Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) compatibility information

[dom]

Hi Folks,

i compiled a little FAQ regarding the Snow Leopard release.

Cheers,
Dom



1. Is the current version of Live (8.0.8) compatible with Mac OS X 10.6?

Live 8.0.8 passed our all internal OS X 10.6 testing routines during the last weeks and there are currently no general known problems.

However, due to the many constellations of hard and software out there there's still a small chance for something misbehaving in certain setups and use cases.

Please send us a support request if you experience any difficulties and if stability is your main concern at the moment, you might still want to wait a few days or weeks to gather feedback regarding the compatibility of all other the related products you use in companion with Live.


2. Will Live 7 be compatible with Mac OS X 10.6?

It is likely that Live 7 will also be compatible but we can't promise it before internal tests are finished.


3. Is Live 8 a 64-bit application and how much memory can it address running on Mac OS X 10.6?

Live is a 32-bit application. As of Mac OS X 10.4, the Mac version of Live can make use of up to 4 GB of RAM. This still holds true for 10.6.


4. When will Live be released as a 64-bit application?

A 64-bit version of Live for Windows and Mac OS X is planned, but there's no release date announced so far.


5. Does Ableton recommend upgrading to Mac OS X 10.6?

If your main concern is stability, we don't recommend upgrading to 10.6 until compatibility for Live and all of your third-party software and hardware products has been assured by the responsible companies.


6. What can I do if I encounter problems with Mac OS X 10.6?

If you plan to try Mac OS X 10.6 to see how it works for you and encounter any problems with Live, we are happy to get bug reports!
To report issues, just follow the usual support request guide:
http://www.ableton.com/pages/support/co ... al_support


7. Does Live support new features of Mac OS X 10.6 like OpenCL or Grand Central Dispatch (GCD)?

No, Live does not support these features.
Here is a brief explanation:

Grand Central Dispatch is a bundle of functions and tools that make it easier for developers to implement multicore functionality for their
applications.
Because Live already supports multicore systems since Live 6, GCD brings no advantage for Live.

OpenCL is a new development platform including its own programming language for developing software that runs on common CPUs as well as on
the GPUs of video cards.
This allows the power of modern video cards to be used for tasks other than graphics processing.
OpenCL will be released for the first time with Mac OS X 10.6 and currently only supports Intel Macs and a limited number of video cards.
Additionally, existing applications are not automatically compatible with OpenCL.
Therefore this technology is not supported by Live.