"Apple would have to be really desperate to abandon the PowerPC
architecture, given the obstacles it faces... The talks with Intel,
which are probably about Wi-Fi or using Intel chips in the iPod, are
almost certainly being spun by Apple execs. to put pressure on
IBM..."
This confuses me from macuser - i thank there is some naivety or bull
headedness...
feel free to point out where my thinking is wrong but..
Obstacles:
apart from the market perception, technology/os wise they really are
not in too much of pickle.
The FreeBSD core of OS X has been around for a long while for x86 arch.
So to be honest apple are not going to have to much of a problem there,
im guessing (guessing here) that a lot of 'deep' code in applications
exist as c++ so it means recompiling for the x86 kernel, not the g4/5.
This is something that is working as the norm in the linux world
anyhow....
Pressure:
Xbox 2 and new nintendo - both are going to be using g5 procs - the
nintendo using dual cores....so i dont think that IBM, who use the
power 5 chips in there own mindrange machines anyhow (p5 i5 and so on),
are going to be forced into trying to spend shedloads more on r&d to
get the powerconsumption down for the g5 for laptops....apple account
for 2% of ibms total chip sales, can you imagine what that is compared
to the predicted sales of the xbox 2? Apple have a history of being a
bit primadonna when they come to their suppliers..
lets be honest - laptops have recently outsold desktops (globally, not
necc apple) for the first time recently, is a bog market. Apple do not
have anything they can use in a laptop other than a g4 which is
basically an overclocked 5 year old design and needs updating to
compete. I can see apple not wishing to support 2 differing archs for
too long so it sort of makes sense. Plus they are going to damn well
make sure that existing apps work on either platform as much as
possible.
Again - this happens in the linux/unix world on a regular basis.
Dont get me wrong, i wish apple would stick with the power procs, they
are good chips and i am not a fan of intel (for years they just relied
on clock speed, and finally lose out to amd in the 64 bit stakes since
they have adopted AMDs architecture as a standard. - bet that hurt)
i will be sad and might be inclined to purchase a g5 desktop before
they all go.
Just some thoughts on this whole thing.
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