up vote 2 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I just got a Mac and I have Snow Leopard installed. I checked my arch type and it says i386.

How is it possible? 10.6 is 64-bit, right?

link|improve this question
82% accept rate
feedback

1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote accepted

By default Mac OS X still starts up using a 32-bit kernel. If your computer supports the 64-bit kernel, and you start up using the 64-bit kernel it will display x86_64 instead of i386.

You can find out more about the use of the 32-bit kernel by default in the Why does my Mac OS X 10.6 kernel run in 32-bit mode? question here on Super User.

link|improve this answer
can i make 64bit default? – zengr Jul 8 '10 at 5:52
Read the accepted answer in the Superuser post that Chealion linked to. Short answer is yes but you don't need to to run 64-bit applications. – fideli Jul 8 '10 at 10:58
Got that, thanks :) – zengr Jul 8 '10 at 16:46
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.