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Adobe's "Square" brings 64-bit Flash to Mac, Windows

updated 08:20 pm EDT, Wed September 15, 2010

 

Adobe posts 64-bit Flash preview for Mac, PC


Adobe today posted "Square," a preview version of 64-bit Flash available for Mac and Windows. Expanding on the original Linux port, it gives users of Mac OS X Snow Leopard's 64-bit mode and 64-bit x86 editions of Windows a truly native plugin instead of having to use a compatibility layer or nothing at all. The release also gives these users performance optimizations specific to 64-bit processors.

Windows users get a specific benefit if they use Internet Explorer 9, as "Square" will use the Direct2D hardware acceleration to render its content using a PC's graphics chipset faster than it would with the main processor. Linux users should get better reliability.

Apart from the need for a 64-bit OS and processor, the hardware requirements are the same as for the 32-bit edition of Flash 10.1. Adobe has stressed that "Square" isn't a pre-release of a future version of Flash in itself but will have its technology rolled into later iterations.


By Electronista Staff

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industry, software, Linux, Vista, Adobe, Flash, Internet Explorer, Windows 7, Snow Leopard

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Previous Comments

  1. tkmd

    Grizzled Veteran

    Joined: Oct 2001

    +3
    09/15, 10:15pm | report spam | reply

    comment title

    does this have the video acceleration for 9400M users also?


  1. Bearcat

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Sep 2009

    +4
    09/15, 11:15pm | report spam | reply

    Uh huh

    And I bet it'll still work like c***, max out the CPUs, and still crash my mac constantly. Yep, sounds great to me.


  1. jfelbab

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2004

    +5
    09/15, 11:16pm | report spam | reply

    Can'[t wait

    for the critical holes to be discovered.

    Think I'll pass for the next year or two. By then, HTML5 will be prevalent.


  1. iphonerulez

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Nov 2008

    +2
    09/16, 12:38am | report spam | (1 reply) | reply

    Right off the bat it looks like Windows is

    given an edge with graphics processor help.

    I don't know if HTML5 is going to be prevalent anytime soon. Too many pricks seem to be absolutely in love with Adobe Flash. I think that even the Feds support that c*** about Flash being the cornerstone of the internet. WTF! Adobe must have paid more money than Apple did for lobbying the government or something. I only know that using youtube with HTML5 videos is as smooth as silk with hardly any processor activity as opposed what I'd get when using Flash. I think Mac users will be doomed for a long time waiting for the internet to change over to HTML5.


  1. JeffHarris

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Oct 1999

    +6
    09/16, 02:40am | report spam | reply

    64-bit Flash?

    I can't wait. now it can use ALL my RAM to slow my browsing to a crawl!
    THEN, I can dream of 1992 AOL dialup!


  1. _Rick_V_

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Mar 2003

    -3
    09/16, 11:09am | report spam | reply

    in fairness to Windows...

    Part of the problem is that Mac doesn't have a direct-equivalent to Direct2D (2D graphics hardware acceleration). Long before Direct2D, Apple had promised Quickdraw Extreme, then later renamed to QuartzGL. Neither of which ever got publicly released in any version of Mac OS.

    The alternative Mac technologies is using OpenGL** (which can be hardware accelerated) or CoreAnimation (which some parts can also be hardware accelerated). But I suspect that that neither are a direct drop-in replacement to Direct2D, which means that anyone making a cross-platform app that behaves the same (i.e. hardware acceleration) has some work ahead of them.

    ** And then of course there's the tidbit that OpenGL isn't even up to the current version that's available, which only hampers development and misses features that's available in the latest version.

    P.S. Flash sucks.


  1. DeezNutts

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 2008

    +1
    09/16, 12:00pm | report spam | reply

    not a big flash fan but damn


    I'm not a big fan of Flash but I gotta say that the 64-bit Square pre-release works freakin' awesome on my Core i5 running Windows 7 x64 with the firefox Namoroka 3.6.3 64 beta.

    Video playback only put a 4% cpu load on 1 core vs. 30+% on Firefox 32bit with the 32-bit Flash 10.1.

    I'm actually impressed and that does not happen very often when it comes to adobe products for me!


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