Did we miss something? (PPC related)

[AHDuke99]

I was just reading around tonight and came across the follwoing and was wondering if any of us had any idea about this project underway back in 2005 when apple made the intel switch.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1875302,00.asp

While dual booting is nice, i am still one that was and still is against the intel mac switch, and was wondering evetyone's thoughts on that news. a dual core 2ghz G5 running at 5-13 watts. PA Semi is a group of industry vets that formed this new company and licensed the PowerPC architecture from IBM. Granted, there's no guarentee that this thing would've/will be produced without problems, but the fact remains that my fear that the PPC will advance faster than Intel is still here. Intel can easily slip back into a funk like they were in a year or 2 ago. Will Apple, now that they are making everything universal, use multiplatforms? PPC and Intel macs sold side by side depending on which chip is better at a given time? I know IBM has had some bumps in the road, but the entire industry hit a bump a year or so ago.

http://www.edn.com/article/CA6277164.html?partner=enews&nid=2019

more information. i know, i know, not till late 2006 and we couldnt wait that long, but i am beginning to think apple made a mistake in the long run.

 

[macman2790]

i don't think that steve jobs or apple will care anyways. Apple computers are selling like hotcakes nowadays.

 

[WildCowboy]

No one was more surprised than the folks at P.A. Semi when Apple's switch to Intel was announced.

Linkety.

 

[dmw007]

Wow, those chips are pretty cool. Very good at performance per watt.

 

[AHDuke99]

yep they are cool sounding chips. i just fear that intel will slump back into a high power low performance company again and while PC manufactuers will just make their notebooks thicker, apple will be left behind in the dust. mostPC users dont care if they laptop is 2" thick.

 

[bousozoku]

I thought that we had an old thread on this but Steve Jobs' friendship with Intel's Andy Grove had more impact on the decision than the processors. He mentioned his intention to transition to Intel as far back as when he was the iCEO.

PASemi's processors are great but the likelihood of Apple staying with PowerPC was minimal and now, you can forget about their going backward or even selling machines side-by-side with different companies' processors except in a transition period.

Of course, upgrades might be somewhere they could go. That PowerBook G5 might be just around the weekend.

 

[iMeowbot]

more information. i know, i know, not till late 2006 and we couldnt wait that long, but i am beginning to think apple made a mistake in the long run.

Yeah, they said they would be sampling in Q3'06 and it's Q4 with nothing but a slipped vaporschedule. Their current promise is for a single-core part in early 2007, no multi until late 2007/early 2008. Apple would have been left in the dust by x86 on that schedule.