X v10.5 includes an automatic backup technology called Time Machine, which provides the ability to view and restore previous versions of files and application data;[53] and Screen Sharing was built in for the first time.[54]
Finder is a file browser allowing quick access to all areas of the computer, which has been modified throughout subsequent releases of Mac OS X.[55][56] Quick Look is part of Mac OS X Leopard's Finder. It allows for dynamic previews of files, including videos and multi-page documents, without opening their parent applications. Spotlight search technology, which is integrated into the Finder since Mac OS X Tiger, allows rapid real-time searches of data files; mail messages; photos; and other information based on item properties (meta data) and/or content.[57][58] Mac OS X makes use of a Dock, which holds file and folder shortcuts as well as minimized windows. Mac OS X Architecture implements a layered framework.[59] The layered framework aids rapid development of applications by providing existing code for common tasks.[60]
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Hardware
Tools such as XPostFacto and patches applied to the installation disc have been developed by third parties to enable installation of newer versions of Mac OS X on systems not officially supported by Apple. This includes a number of pre-G3 Power Macintosh systems that can be made to run up to and including Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, all G3-based Macs which can run up to and including Tiger, and sub-867 MHz G4 Macs can run Leopard by removing the restriction from the installation DVD or entering a command in the Mac's Open Firmware interface to tell the Leopard Installer that it has a clock speed of 867 MHz or greater. Except for features requiring specific hardware (e.g. graphics acceleration, DVD writing), the operating system offers the same functionality on all supported hardware.
PowerPC versions of Mac OS X prior to Leopard retain compatibility with older Mac OS applications by providing an emulation environment called Classic, which allows users to run Mac OS 9 as a process within Mac OS X, so that most older applications run as they would under the older operating system. Classic is not supported on Intel-based Macs or in Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard", although users still requiring Classic applications on Intel Macs can use the SheepShaver emulator to run Mac OS 9 on top of Leopard.
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Compatibility
Software
The APIs that Mac OS X inherited from OpenStep are not backward compatible with earlier versions of Mac OS. These APIs were created as the result of a 1993 collaboration between NeXT Computer and Sun Microsystems and are now referred to by Apple as Cocoa. This heritage is highly visible for Cocoa developers, since the "NS" prefix is ubiquitous in the framework, standing variously for Nextstep or NeXT/Sun. The official OpenStep API, published in September 1994, was the first to split the API between Foundation and Application Kit and the first to use the "NS" prefix.[19] Apple's Rhapsody project would have required all new development to use these APIs, causing much outcry among existing Mac developers. All Mac software that did not receive a complete rewrite to the new framework would run in the equivalent of the Classic environment. To permit a smooth transition from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X, the Carbon Application Programming Interface (API) was created. Applications written with Carbon can be executed natively on both systems. Carbon was not included in the first product sold as Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server (now known as Mac OS X Server 1.x).
Mac OS X used to support the Java Platform as a "preferred software package"-in practice this means that applications written in Java fit as neatly into the operating system as possible while still being cross-platform compatible, and that graphical user interfaces written in Swing look almost exactly like native Cocoa interfaces. Traditionally, Cocoa programs have been mostly written in Objective-C, with Java as an alternative. However, on July 11, 2005, Apple announced that "features added to Cocoa in Mac OS X versions later than 10.4 will not be added to the Cocoa-Java programming interface."[31]
Since Mac OS X is POSIX compliant, many software packages written for the * BSDs or Linux can be recompiled to run on it. Projects such as Fink, MacPorts and pkgsrc provide pre-compiled or pre-formatted packages. Since version 10.3, Mac OS X has included X11.app, Apple's version of the X Window System graphical interface for Unix applications, as an optional component during installation.[32] Up to and including Mac OS X v10.4 (Tiger), Apple's implementation was based on the X11 Licensed XFree86 4.3 and X11R6.6. All bundled versions of X11 feature a window manager which is similar to the Mac OS X look-and-feel and has fairly good integration with Mac OS X, also using the native Quartz rendering system. Earlier versions of Mac OS X (in which X11 has not been bundled) can also run X11 applications using XDarwin. With the introduction of version 10.5 Apple switched to the X.org variant of X11.[33]
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Description
Mac OS X's core is a POSIX compliant operating system (OS) built on top of the XNU kernel, with standard Unix facilities available from the command line interface. Apple released this set of software as a free and open source operating system named Darwin. On top of Darwin, Apple layered a number of components, including the Aqua interface and the Finder, to complete the GUI-based operating system which is Mac OS X.[4]
Mac OS X introduced a number of new capabilities to provide a more stable and reliable platform than its predecessor, Mac OS 9. For example, pre-emptive multitasking and memory protection improved the system's ability to run multiple applications simultaneously without them interrupting or corrupting each other.[18] Many aspects of Mac OS X's architecture are derived from Openstep, which was designed to be portable, to ease the transition from one platform to another. For example, Nextstep was ported from the original 68k-based NeXT workstations to x86 and other architectures before NeXT was purchased by Apple,[19] and OpenStep was later ported to the PowerPC architecture as part of the Rhapsody project.
The most visible change was the Aqua theme. The use of soft edges, translucent colors, and pinstripes – similar to the hardware design of the first iMacs – brought more texture and color to the user interface when compared to what OS 9 and OS X Server 1.0's "Platinum" appearance had offered. According to John Siracusa, an editor of Ars Technica, the introduction of Aqua and its departure from the then conventional look "hit like a ton of bricks."[20] However Bruce Tognazzini (who founded the original Apple Human Interface Group) said that the Aqua interface in Mac OS X v10.0 represented a step backwards in usability compared with the original Mac OS interface.[21][22] Despite the controversial new interface, third-party developers started producing skins for customizable applications for Mac and other operating systems which mimicked the Aqua appearance. To some extent, Apple has used the successful transition to this new design as leverage, at various times threatening legal action against people who make or distribute software with an interface the company claims is derived from its copyrighted design.[23]
Mac OS X includes its own software development tools, most prominently an integrated development environment called Xcode. Xcode provides interfaces to compilers that support several programming languages including C, C++, Objective-C, and Java. For the Apple Intel Transition, it was modified so that developers could build their applications as a universal binary, which provides compatibility with both the Intel-based and PowerPC-based Macintosh lines.[24]
The Darwin sub-system in Mac OS X is in charge of managing the filesystem, which includes the Unix permissions layer. In 2003 and 2005, two Macworld editors expressed criticism of the permission scheme; Ted Landau called misconfigured permissions "the most common frustration" in Mac OS X,[25] while Rob Griffiths suggested that some users may even have to reset permissions every day, a process which can take up to 15 minutes.[26] More recently, another Macworld editor, Dan Frakes, called the procedure of repairing permissions vastly overused.[27] He argues that Mac OS X typically handles permissions properly without user interference, and resetting permissions should be tried only when problems emerge.[28]
As of 2009, Mac OS X is the second most popular general-purpose operating system in use for the internet, after Microsoft Windows, with a 4.5% market share according to statistics compiled by Net Applications.[29] In contrast, it is the most successful UNIX-like desktop operating system on the internet, estimated at over 4 times the penetration of the free Linux.[29] Mac OS X is available in a variety of languages, including English, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.[30]
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Mac OS X
Mac OS X is the latest version of the Mac OS operating system for Macintosh computers.This operating system was first issued in 2001.
Character "X" is the Roman number is ten, where this version is the successor of the operating system used previously as Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9. Some people read it as the letter "X" which sounds like "ex". One of the reasons why they interpret so because of tradition to name your operating system based on Unix with the suffix "X" (eg AIX, IRIX, Linux, Minix, Ultrix, Xenix).
Mac OS X Server is also released in 2001. Basically the server version is similar to standardnya version, with the difference that includes the server version of the software for workgroup management and administration in large-scale computers. Examples of additional features available for this version is the software to perform functions such as SMTP, SMB, LDAP and DNS. In addition, too melisensinya different ways.
Mac OS X is the operating system that uses BSD kernel so that some circles to say that Mac OS X is included in the Unix family. The interesting thing about this OS is the beauty looks making it a model for other desktop developers. [Citation needed]
The latest release Mac OS launched around May 2005 with the code with version 10.4 Tiger.
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About MacBook
This article is about the Apple computer called "MacBook". For the MacBook family as a whole, see MacBook family.
The MacBook is a brand of Macintosh notebook computers by Apple Inc. First introduced in May 2006, it replaced the iBook and 12" PowerBook series of notebooks as a part of the Apple Intel transition. Part of the MacBook family, the MacBook is aimed at the consumer and education markets.[1] It is the best-selling Macintosh in history, and according to the sales-research organization NPD Group in October 2008, the mid-range model of the MacBook was the single best-selling laptop of any brand in U.S. retail stores for the preceding five months.[2]
There have been three separate designs of the MacBook: the original model uses a polycarbonate casing that was modeled after the iBook G4. The second type, introduced in October 2008 alongside the 15" MacBook Pro, used a similar unibody aluminum casing to the 15" Pro, and was updated and rebranded as the 13" MacBook Pro at the 2009 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2009.[3] A third design introduced in October 2009 introduced a unibody polycarbonate shell.
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