Macintosh Moving to Intel Processors [Updated]

[law guy]

Who? It still isn't a PC, it will still cost more (presumably). I just don't see a big "if only Apple would use Intel" market.

Folks who might want to have an XP machine and use their software on Win on it as an alternative OS, but who also want the Apple OS comes to mind. A machine that does it all.

Given Apple's statement that they wouldn't take any steps to keep folks from runnng Win on the Intel macs (but would prohibit the reverse), there are some that may just want the form factor / fit-and-finish of a pretty Apple desktop / notebook to run their Win XP on. Dell is launching a "luxury brand" to target that part of the market as well.

It also takes away some downside for the hesitant - "I want OS X, but what if I need to run XP or 2000, etc. for some reason I don't anticipate now?" - Apple is creating a "buy a mac (that can be a PC) with no risk" path. That may win a few of the fence sitters over as well.

 

[ArcaneDevice]

Seriously people, it's guys like you that give the 'sane' MAC users a terrible name. This isn't a cult, this isn't a crusade ... this isn't some geek driven war against an "EMPIRE" This is business and at the end of the day my conmputer is a TOOL. Not the essence of my life.

Steve Jobs has always seen the Mac as a way of life and not just a tool, and that passes down to most Apple fans.

 

[jZilla]

As a favor, I've heard Star Wars analogies, seen JAPANESE empire comparisons will somebody close the geel circle full loop and do a) a Star Trek Story and b) A Dungeons and Dragons analogy. It would make my day complete.

"It's the X86 chip Captain... she's gonna blow!" - Scotty.

 

[scottamisPrime]

Cooler???FASTER????

What the heck does he mean cooler!? ANy one who can read knows that the prescot core is the freakin hotest core on the market right now. Thier 90nm fab is junk.

Does Apple think that people will just ignore the fact that all of thier benchmarks are showing that thier G5's are faster than INTEL machines????!!!!!!

Horay for hotter running, slower, inferior, but in large quantity procs.

Why not buy a Dell running OSX. Oh you like the fansy case? How cute.

They think their pretty os is what sets them apart. Screw that!!!!!! I am a computer graphics proffesional and i dont care what os i work in as long as i have the best performance i can get out of the programs i need to use.

Say good buy to dual proc systems. P4s dont run in dual mode. What about dual core? Intels dual core sucks!!!!!!

AMDs dual core owns them in every benchmark. And gess what they run COOLER and consume LESS POWER than intel could ever dream of.

You think the Xeons are going to save the day. I got news for you. AMDs singal core opterons kick the crap out of the xeons. But it doesnt end thier . Becasue at this point nothing is faster than TWO DUAL CORE OPTERONS! Thats FOUR proccessors in ONE workstaion.

And if you have the money you can buy yourself an EIGHT DUAL CORE OPTERON Workstaion/Server from Iwill,THat is SIXTEEN CORES owning any multithreaded app you throw at it. It also runs SLI ( two Graphics cards).

Do your reasearch and you will find that the only thing that intel has is good marketing. And a butt load of fabrication facilities.
Yey you can get you slower, hotter, and all around inferior yet nice looking dell/rotten apples sooner

 

[ofrignya7]

If everyone else is an "armchair CEO," what does that make you? An armchair Church-of-Jobs-cult-member ("I die a little inside each time I read a post on here saying something to the effect of 'I hope Steve did his homework')? An armchair A**hole? Just wondering.

It makes me a guy who has made several thousand dollars investing in Apple's innovation over the last 3 years.

I'm not trying to second-guess someone who's a lot better at what they do than I would be at it. I am, in fact, just some guy sitting at his computer on a Monday afternoon, waiting to get the schedule for his crappy minimum wage job. I'm not eating Cheetos. My point is, I don't have the audacity to pretend to know more than someone who is at the forefront of the indsutry.

 

[MacTruck]

Most of you are forgetting that the P4 is not Intel's fastest processor. It is not the coolest. It is not the future. It is dead and Intel has said that it will not pursue the netburst architecture any furthur. The Macs we see in 1-2 years will not have P4's. The Dells we see in 2 years won't have P4's.

Its not that we are upset because we won't have the IBM processor, we are upset because we have to go through yet another complete overhaul of all software and hardware to keep using an up-to-date mac. For once I would like to buy a mac and keep it for yrs without dumping tons of money. Sure intel will have faster processors in 2 yrs, and sure it will be nice but the road to get there is so rocky and full of potholes I don't know if my car will make it. This is the problem.

 

[admanimal]

Why not buy a Dell running OSX.

Because you won't be able to. If you had read like 5 posts before yours, you would have realized this.

 

[ofrignya7]

What the heck does he mean cooler!? ANy one who can read knows that the prescot core is the freakin hotest core on the market right now. Thier 90nm fab is junk.

Does Apple think that people will just ignore the fact that all of thier benchmarks are showing that thier G5's are faster than INTEL machines????!!!!!!

Horay for hotter running, slower, inferior, but in large quantity procs.

Why not buy a Dell running OSX. Oh you like the fansy case? How cute.

They think their pretty os is what sets them apart. Screw that!!!!!! I am a computer graphics proffesional and i dont care what os i work in as long as i have the best performance i can get out of the programs i need to use.

Say good buy to dual proc systems. P4s dont run in dual mode. What about dual core? Intels dual core sucks!!!!!!

AMDs dual core owns them in every benchmark. And gess what they run COOLER and consume LESS POWER than intel could ever dream of.

You think the Xeons are going to save the day. I got news for you. AMDs singal core opterons kick the crap out of the xeons. But it doesnt end thier . Becasue at this point nothing is faster than TWO DUAL CORE OPTERONS! Thats FOUR proccessors in ONE workstaion.

And if you have the money you can buy yourself an EIGHT DUAL CORE OPTERON Workstaion/Server from Iwill,THat is SIXTEEN CORES owning any multithreaded app you throw at it. It also runs SLI ( two Graphics cards).

Do your reasearch and you will find that the only thing that intel has is good marketing. And a butt load of fabrication facilities.
Yey you can get you slower, hotter, and all around inferior yet nice looking dell/rotten apples sooner

1. Dells will never be able to run OS X

2. Intel has products in their pipeline that you don't know about

3. Learn to properly use the English language.

 

[uncle_sam_ie]

No they won't because the average consumer will not know about it. You think that they will have a banner up that says "All hardware purchased today won't be useable next year" NO. People will buy up until the last day. Most of the purchases at the apple store are from impulse buyers that think they look neat. Poor soles.

I don't think most consumers are that stupid. The news will get out.

 

[Spazmodius]

That's the thing though, Intel and AMD are kicking IBMs collective ass. Our technology was already inferior.

Not really. IBM is just focusing on different markets, like consoles, supercomputers, and massive servers. Have you not heard of Blue Gene? It's a Power-driven machine too, you know, and is the fastest computer in the world. The Xbox360 and the PS3 are going to have insane processing power, for what are functionally going to be digital hubs on steroids. Apple could have had highly superior technology. IBM just let things slip.

Motorolla once let things slip...about the same time Steve killed the clones. Figure that was a coincidence? Figure nobody at IBM was annoyed when Steve ratted them out after failing to deliver 3.0GHz?

IBM has stellar technology. They just aren't developing it for the Mac. The fact is, it's AMD and IBM stomping on Intel...in various markets. Apple's getting the worst, albeit the biggest, of the three.

 

[carlos700]

This will solve Apple's performance problem. There are many benchmarks (excluding Apple's) that prove the Intel Pentium 4 and Intel Pentium D processors outperfom the Power Mac G5 dual processor. Look at C|Net. Besides Intel can pump out processors at a much faster rate than IBM, no more waiting three months for your new Power Mac to ship. I look foward to the change. Intel makes good products, the Intel Pentium D processor is a great dual-core performer plus it's affordable on the PC side whereas the AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor is marginally faster and extremely more expensive.

 

[fgdn17]

I'm all for the switch (screw the G5 PB, give me the Yonah PB), but I doubt the 2006, 2007 stepped switch. Once the switch really begins (2006) they'll have to move everything over as quickly as possible. Right now buying a PPC still makes sense, who is going to want a PPC when 1/2 the line is x86?

maybe you didn't read the keynote address or haven't done your homework...they have been processor independent for 5 years...cross-compiling to run on BOTH PPC AND INTEL...the kernel of MAC OSX is the
same kernel developed in the 1992 time frame that ran on the DEC ALPHA
UNIX system...it can run on ANY PROCESSOR...!!! the apps above are
just a recompile...using the correct compiler....that's why the MAC OSX was so smart...try that with an Microsoft OS...won't work!!!

 

[ArcaneDevice]

Has he been hanging out with Gil Amelio?

This announcement brought about the first time in many years I've thought of that name. Looks like I'm not alone.

 

[Chryx]

What the heck does he mean cooler!? ANy one who can read knows that the prescot core is the freakin hotest core on the market right now. Thier 90nm fab is junk.

Does Apple think that people will just ignore the fact that all of thier benchmarks are showing that thier G5's are faster than INTEL machines????!!!!!!

Horay for hotter running, slower, inferior, but in large quantity procs.

Why not buy a Dell running OSX. Oh you like the fansy case? How cute.

They think their pretty os is what sets them apart. Screw that!!!!!! I am a computer graphics proffesional and i dont care what os i work in as long as i have the best performance i can get out of the programs i need to use.

Say good buy to dual proc systems. P4s dont run in dual mode. What about dual core? Intels dual core sucks!!!!!!

AMDs dual core owns them in every benchmark. And gess what they run COOLER and consume LESS POWER than intel could ever dream of.

You think the Xeons are going to save the day. I got news for you. AMDs singal core opterons kick the crap out of the xeons. But it doesnt end thier . Becasue at this point nothing is faster than TWO DUAL CORE OPTERONS! Thats FOUR proccessors in ONE workstaion.

And if you have the money you can buy yourself an EIGHT DUAL CORE OPTERON Workstaion/Server from Iwill,THat is SIXTEEN CORES owning any multithreaded app you throw at it. It also runs SLI ( two Graphics cards).

Do your reasearch and you will find that the only thing that intel has is good marketing. And a butt load of fabrication facilities.
Yey you can get you slower, hotter, and all around inferior yet nice looking dell/rotten apples sooner

In the timeframe they're actually going to be doing the switch, Smithfield, Pressler and Prescott will be ancient history.

look at Pentium M for hints as to where Intel are going... that sucker uses LESS power than the Athlon64 and is very performance competitive.

The development kits are Prescotts for a very obvious reason, SSE3 and x86-64 support, nothing else in Intels lineup has them right now (the newest A64s do, but that wouldn't make much sense for Intel to supply Apple with those for Dev kits )

 

[eVolcre]

Steve Jobs has always seen the Mac as a way of life and not just a tool, and that passes down to most Apple fans.

Reality Check.

1. He's a brilliant marketeer.

2. If it's a way of life today, it will still be a way of life tomorrow.

3. He's a brilliant marketeer.

4. He was also a pot smoking hippie, nothing wrong with that, and wanted to establish a counter culture to the PC. Which he's done. That was then and this is now. What's the next step? Does he want to be relegated to a niche market who think their MACS are a way of life or does he want to hit up a new market to truly make their new MACS a way of life by integrating their machines with their IPODS, their Cell phones, their TIVO, their movies ....

5. I don't think I have mentioned this point, HE'S A BRILLIANT MARKETEER.

Never forget guys - this isn't a way of life for him and wall street. This is business.

 

[EKIRNHADSW]

Dual Boot?

I'm wondering if these new Mac-tels will boot Windows and LINX as well as OSX? Running all at native speeds? I'm assuming so.! It looks like Steve wants to get wintel developers to go with Xcode for development and start using the universal binary code so all their applications will work under Mac or Windows. Nice trick if it works.

 

[nishishei]

You! We don't serve their kind here! Your droids, they'll have to wait outside.

You don't get it do you? Jobs will be serving "our kind" very soon.

It is good for Apple's future, to get out of this elitist mentality and join the PC world. Good for you too as an Apple consumer as you'll be getting faster, cooler processors for possibly even less. Free market is good!

 

[PCM]

OK...after reading a couple pages...still haven't found a definitive answer to my quandery...(forgive me as i'm not too knowledgable about this sort of thing)

I'm taking delivery this week of a dual 2.5 g5, mostly for audio production, but also for graphics (illustrator, flash etc.).

What does this announcement mean for the future of this g5, specifically for software optimization? WIll companies (like digidesign) even bother to optimize for the PPC architecture when they know this massive shift is coming starting next year? Should I cancel this order and just build a damn AMD machine and keep my powerbook for daily tasks???

I'm VERY worried about this shift (although I think ultimately it's good), because the plans and upgrade paths for current g5 users look VERY ambiguous.

 

[Adam Ruth]

This is the general feeling I'm getting from most of my PC friends. If this causes Mac prices to fall a bit and they can duel boot, they'll buy the mac. They know OSX is better, but can't do without alot of Wintel software, if they can dual boot however... well $$$ for Apple.

Or at least a decently performing Windows emulator...

 

[admanimal]

maybe you didn't read the keynote address or haven't done your homework...they have been processor independent for 5 years...cross-compiling to run on BOTH PPC AND INTEL...the kernel of MAC OSX is the
same kernel developed in the 1992 time frame that ran on the DEC ALPHA
UNIX system...it can run on ANY PROCESSOR...!!! the apps above are
just a recompile...using the correct compiler....that's why the MAC OSX was so smart...try that with an Microsoft OS...won't work!!!

To clarify, no nontrivial OS can run on any processor with just a recompilation. And whatever this thing is that may have been able to run on a DEC ALPHA in 1992, I'm guessing OS X doesn't share all that much code with it at this point.

 

[MacTruck]

I don't think most consumers are that stupid. The news will get out.

Oh please. Now you are naive.

 

[fgdn17]

Kits may be available today. That doesn't mean that is what Apple will be selling in a year. I see only 64-bit Intel for the future.

that's what DEC said in 1992...64 bits is the future...where are they now..??

where is the best processor ever developed??? DEAD...the 64 bit ALPHA
which ran UNIX/WINDOWS/LINUX/etc.(1992 time frame) is DEAD...!!!!! so if 64 bits is the future...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????????

 

[law guy]

More than a tool

Steve Jobs has always seen the Mac as a way of life and not just a tool, and that passes down to most Apple fans.

I have to agree a bit about the technology being more than a mere tool. A piano could be thought of as a tool, but a nice instrument is a joy to play. Macs are a "joy" for people to use. They exceed simply being a tool for different reasons for different folks. It might be simply - "wow, I made a movie - I never thought I could do that" - sure, making a little movie, the tool did that, but the software made it easy, made the product look good, made the user feel good about themselves instead of frustrated or dumb. People want to see what else they can do and find a similar outcome in iPhoto - that makes people happy and want to use their computer; it becomes enjoyable, creative, people want to see how they can express themselves (now that they aren't feeling frustrated and dumb) - that gets people really excited. They post lots of messages about it!

 

[areyouwishing]

Here I thought being a mac user made me part of an elite short list of extremely INTELigent people... guess I was wrong.

Sell your G5's! We are going straight to hell with obsolete windowz stuff!!!

What will you guys be typing on when I have my dual core PentiMac that gets 8 hours of battery? Have fun with linux!

 

[admanimal]

I'm wondering if these new Mac-tels will boot Windows and LINX as well as OSX? Running all at native speeds? I'm assuming so.! It looks like Steve wants to get wintel developers to go with Xcode for development and start using the universal binary code so all their applications will work under Mac or Windows. Nice trick if it works.

I think you may have misunderstood the capabilities of XCode. XCode can only be used to develop Mac OS applcations, running on either PPC or Intel CPUs. The Universal Binary format applications will not run in Windows.