Snow Leopard Golden Master

The recent Mac OS X Snow Leopard build, 10A432, has allegedly reached the Golden Master stage, according to the French site Mac4Ever. Several "knowledgeable sources" claim the latest version seeded to developers is the final copy and ready for mass production on DVDs.

If the sources are accurate, the Golden Master build could indicate the company is on-track for its expectation of a September release. Apple has not yet announced a specific day for initial availability, however.

OS X 10.6 boasts a wide range of enhancements and improvements over its predecessor, along with 64-bit optimizations and a much smaller footprint. The company has worked to improve speeds for Preview and Finder, while users will be able to magnify icons in real-time.

Snow Leopard also brings a new architecture, Grand Central Dispatch, that aims to optimize processing on multi-core systems. OpenCL support will allow video cards to be used for other tasks such as physics or scientific calculations.

Apple is set to ship Snow Leopard ahead of its rival, Windows 7. The upgrade pricing is also competitive, as upgrades from 10.5 are available for just $29. Customers can purchase a family pack with three license for $49.

Update: Several sources have chimed in to claim that the current build has not declare "GM".

by MacNN Staff