Games - OSx86

	Games - OSx86

OSx86 is an unofficial term used for Apple's Mac OS X port on the Intel x86 architecture, usually referring to the effort to get the operating system to run on non-Apple manufactured hardware.

OSx86 is a portmanteau of "Mac OS X" and "Intel x86". While the exact origins of this term are unknown, it has largely been attributed to the . However, the term was previously used when referring to the rumored x86-compatible version of OS X mainted by Apple since it's inception.

The origin of OSx86 in the wild was a leaked copy of the Apple Development DVD, which was supplied for a rental cost of $999, as part of the Marklar project development package. The package also included a custom motherboard similar to a typical PC motherboard with the Intel 915 chipset, and featured a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) in order to restrict installation of OSx86 to only the boards given by Apple. From there, the copy protection methods were removed, and so installing on non-certified hardware was possible -- OSx86 was born.

Because Apple so far does not intend to release Mac OS X for generic Intel platforms, like Microsoft Windows has done historically, the system requirements to run OSx86 are relatively strict. This is due to the fact that Apple does not need to worry about hardware compatability apart from their own systems. Modern Intel chipset-based motherboards have produced the best results, although some AMD boards will also suffice. The processor also requires the SSE2 instruction set at minimum. The PowerPC compatability layer, Rosetta, requires SSE3, although patches have created an emulation mode for SSE3 instructions to be replaced with SSE2 equivilants, at the cost of speed. 10.4.3 introduced the requirement for NX bit support by the processor. As with SSE3, the NX requirement can be removed by patching.

It is often said that the reason behind the leak was to get the community to not only test compatibility with PC hardware, but to also test the copy protection methods. The 10.4.3 DVD vastly improved on the methods from the original (10.4.1) to prevent running on unauthorized hardware, though even 10.4.3 was cracked by hobbyists as of November 21, 2005.

Apple released the first Intel-based Macintoshes on January 10, 2006 with Mac OS X 10.4.4, and utilized an Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) chip instead of the traditional BIOS chip found in most current x86 platforms. This is a fairly large impediment to running the OS on normal x86 computers, as EFI is currently an uncommon feature. It is believed by the hacker community that circumvention may be possible by extracting the BIOS compatability codes from existing OSx86 builds and placing it in 10.4.4, but as of February 26, 2006, no methods of circumventing the EFI requirement had yet been found. Like its predecessor builds, 10.4.4 was leaked onto file sharing networks on January 26, 2006 .

On February 14, 2006 an initial "crack" of OS X 10.4.4 was released on the internet. With this release, it appeared Apple's efforts at locking OS X to Apple hardware were not as effectual as anticipated. Within hours, however, Apple released the 10.4.5 update. It is unknown if this was done intentionally or if it was purely coincidental. 10.4.5 is now offically "cracked".

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