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Today sees the release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the latest update to Apple’s ever-popular operating system. There’s so much talk of the speed boosts and enhancements that what you’ll actually get may not seem so clear, so here’s what you can expect from Snow Leopard regarding 64 bit processing.

Even though the majority of Snow Leopard might look the same on the outside as your current installation of Leopard, that’s not the case for the internal workings of the OS. Why? Because Snow Leopard has been completely rewritten to take full advantage of the latest Intel hardware and, of course, 64 bit support. While Apple has had limited support for 64 bit since Tiger, most, if not all of the applications you were using were still 32 bit, along with the operating system itself. Apple has rewritten the OS, and the majority of its native applications (Mail, Finder, iChat, Safari, iCal etc…) are now utilizing 64 bit processing. Unfortunately, iTunes hasn’t received the same treatment, but an iTunes 9.0 update shouldn’t be too far around the corner.

So what will 64 bit mean for the average consumer? Possibly a little less than you might expect. Despite Mail being written for 64 bit processing, it won’t be lightening fast. On the whole, it’s a very responsive application. Sure, It will feel more responsive and smoother, but working with your emails won’t speed up too much. The main advantage of 64 bit comes from the serious applications on your desktop. Importing thousands of photographs into iPhoto, or using intensive filters in photo editing suites will have a noticeable speed increase. But, if you’re a user of Photoshop, this speed may take a little longer to reach you; the latest version of Photoshop for Macintosh isn’t written for 64 bit. Adobe have stated that a 64-bit version will ship as part of CS5 for Mac. Until then, you’ll have to make do with the smaller speed boosts thanks to the operating system itself.

If you’re thinking you may need to update your processor, hang on for a minute. If your Macintosh is using the Intel Core 2 Duo chip, you’ll be pleased to know that this is a 64 bit chip. If your Mac is using the Intel Core Duo chip, you won’t have the full power of 64 bit, but you’ll still notice speed increases thanks to the slimmer Snow Leopard and more effective code. If you’re a retro Macintosh user with a PowerPC Mac, I’m afraid you won’t be able to install Snow Leopard. From this point forward, it’s Intel only, despite the latest G5 chip being 64 bit.

If you have more room for RAM in your Mac, you may be pleased to hear that you can add a little more to help process your data. Theoretically, Leopard can already support up to 32GB of RAM, but applications can only use 4GB of that at a time, so installing any more was not necessary. 64 bit applications could theoretically support up to 16 exabytes of RAM (16 billion GB). Yes, that is an insane amount. Snow Leopard itself will only be able to support up to 16TB of RAM, which is still an insane amount of RAM. Keeping with your current RAM should be fine for now, but remember you have the options to add more if you feel your Mac becoming a little sluggish.

So, the entire core of Snow Leopard has been rewritten to support 64 bit processing. The majority of Apple’s native applications have also been rewritten, but not including iTunes, Front Row, DVD Player or Grapher. Generally, using your Mac will feel quicker and more responsive, with the real speed boosts coming with more memory intensive applications. Not all applications support 64 bit at present, but in the near future, it will likely become standard.

For just $29, you’re getting a lot more power than you had with Leopard, yet even that was miles ahead of, say, Vista. With Snow Leopard, lagging will be a thing of the past, and the more powerful operating system will allow you to concentrate on making great things on your Macintosh, the way Steve Jobs intended.