Apple Atom support lives again

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 5th November 2009
Comments (9) Stumble
Apple Atom support lives again

The latest developer build of Mac OS X - 10.6.2 build 10C535 - brings support for Intel's Atom processor back to life.

Reports that Apple was taking a stand against unofficial netbooks running Mac OS X - dubbed 'hackintoshes' - by removing support for Intel's low-power Atom processor in a kernel update appear to have been resolved.

As reported over on MacRumours, while support for the Atom chip appeared to be missing from the last developer update of Mac OS X - version 10.6.2 - the latest developer seed, build version 10C525 is reportedly working just fine on third-party Atom-based netbooks.

The developer who discovered the issues with Atom processors and 10.6.2, Stellarola, has updated his blog with the news that "in the latest development build Atom [support] appears to have resurrected itself zombie style in [build] 10C535."

However, the fun and games might not be over yet: while support was seemingly missing from an earlier build and has been added back with the latest, Stellarola points out that "nothing is concrete until the final version of 10.6.2 is out."

With no news from Apple on whether the lack of Atom support in the early developer release was the result of a decision to lock out third party hardware or simply a bug in the code which has now been corrected, hackintosh netbook users will be on tenterhooks until the final release can be thoroughly tested.

Are you pleased to see that Apple appears to have changed its mind about removing Atom support, or do you think there's still time for the company to attempt to lock out hackintoshes from Mac OS X? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Quote Rkiver 5th November 2009, 11:22
From a purely financial standpoint putting it back in makes sense. More people willing to purchase the OS that way.
Quote hexx 5th November 2009, 11:26
i don't understand why should apple support atom - i'm not aware of any apple product with atom cpu so what's this all about?
Quote Rkiver 5th November 2009, 11:34
If they support Intel chips then supporting Atom would be part of that. Also perhaps they are planning a netbook of their own in the future?
Quote GreatOldOne 5th November 2009, 12:19
Maybe the upcoming iTablet / iSlate will be atom powered.

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/10/26/new-york-times-editor-refers-to-impending-apple-slate/
http://www.macrumors.com/2009/10/05/magazine-industry-already-preparing-for-possible-apple-tablet/
Quote l3v1ck 5th November 2009, 12:34
Quote:
Originally Posted by hexx
i don't understand why should apple support atom - i'm not aware of any apple product with atom cpu so what's this all about?
There's not supporting it (which is fair enough) and then there's deliberately sabotaging it.
I'm assuming that an OS just needs to know how to run X86 rather than every single X86 CPU type. If not every OS would need updating every time a new version of an X86 CPU was released. To stop a specific X86 working, it sounds like a deliberate act to me.
Quote hexx 5th November 2009, 16:00
Quote:
Originally Posted by l3v1ck
To stop a specific X86 working, it sounds like a deliberate act to me.

:) get a mac
Quote tank_rider 5th November 2009, 17:47
I imagine it's the sort of thing that would be in the dev versions but taken out of the full releases.
Quote wuyanxu 5th November 2009, 19:57
meh, good news all round, shall resume my master plan to install hackint0sh on my netbook.
Quote hexx 6th November 2009, 09:08
Quote:
Originally Posted by wuyanxu
meh, good news all round, shall resume my master plan to install hackint0sh on my netbook.

good luck with it mate;) been hackint0shing for a while and been very very happy and then i got mbpro.
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