My Fellow PowerBook-philes,
This is something I have been hearing a lot lately: "Steve never said
it would necessarily be x86 architecture!"
Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but it likely will be. More clues
point towards this than some other, fancier architecture.
For example: The PowerMac he was running the presentation on was using
an Intel Pentium 4 Ghz chip. (Unless someone saw something different,
the keynote was a bit grainy.)
The unviersal binaries are mentioned to be able to run on PowerPC and
x86 Intel architecture.
The developer boxes that people have gotten have Pentiums in them.
This does not mean that Apple won't be using an Apple-specific chip at
some point, but it does likely mean that said chip will likely be x86
backward compatible.
I feel the PowerPC was a bit more inherently stable (read some of the
notes on MacSlash about bit addressing) and the Altivec instructions
were likely a bit better for high-end number-crunching (I've already
read multiple worries from scientists who prefer the PowerPC), but for
the over-all consumer I'd say there will not be much difference. A
program might crash twice a year instead of once a year, but it still
won't affect the OS.
Virii also will not be an issue -- unless you believe some corporate spy
is very intent on using the alleged HyperThreading exploit to steal your
password so they can get access to all your iPhotos.
I'm a bit melancholy. I liked being different. I like the PowerPC.
But it is a line not suited for Apple's plans.
I am more worried about the effect on Apple the company rather than any
problems with new Macs.
Sincerely,
Pacer the Loon
"I had too much caffeine to drink tonight, and now I am on a roll!
Someone stop me!!!!!"
Bill Briggs wrote:
Well, there are some clues if you read enough of the fine print. I too
(as a poorly paid professor of electrical engineering in a Canadian
university and an Apple shareholder) would be rather annoyed if Apple
actually sold x86 Macs. But there is a more interesting possibility.
Back when DEC folded the Alpha project (which was probably the best
processor design around at the time), all 300 of the engineering staff
from DEC went to work for Intel. They are currently working on a new
chip at Intel that will, if the press is correct, be shipping sometime
in 2007. It will not be an x86 family chip, and will have tossed all
of the legacy support mechanisms that the x86 family carries. If it's
something in the same class as the Alpha then it could really be good
for the Mac.
I dislike x86 architecture too (having written assembler for it I know
all too well how ugly it is), but the fact is that IBM wasn't willing
to invest in the future of PowerPC for Apple. I suspect that someone
at IBM just pissed Steve Jobs off one too many times, and that's the
end of it. I'm not selling my Apple stock. I'm still going to buy a
new 15" PowerBook this year, and I'm taking a wait and see attitude
concerning what's going to happen two years out.
Jobs didn't do this for profit, he did it for long-term viability. If
IBM had been able to provide the CPU development, he'd have stuck with
the PowerPC platform.
So we can all wear a black arm band for a week and then get on with
work. But I'm betting that the chip you see in the Mac in 2007 is not
an x86 processor, but a new one, and one developed by those 300 folks
they got from DEC.
- web
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