ColdFusion Goes 64-bit

Adobe Systems may have disappointed some Mac users with news that its Photoshop CS4 software will be 64-bit for Windows but not Mac, but the company announced last week the release of an update to ColdFusion 8 that brings 64-bit support to Mac OS X v10.5 running on Intel-based Macs.

ColdFusion is Adobe's Internet application development engine. It's designed to help Web developers create business application software. Features in ColdFusion 8 include a server monitor that helps developers identify performance bottlenecks, dynamic PDF creation and interaction, support for Ajax, .NET integration, integration with Microsoft Exchange Server and more.

ColdFusion 8 Update 1 -- also called ColdFusion 8.0.1 -- provides full 64-bit support for Mac OS X (along with Windows and Linux), extending 64-bit support beyond Solaris, which already had it. Adobe has also improved Ajax functionality and has updated several software libraries. Release notes (in PDF format) on Adobe's Web site outline all the differences.

Adobe explained that 64-bit support in ColdFusion means the software can perform better on 64-bit computer architectures by handling more information in the same clock cycle, and can use a significantly larger memory space, which allows memory-intensive operations to operate more efficiently.