Apple On Track to Ship Intel Macs by June 2006

[SiliconAddict]

However seriously if this goes the way i think it will, my newest PowerMac G5 could be the last Mac i buy. Paying a premium for Intel kit to run OSX. As great as the OS is i think ill just forget it and go back to the PC. It all depends on how Apple treat the current users.... 🙁

That makes absolutely NO sense. So you are complaining about Apple going to a different platform so you threaten to change OS's and still go back to that platform anyways. Please enlighten me how this is any different then two people arguing that their cup of water is better then the other guys even though its being pulled from the same faucet? I'm not getting sucked into a 3 page post like I've done the last two times about the transition. Suffice it to say Apple needs to do this transition. Period. Its painful but it has to be done and its not like they aren't going to support PPC hardware for the foreseeable future. x86 system won't be in the majority for a LONG LONG LONG time. Easily 3+ years. In that time developers will create cross platform binaries and life will be OK. Not great but OK. 😕

 

[digitalbiker]

God people. If there is no water in a cup, its empty. If there are no options other then an x86 PowerBook then you wait until its ready. It’s that simply. Everyone needs to pull their panties out of their crotch and cool off. A PowerBook will be released as soon as it’s ready. I'm pretty sure that Jobs isn't hold the bloody thing back because he loves to seem people screeching like chimps who had their banana taken away from them. It will come when it comes.

True, but it kind of makes you wonder if there isn't some kind of power play going between Apple and IBM.

I mean first Apple makes surprize announcement about Intel switch. Second IBM states they are shocked and announce low-power notebook ready G5 processors as well as dual core G5 cpu. Third Apple schedules big keynote with Steve Jobs for Paris. Then cancels said keynote two weeks before the event, even as Expo participants receive keynote passes.

Now the big hidden secret, behind the black cloth is dot mac storage going to 1 GB. How lame has this company become?

Sounds more like something going on behind the scenes that Jobs was not prepared to deal with.

 

[SiliconAddict]

If anything I am soooooo going to welcome WWDC ’06 because its probably going to usher in the halfway mark for the x86 transition and hopefully will make people stop the senseless and pointless complaining. I swear half of the comments on any thread dealing with x86 is so totally off on the facts we know or have been told that it makes me wonder how long after the transition beings its going to take before people wake up to the fresh ground aroma of a clue that Apple isn’t trying to screw people over. Apple isn’t doing this for ****s and giggles. Jobs isn’t doing this to spite IBM and Moto. Apple isn't going to abandon the PPC overnight. And there is a very real need to get to a platform that can meet demand and push out new chips on a quarterly basis that isn’t just speedbumping along like roadkill.
Is it really too much to ask that people sit down take a deep breath and stop bitching for 6 months? *sighs* I guess so.
🙁

 

[Rod Rod]

Tiger for x86

Since Intel Macs are on schedule for June 2006, they'll ship with Tiger.

There will be no retail boxed versions of Tiger for x86 (or with universal binaries). Tiger's successor, Leopard, will ship with universal binaries.

In the same vein, iLife '06 will likely ship pre-installed on x86 Macs so the universal binary version doesn't need to be in the retail boxed version. However, if Apple puts universal binary versions of Tiger and iLife in retail boxes it will be for their convenience and not for any real need from consumers, because x86 Macs will have all of that pre-installed.

Tiger on the first x86 Macs will likely be version number 10.4.4 or 10.4.5.

 

[MontyZ]

.

 

[ZorPrime]

God people. If there is no water in a cup, its empty. If there are no options other then an x86 PowerBook then you wait until its ready. It’s that simply. Everyone needs to pull their panties out of their crotch and cool off. A PowerBook will be released as soon as it’s ready. I'm pretty sure that Jobs isn't hold the bloody thing back because he loves to seem people screeching like chimps who had their banana taken away from them. It will come when it comes.

I could care less about processors etc. As anything I purchase will be signigicantly faster than what I already have. As far as no options, i do not know. Last time I checked, high density WUXGAs are available today. A company, always has options. If Apple could pull off a deal with Samsung and get flash at prefered rates and 8 or so months later release the nano, Apple could mod some things w/ tech that's available today and at least put a WUXGA in their 17" PB. If Apple's proverbial cup was empty it would be out of business. I think the cup is half empty right now, especially for Apple's "high end" portables.

 

[RobHague]

That makes absolutely NO sense. So you are complaining about Apple going to a different platform so you threaten to change OS's and still go back to that platform anyways. Please enlighten me how this is any different then two people arguing that their cup of water is better then the other guys even though its being pulled from the same faucet? I'm not getting sucked into a 3 page post like I've done the last two times about the transition. Suffice it to say Apple needs to do this transition. Period. Its painful but it has to be done and its not like they aren't going to support PPC hardware for the foreseeable future. x86 system won't be in the majority for a LONG LONG LONG time. Easily 3+ years. In that time developers will create cross platform binaries and life will be OK. Not great but OK. 😕

Well im saying that if Apple treat PPC users badley after the 'transition' (i.e. drop PPC like a brick and push Intel to solve all woes) and the new Mactels are not as special as everyone assumed (i.e. you can get the same CPU's for much less elsewhere without the apple logo and OSX) then im not going to support them again....I had this funny, crazy idea when i was thinking about going with an Apple Mac that i would get a little more support. That apple stuck by their products (upgrades sure, i expect those) but not that they would dump the platform again and jump to Intel to save more £££ to make more profit? I thought it was one of the reasons they were popular amoung people - Quality and Longevity. OSX is nice but not specifically the only reason i bought a Mac.

If you buy a PC with a Pentium 4 today it might be outdated when the "Pentium 5" and "6" arrives say, but they are still x86 and it will still run new software. Even games (just not as well). Going from PPC to x86 isnt the same, dumping one platform for another. Not to mention the fact that its going to be a disaster id imagine for while after even if your on the otherside of the fence - I mean until all the transitioning is sorted and PPC is gone completley. What if Intel arent offering what Apple want at some point too? Are they going to do a back flip and look elsewhere again....

I was hoping Apples market share would get bigger meaning more companys/developers would jump on board and support the platform with their software. Now they have to support x86 and PPC to be 'Mac Compatible' and im sure there will be sacrifices for compatibility (like less time spent optimizing for PPC).

Just my 2c. Don't have to agree with me but its just how i feel at teh moment 😕

 

[treblah]

Third Apple schedules big keynote with Steve Jobs for Paris. Then cancels said keynote two weeks before the event, even as Expo participants receive keynote passes.

Now the big hidden secret, behind the black cloth is dot mac storage going to 1 GB. How lame has this company become?

Show me where Apple confirmed a Jobs Keynote.

Seriously, seeing a few shots of the convention center while it was being put together and the view of a black cloth has people going nuts? Did Apple say 'Behind this black cloth we have a BIG HIDDEN SECRET!' No. Logic should have told you that 'no Keynote = nothing good,' slights bumps maybe, but nothing big.

 

[oskar]

Is it really too much to ask that people sit down take a deep breath and stop bitching for 6 months? *sighs* I guess so.
🙁

The problem is that it's six more months. The PowerMac, PowerBook and even the iBook have seen no major updates in quite a long time. Six months is a very very long time. People are becoming desperate.
There could still be small updates in the next few week, can't there?

 

[oskar]

Show me where Apple confirmed a Jobs Keynote.

The point was that there was no keynote as would be expected, not that it was confirmed at any time. Last year there was a keynote where Jobs couldn't attend and now that he could, he opted for a question and answer session.

 

[vks3]

I think that not making a major announcement was probably a smart move - why steal thunder from the iPod nano? Apple's going to need strong Christmas sales for that little wonder. Chances are, all we'll be seeing in the near future are minor speed increases to the product line.

On another thought, I've been doing a lot of thinking about what the "next big thing" for apple could be. I know this isn't the appropriate thread, but I'm not sure where to post this, and I'd like to see people's input. My apologies if this really annoys people, but this is my first post, so cut me some slack. 🙂

So, here’s my thinking:

I believe that the ability to take TV programs with you on the go will be the “next big thing.” I believe this is much more appealing than full-length movies. In my experience, people really do like watching movies at home, on a big screen. Although it would be great to be able to take full length movies with you on a PSP-like portable device, I just don’t think the experience is that good.

However, the ability to take TV shows and shorter programs with you on-the-go is much more appealing to our lifestyles. Think about it. If you have a few minutes to sit down and watch “The Daily Show,” or “Seinfeld,” or whatever, that can be a good use of your time. But is it really attractive to sit down and watch a whole movie? In that case, you might as well use your laptop, where you’ll get a larger screen. But often, you don’t want to have to devote the attention and energy that a whole movie requires. You want something to pass the time, to give you some light amusement and entertainment.

What Apple should create is a TiVo application (let’s call it, iTV) that runs on your computer. iTV would be able to interface with the TV through an Airport Express-like box connected to your TV. iTV would have an ITunes like interface, allowing you to “search” for programs and schedule them for download. Your downloaded programs would be categorized and downloaded similar to the way your music is in ITunes.

The key would be to make it so that the TV programs would be stored on the computer itself, not in the living room box.

I think people would prefer to use iTV rather than their remote control. I don’t have TiVO, I have a DVR service through my cable company, and using a remote is a pain. iTV would be so much easier and intuitive, and would round off the iLife suite beautifully.

The living room box could run an application similar to that of the iTV application I’ve described, but perhaps a reduced version that operates kind of like the iPod menus. Hell, the remote could essentially be the iPod click wheel.

Music, photos, movies, TV shows – all content could then be uploaded to an iPod or new apple PSP-type device.

Actually, now I’m stretching it here, in fact, if flash-based memory becomes large enough, and if something the size of the iPod nano could hold a great deal of memory, then perhaps the iPod nano could be inserted into a PSP-like device, like a cartridge. The PSP device could then read everything from the nano. This would eliminate the need to transfer files unnecessarily. Also, this adds more flexibility – you don’t want to carry around a PSP all the time. Sometimes a nano is all you want. But if you want to use the PSP, you can just insert the nano like a memory stick.

I think creating an iApp that moves the functions of the TiVo to your computer would be very, very effective.

Again, my apologies for posting an unrelated thought to this thread...

-Vik

 

[digitalbiker]

Show me where Apple confirmed a Jobs Keynote.

Seriously, seeing a few shots of the convention center while it was being put together and the view of a black cloth has people going nuts? Did Apple say 'Behind this black cloth we have a BIG HIDDEN SECRET!' No. Logic should have told you that 'no Keynote = nothing good,' slights bumps maybe, but nothing big.

Yes, Apple did officially announce a keynote. It was on their website for several months. The attendee's even received their badges and passes for the keynote. It was cancelled at the last minute. All of which is fine but it is just highly unusual, it hadn't happenned before.

Apple always keeps their new product secret behind closed doors and black drapes. When they did it again many people assumed it was a new product. The dot mac announcement is a big step down from previous porduct annoucements of this type.

 

[~Shard~]

God people. If there is no water in a cup, its empty. If there are no options other then an x86 PowerBook then you wait until its ready. It’s that simply. Everyone needs to pull their panties out of their crotch and cool off. A PowerBook will be released as soon as it’s ready. I'm pretty sure that Jobs isn't hold the bloody thing back because he loves to seem people screeching like chimps who had their banana taken away from them. It will come when it comes.

Let me just say thank you for showing me I'm not the only rational person here. 😎

 

[digitalbiker]

If anything I am soooooo going to welcome WWDC ’06 because its probably going to usher in the halfway mark for the x86 transition and hopefully will make people stop the senseless and pointless complaining. I swear half of the comments on any thread dealing with x86 is so totally off on the facts we know or have been told that it makes me wonder how long after the transition beings its going to take before people wake up to the fresh ground aroma of a clue that Apple isn’t trying to screw people over. Apple isn’t doing this for ****s and giggles. Jobs isn’t doing this to spite IBM and Moto. Apple isn't going to abandon the PPC overnight. And there is a very real need to get to a platform that can meet demand and push out new chips on a quarterly basis that isn’t just speedbumping along like roadkill.
Is it really too much to ask that people sit down take a deep breath and stop bitching for 6 months? *sighs* I guess so.
🙁

Whooaa, chill out Addict!

You have to remember that long term Apple users have gone through this before and each time the users are the ones that have to grin and bear it.

The last transition from OS 9 to OS X was a costly transistion for me. Both in lack of productivity ,farting around with OS X trying to make it work correctly, and having to buy all new software. For many months I was emulating in classic or dual booting to an old OS 9 version to run applications that weren't ready for OSX. Months waiting for OS X drivers on printers, scanners, etc because vendor were slow to transition. Key software was slow to transition. Apple took free features like iMovie, iPhoto, and .mac and made them pay features.

Now we are suppose to wait months and months for new x86 hardware based macs that again won't have native software, will require major dollars to upgrade pro versions, and there is no guarantee that Apple will even stay competitive with Dell in terms of hardware.

Software vendors such as Adobe are already warning that it is going to be a long time before native x86 mac apps are available.

Many of the long term Apple users thought that Apple would have invested more of those R&D dollars in improving the PPC spec. If Apple had worked with IBM and invested in the PPC tech, they could have improved the FSB situation, and produced low power chips sooner that would have easily competed with Intel's lagacy latent x86 technology. Apple and IBM had their chance to shine and blew it! Funny now that everyone seems to be shifting to PPC/Cell or away from x86, Apple is now shifting toward it.

Sorry for the rant! But I hate when Apple users are blasted for complaining when they have every right to complain considering the state of Apple Computer right now and the things users have had to deal with over the last two transitions.

 

[Stella]

Your forgetting Apple released hardware not two weeks ago.. the Nano, iTunes phone ( regardless how much it sucks, apple didn't do the hardware) and iTunes 5.

Had these announcements not been made two weeks ago, they would have been today.

Apple made the right decision to go to Intel. IBM promised processors and couldn't deliver. Apple are not going to revamp their entire computer line with new PPC processors ( when they aren't available in great numbers) and when they will release new Intel based computers mid 2006.

Processors are Intel's main business, they rely on making processors and selling them, without supply constraints. Intel will excel in this department where IBM and Moto / Freescale failed woefully.

 

[SiliconAddict]

True, but it kind of makes you wonder if there isn't some kind of power play going between Apple and IBM.

I mean first Apple makes surprize announcement about Intel switch. Second IBM states they are shocked and announce low-power notebook ready G5 processors as well as dual core G5 cpu. Third Apple schedules big keynote with Steve Jobs for Paris. Then cancels said keynote two weeks before the event, even as Expo participants receive keynote passes.

Now the big hidden secret, behind the black cloth is dot mac storage going to 1 GB. How lame has this company become?

Sounds more like something going on behind the scenes that Jobs was not prepared to deal with.

No. It sounds like IBM is pissed that Apple basically told them to screw off and left them hanging. So what does IBM do? All of a sudden a G5 CPU that can handle being in a PowerBook arrives. $10 says that it’s a bluff. IBM knows it will NEVER show up in a laptop and obviously no one else is clamoring for a G5 Mobile CPU so they won't have to worry about Dell showing up on their step to ask for this. So no worries about actually needing to prove it exists.
It’s a song and dance show to make Apple look like they were full of it. Seriously. If IBM had such a chip at that point Apple would have been shipping 3Ghz G5 PowerMacs at MWSF or WWDC instead of pushing out a transition plan.
As for Apple Expo. *shrugs* Maybe they were planning on doing the whole iPod thing and decided to release it earlier suddenly to find they have nothing else to present. What was Jobs expected to do? Do a little jig on stage? More Tiger demos? I don't blame them. They are suck between a product launch and a hard place.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Whooaa, chill out Addict!

You have to remember that long term Apple users have gone through this before and each time the users are the ones that have to grin and bear it.

The last transition from OS 9 to OS X was a costly transistion for me. Both in lack of productivity ,farting around with OS X trying to make it work correctly, and having to buy all new software. For many months I was emulating in classic or dual booting to an old OS 9 version to run applications that weren't ready for OSX. Months waiting for OS X drivers on printers, scanners, etc because vendor were slow to transition. Key software was slow to transition. Apple took free features like iMovie, iPhoto, and .mac and made them pay features.

Now we are suppose to wait months and months for new x86 hardware based macs that again won't have native software, will require major dollars to upgrade pro versions, and there is no guarantee that Apple will even stay competitive with Dell in terms of hardware.

Software vendors such as Adobe are already warning that it is going to be a long time before native x86 mac apps are available.

Many of the long term Apple users thought that Apple would have invested more of those R&D dollars in improving the PPC spec. If Apple had worked with IBM and invested in the PPC tech, they could have improved the FSB situation, and produced low power chips sooner that would have easily competed with Intel's lagacy latent x86 technology. Apple and IBM had their chance to shine and blew it! Funny now that everyone seems to be shifting to PPC/Cell or away from x86, Apple is now shifting toward it.

Sorry for the rant! But I hate when Apple users are blasted for complaining when they have every right to complain considering the state of Apple Computer right now and the things users have had to deal with over the last two transitions.

I understand the complaining, but I think Apple made the correct choice. I'm sure Apple tried everything to keep with with PPC, but it had let Apple down many times in the past.
When the G4 was introduced @ 500 MHz in 1999, all seemed bright and beautiful. But then the wait..... it took 18 months for Apple / Motorola to go faster than 500 MHz (they even stepped DOWN 50 MHz!). So halfway 2000 Apple decided to introduce "Two Brains Are Better Than One". We went Dual. At that time it didn't bring that much extra value. Mac OS 9 was not designed for SMP, and almost all the (Pro) apps couldn't utilize the 2nd CPU. Adobe introduced a SMP plug-in for Photoshop.... but, that's pretty much it.
Ever since all topmodels PowerMac have had Dual CPU configs. I bet that costs Apple pretty much, probably lowering the profit margin on every Dual PowerMac sold.
And also ever since, Apple has had to fight a lost battle regarding CPU speed. Lower Mhz, a terrible FSB all added up to a worse-than-Intel performance computer.
Enter IBM. Problem solved.... well, postponed really.
Summer 2003 Apple finally introduced the G5. This 64 bit CPU, with a super fast FSB in Dual configs would bridge the gap with Intel / AMD. It did.... the first year. Then Steve made that infamous promise..... And he couldn't keep it. No PowerBook G5s.... XBox 360 using the 970 CPU.... it all added up: Steve couldn't trust IBM's commitment anymore in them supplying Apple enough super fast PPC CPU for in the Macs. Nor can Apple believe in IBM giving full attention and funds for the R&D of the G5.
So he went to the only provider of CPUs of whom he knows he can't have the same supply problems as IBM / Motorola.... Also the CPU manufacturer which delivers the CPU to which everyone seems to compare its product..... If you can't beat them.... join them: Intel.
And ever since NeXTSTEP, OPENSTEP, Rhapsody, Mac OS X has alwas been "ready" for x86, "just in case".
Ofcourse we'll get some rough times when running software in "Rosetta mode", or software which just will be incompatible, no Classic support etc.
But that is short-term thinking.
In a couple of years, we'll be used to x86 binaries on our Mac, running super fast. Many games coming to our platform. small x86 Linux utilites ported to x86 Mac OS X, etc.
And face it. 90% of the users will never know what a MacTel is. It will still feel like a Mac, look like a Mac, run Mac software... in short: it still IS a Mac.

 

[sjo]

Apple made the right decision to go to Intel. IBM promised processors and couldn't deliver.

Well Intels track record of keeping their roadmap or the promised advancements in the delivered products is not quite perfect either you know. There's really no guarantee of the performance of the chips before sampling and no guarantee of the ability to deliver those in volume until they are in production.

 

[Stella]

Well Intels track record of keeping their roadmap or the promised advancements in the delivered products is not quite perfect either you know. There's really no guarantee of the performance of the chips before sampling and no guarantee of the ability to deliver those in volume until they are in production.

True, especially with the recent transition to smaller processor sizes.

I'd bet $10 that Intel would prove to be more reliable than IBM or Moto though.

 

[digitalbiker]

I understand the complaining, but I think Apple made the correct choice. in short: it still IS a Mac.

I understand that it hasn't been easy for Apple considering the problems with cpu supply.

But I am not convinced that Intel will be the savior. Dell rules in the Intel world, they update their offerings almost weekly. They allow customer built customization, they build and deliver fast, on time, have excellent customer support, and extremely low profit margins.

Apple updates once or twice a year per product line. They allow minimal customization, and their profit margins are much greater because their volumes are lower. They have always operated this way, even back in the Apple II days.

I wonder how long people will continue to support paying higher prices for the OS X / iLife experience when Dell will be offering identical and in most cases better more recent Intel hardware configurations.

Also developers will now have to once again invest time rewriting their code to capture a very small OS X for x86 market. I wonder how many vendors will just drop Apple all together and only make x86 windows versions. The logic would be that Apple users could use wine, VPC, or something similar to run their applications.

 

[AidenShaw]

for the n'th time - the Xbox is not based on the PPC970

... XBox 360 using the 970 CPU ...

Please, the Xbox 360 CPU is much simpler than the 970, it is not even out-of-order. That's why it's triple core at 3.2 GHz, not because of some conspiracy by IBM against Apple.

http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/xbox360-2.ars/1

"From ILP to TLP, from the processor to the programmer

The basic idea behind both Cell and Xenon [Xbox360] is to make the execution core less complex by stripping out hardware that's intended to optimize instruction scheduling at runtime.

Neither the Xenon nor the Cell have an instruction window, which means that these two processor designs largely forget about instruction-level parallelism. Instead, instructions pass through the processor in the order in which they're fetched, with the twist that two adjacent, non-dependent instructions are executed in parallel where possible.

This static execution scheme is pretty much the same one used in older, less complex designs, like the original Intel Pentium.

Static execution is simple to implement and takes up much less die space than dynamic execution, since the processor doesn't need to spend a lot of transistors on the instruction window and related hardware. Those transistors that the lack of an instruction window frees up can be used to put more actual execution units on the die. "

Read the entire article if you'd like to learn more about how the Xbox, Cell and PPC970 differ.

 

[barbee]

It's rather interesting to see what's gonna happen here when Apple releases Intel computers to the masses. Apple is known to announce news when it's just about right. They usually ship their stuff immediately after the announcements, more or less anyway.

My thought brings me to OS X on regular X86 machines i.e. regular PC:s from other suppliers. What if this happens? After all, Apple has no reason to feed Microsoft with such information. It's better shooting the software giant in the back just in time.

I would like to see OS X on regular PC:s. That would probably increase sales big time, but it doesn't sound like a Steve Jobs plan.

 

[SiliconAddict]

I would like to see OS X on regular PC:s. That would probably increase sales big time, but it doesn't sound like a Steve Jobs plan.

And it isn't. Its possible long term they might consider this for a handful of OEM's for a very specific product line. (Think Mac Mini made my HP ot Toshiba.) but cross the board lic of X to whoever? Not in Jobs's lifetime.

 

[aegisdesign]

Apple made the right decision to go to Intel. IBM promised processors and couldn't deliver. Apple are not going to revamp their entire computer line with new PPC processors ( when they aren't available in great numbers) and when they will release new Intel based computers mid 2006.

Processors are Intel's main business, they rely on making processors and selling them, without supply constraints. Intel will excel in this department where IBM and Moto / Freescale failed woefully.

That's really only one side of the issue.

Both IBM and Freescale have been on record saying that Apple aren't entirely innocent here.

Apple's modus operandi is to order low quantities of a CPU at a time so they don't have lots of inventory backed up. And they expect big discounts still. Occasionally that bites them on their behind because IBM and Freescale are busy producing chips for customers who order millions - Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo - so they miss a production slot. If they unexpectedly have a hit on their hands, they run out.

Secondly, IBM and Apple seem to have been betting on the G5 being picked up more by other companies and for whatever reason that didn't happen. With the G5 starved of investment and Apple not willing to spend it's own money seemingly on G5 development, it stagnated. And Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo bankrolled IBM's development team to work for them instead. You can perhaps blame IBM here for not selling it outside Apple and it's own blade servers but that's the reality of it.

I still think it's a big pity that Apple have gone Intel. It now means they can never be faster than the Windows herd and they've tied their dingy to the Wintel legacy steamboat. The 32bit Intel architecture is something developers have been trying to bury for decades.

I guess we'll never know if the switch is really the right thing to do because the likelihood of IBM taking the G5 development forward now is even less likely without a major customer. I'm sure we'll see many 'I told you so' comments from the short of thinking when no G5 upgrades surface at the time Yonah ships. I really don't think it's because IBM can't but more that someone won't pay them for it.

I'm sure Apple have done the right thing for their shareholders since they are now going to be no worse that Windows hardware and won't ever lag behind. Paying billions for CPU development which may not yield faster chips when you can guarantee to be an also ran for free must be an easy decision to make financially. But there is and were architectural advantages to the PowerPC that you just don't get with Intel that sadden a geeks heart. I'm sure there are enough people at Apple that are cut up about it, but equally many that realise it was an expensive gamble.

 

[aegisdesign]

I'm sure Apple tried everything to keep with with PPC, but it had let Apple down many times in the past.

Other than spending more money on it. IBM don't create faster processors for you out of the goodness of their hearts you know. The G5 CPU isn't a commodity component like an Intel CPU.

Ever since all topmodels PowerMac have had Dual CPU configs. I bet that costs Apple pretty much, probably lowering the profit margin on every Dual PowerMac sold.

In theory, no. The G5 has a fraction of the transistors of an Intel chip in it so is much cheaper to produce. Economies of scale come into it but I don't think that CPU cost is that major a factor.

Steve couldn't trust IBM's commitment anymore in them supplying Apple enough super fast PPC CPU for in the Macs. Nor can Apple believe in IBM giving full attention and funds for the R&D of the G5.

More like Apple weren't prepared to pay IBM.

So he went to the only provider of CPUs of whom he knows he can't have the same supply problems as IBM / Motorola.... Also the CPU manufacturer which delivers the CPU to which everyone seems to compare its product..... If you can't beat them.... join them: Intel.

Yep. Why risk becoming a lion when you can be a sheep.

In a couple of years, we'll be used to x86 binaries on our Mac, running super fast. Many games coming to our platform. small x86 Linux utilites ported to x86 Mac OS X, etc.

I hope so. On the other hand, we could have many games developers and application developers just telling us to run Windows binaries and porting x86 Linux utilities is often no more difficult that typing 'fink install (application)' now on PPC so that's not a big deal.

Also, I'm not looking forward to Software Update when we've got Universal Binaries. Better hope I've 8Mbps broadband before the increased binary size.