it's simple really, the motorola processors have always been far superior to intel offerings, even at a lower clock rate. the instruction sets and architecture make more sense, are more efficient, and much easier to program for. the x86 line is far past it's prime, it's just that unlike when apple brilliantly managed to move from the 68k series to the ppc the windows world hasn't been able to move to newer more effiecent processors. mhz is not a meaningful measure of power across architectures. the power pc is not just a motorola thing, ibm also heavily invested in it and makes many of the chips, they new they needed to break away from the x86 architecture on their high end systems. actually, ibm considered using the 68k in their first pc! the only reason ibm didn't use it was a supply problem, where as apple (and wozniak in particular) have always favored using the best, most efficient chips and ironing out supply problems later. try a 2 ghz pc, you won't get as much done as on a 1 ghz mac.
on the other hand, discontinuing single processor models is dumb thing for apple to do, it further prices them out of the lowend market at a time when most people already have computers with more power than they can use but applications that are painful to work with. MP3 encoding isn't a real world comparison either, unless you're only interested in that, just as photoshop is only real world if that's the app you use. mostly there are just allot of apps that haven't been optimized for the g4 yet, MP3 ripping probably being one of them, if it were recompiled on an altivec aware compiler it should blow the socks off a pc! it's just that pc's have an amazingly consistent architecture so apps don't have to be re-writen, but you do have to push the processor speed and memory much, much harder. another example, computational chemistry programs, which are obscenely math intensive. some of the big names in this market are releasing mac versions that take advantage of the altivec and the nicer os. they aren't doing it because they like programming (the programs are also truly huge), but rather because the market wants more speed. this software is extensively used for "new" drug design amongst other things, the money is there to build the best combination of processing platform and software possible. Aaron Willems wrote: > > That's the million dollar question. Why Apple stuck with Motorola is a > mystery to me. My best guess is contracts. But contract or not when someone > is holding back your company, screw the contract, just bite the bullet and > move on. Enough is Enough. I have been waiting for two years to buy a new > PowerMac, and I am not going to spend 3,000 dollars on a Dual Processor 1.25 > GHz G4. Not when PC's are running at twice the clock speed. I don't care > what Apple says. Photoshop is not a real world comparison for performance. > Have you seen how fast a PC can rip through MP3 encoding. Please Apple..... ------ -- "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." (Richard Henry Lee, Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights.) -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
