Apple will win big in one sense. Apple will not have to put energy
into an alternative processor path that may or may not perform as
well as other Intel based PCs. Apple will be able to get a free ride
in this area and the MegaHertz "Processor War" will no longer be an
issue. By breaking with the Mot/IBM architectures, and embracing the
Transitive (Rosetta) technology, Apple has opened the door to other
more advanced architectures from Intel in the future --as well as
from other suppliers (including IBM if warranted). I have never been
a fan of Intel X86 architectures. I designed/built my first 8008
based processor when they first came out. When the 8080 came out, it
was the same lame instruction set with a superset. I switched to the
6800 for my CPUs at that time, because I had to program my
applications in machine code. However, I also designed Z80 and 8080
CPU based systems for special applications. By the time the 68K came
out, I was out of the CPU hardware business, but I had learned a lot
about the problems of differing native hardware and had already
developed emulators and low level languages that were cross platform
compatible --like the MC engine. Believe me when I say that Apple
has positioned itself well. They might have made this switch earlier
if IBM had not promised to win the MHz war. But IBM fell down on the
job --leaving Steve with egg on his face (not a good thing to do to
your customer). Apple also had to wait for the Transitive technology
to mature. I am sure this is marking the end of Apple's reliance on
any single supplier or CPU architecture. This could also be a move
by Apple to start positioning itself to challenge MS for the
Desktop. They can't risk an open move like that yet, but the
transitive technology could open the door to run windows apps
"Natively" under the Mac OS X without slow emulation software. That
would really kick Bill in the teeth --which I am sure Steve has been
aching to do since he swiped windows from him.
Dennis
On Jun 6, 2005, at 2:18 PM, Jim MacConnell wrote:
Ugh... I hate the idea of Mactel machines...
But maybe it doesn't matter if we a get better performance? Can
that be
possible? Does this open up new graphics performance worlds for Mac
Gaming?........
Is this actually a good thing since the PowerPC has had trouble
"growing"
the way I think everyone expected... Is Apple now better off (more
stable
chip supply) or worse off (looking more like a software company all
the time
with a vestigial computer arm?)
Jim
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