Reunion with Intel Chip?

[kyuck]

Will Reunion 8 (or 9) work with the new Intel chip that Apple is introducing?

[David G. Kanter]

Originally Posted by kyuck

Will Reunion 8 (or 9) work with the new Intel chip that Apple is introducing?

While I'd expect Reunion 9 will be issued as a Universal Binary—such that it'll run natively on the Itel chip or on PowerPC chips—in any case Apple says that Rosetta will make existing applications, such as Reunion 8, run on machines with the Intel chip without the user experiencing anything significantly different. But perhaps the Leister folks will chime in with a more authoritative report.

[theKiwi]

in any case Apple says that Rosetta will make existing applications, such as Reunion 8, run on machines with the Intel chip

Actually Apple says:

Most existing applications will continue to run, thanks to Rosetta.

Notable exceptions are the Apple Pro apps, but presumably there are others.

Roger

[Gregg]

Originally Posted by kyuck

Will Reunion 8 (or 9) work with the new Intel chip that Apple is introducing?

We don't expect Reunion 8 users to experience any problems on the new Intel Macintoshes. As always, we will address any issues that do surface.

Same for Reunion 9 -- except that Reunion 9 will run natively on Intel Macintoshes rather than under the Rosetta emulation, as is the case for Reunion 8.

Please note that the new Intel Macintoshes will NOT support Classic mode and, as a result, Reunion 7 and older versions will not run on the new Intel-based Macs.

[sally31]

Originally Posted by Gregg

We don't expect Reunion 8 users to experience any problems on the new Intel Macintoshes. As always, we will address any issues that do surface.

Same for Reunion 9 -- except that Reunion 9 will run natively on Intel Macintoshes rather than under the Rosetta emulation, as is the case for Reunion 8.

Please note that the new Intel Macintoshes will NOT support Classic mode and as a result Reunion 7 and older will not run on the new Intel based Macs.

I've been running Reunion 6 on OS9 for years - until yesterday, when my old G3 died. Time for a new Intel imac, I think - but do you foresee Reunion 8 running under Rosetta having any problems recognising a Reunion 6 file?

You've probably been asked this a million times - but - is there any timescale for Reunion 9? Obviously, I'd like to wait for that in order to run native software, but I hate the idea for being without Reunion for very long!

Thanks,
Sally

[Gregg]

Originally Posted by sally31

...do you foresee Reunion 8 running under Rosetta having any problems recognising a Reunion 6 file?

This should not be a problem. Reunion 8 under Rosetta will upgrade your Reunion 6 family file.

Originally Posted by sally31

...is there any timescale for Reunion 9?

We can't give even a general release date for Reunion 9, other than to say this year sometime. Sorry.

I will point out that we've always offered a grace period of at least 90 days -- meaning that if you bought Reunion 8 today, January 11, 2006, you would have no upgrade fee if Reunion 9 was released on or before April 11, 2006.

[dcosten]

Originally Posted by theKiwi

Actually Apple says:
Notable exceptions are the Apple Pro apps, but presumably there are others.

Photoshop would probably perform poorly as well - I think those mentioned have some kind of hardware-specific/optimized code in them.

I have used one of the Developer Transition Kits briefly, and while I didn't get to run any genealogy-related apps on it, I did run and see run, some comparable applications, and they ran smooth - most of what we are talking about (genealogy applications) are not exactly performance-oriented - once the application is open, then it comes down to how fast you can type, and that was pretty much the type of applications I saw running.

If these MacBooks are 4x as fast as the previous PowerBooks, and with claims that most applications running under Rosetta should only run 10-25% slower (which held up in the short amount of time I observed and used one of the developer kits), I don't think speed will be an issue at all.

sally31, I would pick up the Intel iMac if I were you - it's unfortunate your G3 died, but the iMac would be a great step up from the G3 and the timing is good. In the past people worried about first revisions of Apple hardware, but this time around, there were a lot of eyeballs on the hardware - many other companies were working on implementing these new CPUs and chipsets, and so any potential hardware problems should have been found before now (plus AppleCare can take of anything else that crops up).

Of course, you could pick up a G5 iMac, I'm sure there are going to be some good prices at the Apple store. It's not going to stop working anytime soon, and with the Universal Binary angle, a G5 iMac would last for many years to come.

[thatcher131]

Just a bit of general purpose info: Rosetta emulates a PowerPC G3 CPU. So any software that specifically REQUIRES a G4 or G5 CPU will not run in Rosetta (some games, video editing, etc). Many applications (like Photoshop) have optimized code for the G4 or G5 but will still run on a G3, meaning they will run in Rosetta, but possibly slower. (Hopefully, the speed increase of running a dual-core CPU in an iMac will balance the translation slowdown.)

[theKiwi]

Originally Posted by thatcher131

Just a bit of general purpose info: Rosetta emulates a PowerPC G3 CPU. So any software that specifically REQUIRES a G4 or G5 CPU will not run in Rosetta

Do you have a source for this information?

I've read in several places that Rosetta does include the AltiVec instructions, so can emulate a G4, but that it won't run software which was written to take advantage of G5 instructions...

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(software)

It translates G3, G4, AltiVec, and OpenGL instructions, but it does not translate software that requires the G5-specific features of later Apple systems;

is one place - the various Mac news/rumours sites have been saying this for a month or two also.

Roger

[Bob White]

I am happy to report that Reunion 8.0.6 works just fine on the new iMac. I just set up my new 20" iMac this evening. I transferred all settings, applications, files, etc. using the FireWire target method (which the setup walks you through). Of course, it seems pretty close to twice as fast as it was on the G4 eMac that I've been using. Charts pop up like a lightning strike.


Gregg: I have noted one bug but a bad one. I have Reunion set to show today's birthdays on startup. As I recall, it has only done this once a day in the past. Now it is doing it everytime. Of course, I might be having a senior moment.