Prores support in Premiere on MAC

Question

(I am, as per usual, confused.)
A few Qs:
1)   I've read vague reports regarding prores support in Premiere.  When I say support, I am mean being able to READ(decode) and WRITE(encode) any of the Prores flavors (Proxy, LT, 422, 422HQ and 4444).  I have a Mac Pro with nothing but a clean install of 10.7 Lion and Adobe Production Premium CS5.5 on it.  What do I need to install for read/write Prores support?  I THINK I need to download just Motion or Compressor from the Mac App store to have access to all the Prores flavors. (encode & decode)  Is that correct?  Or is there a free option?
2)    If I download Motion for example, will I then see the prores codecs as an option in the Premiere export dialog or in Adobe Media Encoder as an export option?  I ask this because i would like to be able to transcode DSLR H.264 footage, GoPro footage and Logitech webcam footage into a standardized intermediate codec (Prores LT)  for my project.
3)    I am still confused about what the render situation is when editing Prores footage in Premiere.  Will the following chain of events take place?  I download/install Motion THEN > I import prores files into Premiere THEN > I drag one of these prores files onto the Create New Sequence button to create a sequence  THEN > I can edit and the sequence will NOT require rendering (no colored render bar) because the sequence should match the media settings?  Is this correct?
I hope I have articulated my questions well. 
With respect and admiration,
El Steverino

Answer 1

I recommend reading the document that Tom pointed to about the render bar colors. The important thing to note is this bit:
OK, so now about those colored render bars…
With that preparatory definition out of the way, what do the colored bars mean?
green: This segment of the sequence has a rendered preview file associated with it. Playback will play using the rendered preview file. Playback at full quality is certain to be in real time.
yellow: This segment of the sequence does not have a rendered preview file associated with it. Playback will play by rendering each frame just before the CTI reaches it. Playback at full quality will probably be in real time (but it might not be).
red: This segment of the sequence does not have a rendered preview file associated with it. Playback will play by rendering each frame just before the CTI reaches it. Playback at full quality will probably not be in real time (but it might be).
none: This segment of the sequence does not have a rendered preview file associated with it, but the codec of the source media is simple enough that it can essentially be treated as its own preview file. Playback will play directly from the original source media file. Playback at full quality is certain to be in real time. This only occurs for a few codecs (including DV and DVCPRO).
Note the uses of the word probably above. The colors aren’t a promise. They’re a guess based on some rather simple criteria. If you have a fast computer, then a lot of things marked with red may play back in real time; if you have a slow computer, then some things marked with yellow may need to be rendered to preview files before the segment can be played in real time.