| | For those who care (and there seems to be at least one) here are a few cited reasons for Apple switching to Intel:
- Porting software from the PC and Windows will be easier than ever. Intel Macs and Windows PCs will share a common language. Initially this will be x86, later it will advance to Intels IA-64/EM64T platform for 64-bit computing.
- The cost of Intels chips is lower, and as far as bang for buck goes Intel are streets ahead of IBM
- Intel may not have the fastest of the best x86 CPUs at present, that is clearly AMDs title to own for now, but they use less power an generate less heat than AMD or IBM CPUs and return 5 times computing more power per Watt of energy. This is also set to improve.
- An advantage not spoken about by Apple is an Open Source project for x86 Unix platforms called 'WINE'. Whats that? Basically WINE produce a 'false floor' to allow Windows Application Software (i.e. the programs that run in Windows, like Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, and even some Games) to run in a non-Windows environment. Attempts have been made to duplicate it's effects on IBM's PowerPC platform but to very little effect. WINE will pot easily to Mac OS X Intel, that is certain, and if a good Aqua based interface can be built for it OS X has a real chance of just running Windows Apps. No Virtual PC. No Dual-booting. Just Apps, and possibly even PC Games on a Mac.
- Speaking of Games... Porting Windows games, especially those that use OpenGL graphics technology, will become very much easier. Some sort of gaming framework will need to be forthcoming from Apple, but indications so far this year point to Steve Jobs wanting Apple seriously to work on this. It shouldn't a great deal harder than, say, porting a DirectX/Direct3D based Windows game for the current XBox.
Games that use DirectX's Direct3D technology, of course, will require more extensive work, but at least all that work will concentrate of translating to Mac OS not translating to PowerPC - something that has harmed Mac game ports greatly in the past, not to mention slowing them down massively.
- Why abandon IBM and PowerPC though? Well basically IBM screwed up. Steve has stuck with PowerPC as long as he has because he was waiting on getting Mac users over to OS X and making OS X itself a useful, stable and feature rich OS. from there forward it was just a case of picking a good looking moment to make the switch happen. IBM's recet lapse attitude towards PowerPC development was the excuse Steve needed. Also IBM's future roadmap (the future planning for their processor development) does not, ccording to Steve jobs, go where Apple are headed. Add to that the raw fact that, after 2 years of using IBM's PowerPC G5 CPU, over half Apple's Macintosh line are still using G4 CPUs from Motorola that first launched in 1999 because the G5 is simply not flexible enough and runs way too hot, you have a good case for IBM looking pretty bad in Apple's eyes. It is now even becoming apparent that G5 iMacs, in all their beauty, that are running for long periods under heavy loads are starting to warp the plastic chassis that months the computers internals. Suddenly the great almighty PowerPC G5 looks like it's bleeding like a stuck pig.
In my opinion IBM's lapse is a result of their big move into console gaming - IBM technology powers the XBox 360 AND the PS3 - that's a pretty profitable win/win situation. Compared to Apple's current market (the vast majority of the recent expansion of which is NOT running G5 CPUs as a lot of it is iBook, Mac mini and Powerbook sales) the Console Gaming market is a behemoth.
- It is my opinion that equivalent PC and Mac Intel products will run better in MAc OS X than Windows simply because, although a large footprint OS, Mac OS X does not contain the shreds of legacy code, poorly implemented half-features and in places utterly bemusing programming structure that plagues Windows. Just you wait until you see Photoshop for Windows and Mac OS X Intel running side by side, mark my words - if it's done right by Adobe the Mac version will run rings around Windows.
- Mac OS X's roots, believe it or not lie on the Intel platform. Steve Jobs' former company, NeXT, moved to Intel from Motorola's 680x0 CPUs in the mid-1990s. From there came OPENSTEP, the Intel version of NeXT's NEXTSTEP Operating System. When Apple bought NeXT in the late 1990s they got OPENSTEP. OPENSTEP was developed by a combination of Apple and former NeXT people into Rhapsody. Rhapsody was an experiment that was developed both on Intel and Mac. It took the best of OPENSTEP and attempted to blend it with the existing style of Mac OS 9. It wasn't that successful but it did spawn some products (called 'Mac OS X Server 1.x'), and also several Developer Releases which ran on Intel and Mac. Apple bottled before they released the Intel version of Mac OS X Server 1.0 and it never saw the light of the Intel platform. At that stage (around 2000) Mac OS X in it's current form was already taking shape. As Steve Jobs reveled at the WWDC 2005 keynote address Mac OS X is and always was compiled for both PowerPC and Intel platforms. He called this a 'Just In Case'. I call it a long term mission :)
Downers.... yes there are some:
- We will probably have to put up with that stupid Intel jingle in Apple adverts
- We can't slag off PC processors anymore (I didn't really anyway but some folks take pride in doing it...)
- There is also potential for abuse of Mac OS X Intel - it may well be possible to hack an ordinary Intel PC to run it. That means Apple may lose hardware sales. If it gets really epidemic (which I doubt it will if Apple keep their wits) then it could kill Apple's hardware market, which is a tragedy (in my book at least) because Apple computers are so very well designed.
- PowerPC Macs will eventually cease to be supported. That's computing though. It's already happened with 68k to PowerPC moves and at that time Apple was less prepared than it is now to offer competitively priced replacements for old computer users.
I hope that's enlightened a few people... |
| | Posted 6/8/2005 3:30 PM - 3 views - 0 comments
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