Actually there are currently ia64 boards that are Open-Firmware, I
don't have one but I would imagine the development x86 Macs that
were released to developers are pretty mush so plain PC. They
probably boot similar to FreeBSD, in that they unmap the PC BIOS
and replace it with Forth based boot loader.
I would imagine the actual production Macs will be OF ia64 systems.
The boxes they are providing developers know I primarily to get the
code working on x86, hence why Apple wants them back and not in the
general market
Despite all that, the developer documentation that Apple released
specifically says that the new platform will use a BIOS, not Open
Firmware. Anand on http://anandtech.com covers some of this (http://
anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2439). You can also download
the documents for yourself and read them if you want. I breezed over
them just to get an overview. As I said before this wil be VERY,
VERY, VERY good for the Apple platform. Are you aware that the 128MB
ATI 9200 Mac Edition costs $125+? The same card for a PC can be
purchased for $39.99 at Newegg!!!!!!!! THAT is why BIOS based
motherboards will be better than OpenFirmware. The chip makers
should only need to produce one BIOS that will be compatible on any
x86 platform when Apple starts using the new motherboards.
Todd
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