What is "Grand Central Dispatch"? Which Macs support the "Grand Central Dispatch" technology provided by MacOS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard"?

Apple explains that the "Grand Central Dispatch" technology provided by MacOS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard":

Makes it much easier for developers to squeeze every last drop of power from multicore systems. With GCD, threads are handled by the operating system, not by individual applications. GCD-enabled programs can automatically distribute their work across all available cores, resulting in the best possible performance whether they're running on a dual-core Mac mini, an 8-core Mac Pro, or anything in between. Once developers start using GCD for their applications, you'll start noticing significant improvements in performance.

Keeping with Apple's "train station" metaphor, it's simplest to think that Grand Central Dispatch makes it possible for the operating system take charge of the "trains" (application threads) and decide the most efficient way to route them.

Previously, programmers were required to route their own trains, so to speak, and had no overall coordination with other programs. However, just like OpenCL, programmers have to explicitly write applications to take advantage of Grand Central Dispatch, and the technology provides no speed boost for earlier applications.

Apple formally specifies that Grand Central Dispatch "requires a Mac with a multicore processor", but more precisely, GCD works on every Intel Mac except for the lonely Mac mini "Core Solo" 1.5.

It is possible -- but not supported by Apple -- to upgrade this Mac mini with a Core Duo or Core 2 Duo processor, which then would allow it to use Grand Central Dispatch. Upgrading the processor in this Mac mini may or may not be worth the cost or the trouble, but the option exists.

Also see:

• Which Intel Macs have 64-bit processors? Which have a 64-bit EFI? Which are capable of booting MacOS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" in 64-bit mode?
• What is "OpenCL"? Which Macs support the "OpenCL" technology provided by MacOS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard"?

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