Macintosh Moving to Intel Processors [Updated]

[Skull Leader]

4th and Long and we are PUNTING Baby!

Bye Bye

I
Be
Motorola
😱

Don't know where this will land....but I guess it's good that they are unloading the dead duck. 😡

 

[ruud]

Well, not initially, but I'm pretty sure the first cracks are not very far off...

I'm pretty sure Apple will use some custom motherboard chipset and inlcude drivers for ONLY that chipset in the publicly released version of OSx86. Good luck writing your own motherboard chipset driver (although I suppose it theoretically could be done).

 

[3.1416]

2. Your current Macs haven't suddenly been obsoleted. They're still top of the line for right now. This is no different then if the G6 PPC had been announced.

Yes it has. A dual G5 will still have respectable performance 4 years from now, but how much new software will be available for it?

 

[Savage Henry]

AAPL

-.18

I felt the earth shake when the Nasdaq reacted to the news ..... Interesting comparison is when the share price jumped $1.50 (using today's diluted standards) upon the rumours of the original G5 chip breaking out .... Well I find it interesting anyway.
🙂

 

[wdlove]

So what are they going to call the processors?

Apple Power Mac G6 with dual Intel such and such processors running at blah de blah GHz?

I'm just sad at this.

I think that its best to take a long term view. Such transitions cause anxiety. Steve isn't the most respected in his field for nothing. This may finally move the customer base higher.

 

[alep85]

Actually in real-time quotes:
AAPL -.35

And it's going down as I'm talking. I think I'm gonna have to sell my shares, although it breaks my heart to remove an investment in a company I sincerely believe in 🙁 . I simply can't lose money just because I like them. I'll wade it out for a day, and if it keeps dipping, sorry Apple. 🙁

 

[puckhead193]

Its hard to tell now, but we will see what happens when we see the chips and and the specs...
Does this mean that we will get new updates, what seems like every other day 😉
i hope they supply apple with the top stuff as an exclusive or something...

 

[Chaywa]

Fortune favors the brave, Apple has done what it should have done years back, ditched Motorola and IBM. Does it not speak volumes that Apple have offered nothing for two years, 3Ghz G5 is still not here 18 months on from when it was promised, Powerbooks are stagnated with ANCIENT technology, the Mac Mini was just a cheap Mac full of all their dated crap. The only good news Apple has these days is iPod and even that is starting to flounder.

This was a decision that needed taking and I for one applaud the Apple board for having the balls to take it.

Actually the brave move was going with IBM and Moto when the rest of the world went intel. Did it work? That's debatable.

This to me is a bit of a cop out. Either we are getting saddled with a sluggish processor or Apple has been lying to us all these years about the mhz myth. I don't like either scenario.

Is anyone else concerned that intel's chip development has stagnated?

 

[progx]

From what I can garner of this whole situation, funny that I'd be on my Grandma's PC reading the keynote on Macworld, is that this is one step closer to the end of innovation for the Mac.

If you think about the PowerPC alliance, which Apple helped build. (At the time) Motorola would do anything for Apple, but IBM proved that they would build us faster and relible processors. Even though we had a rough transition to 90 nm processor (which hurt the 3 GHz roadmap), IBM has put the time and energy to making the G5 a success; something Motorola did not quite understand.

Now with Apple running the Intel ***** (oops, chips), we won't see the innovation of the G-series chips anymore. In fact, if Apple passed anything along to Intel, what's to stop them from passing it to Dell, HP, and Gateway first. Apple is going to be the low-man on the totem poll in the x86 realm.

If Apple was looking for a relible x86 developer, why didn't they considered AMD or welcome them into the PowerPC alliance?

But it doesn't matter now, without the PowerPC chip, hardware innovations from Apple WILL be a rarity.

Oh, this is one step closer to making Apple Macs into Windoze boxes.

 

[Dr.Gargoyle]

Imagine buying a Dell for $800 running OS 10.5 – I bet it would sink M$ like a stone.

THAT if anything would kill off Apple totally. They make a LOT of money on hardware... How many 3k machines do you think they would sell if Dell pumped out machines for $399?

 

[Chaywa]

Actually in real-time quotes:
AAPL -.35

And it's going down as I'm talking. I think I'm gonna have to sell my shares, although it breaks my heart to remove an investment in a company I sincerely believe in 🙁 . I simply can't lose money just because I like them. I'll wade it out for a day, and if it keeps dipping, sorry Apple. 🙁

I'm no investment guru but this is the worst strategy I've ever heard. A day! Investments are longhaul affairs. Gambling is the only thing that happens in the short term.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Yes they will whatever protection they use it can be broken unless its a hardware level thing.

Even hardware protection is fairly easy to circumvent... anyone remember pro software "requiring" a dongle to run... no that was a joke...

Give it a couple of weeks and any decent Pentium 4 should be able to emulate Apple's Open Firmware... 😉

 

[Mudbug]

AAPL

-.18

Their stock tanks on every major announcement - this is no different.

Wall Street is just a bunch of overcaffeinated worrywarts.

 

[ruud]

To everyone saying their PPC macs are now suddenly worthless... First of all, Apple won't ship a single intel-based Mac for at least a year, secondly they will continue to ship PPC macs well into 2007. That means that they have to support OSX (and apps) on PPC for at least until then, and considering many G3 based systems are still supported in Tiger, they will probably support PPC for quite a while longer.
I really don't understand how this announcement is any different from a situation in which Steve would announce a Cell based G6 (or whatever) based CPU system.

 

[Takeo]

I feel bad for my father, he spent about 4$k US half a year ago on his swich to OSX and a Powermac. the most, by an enourmous margin, that he's ever spent on a single PC purchase.

Guess who's going to get the blame for his investment turning into poo... 🙁

Investment? A computer is not an investment.

 

[Mr Maui]

I'm a bit mad since I just purchased a new iMac. The reason that I got it was for the OS. I love OS X Tiger and it's features. I just feel let down for Apple switching to the x86 architecture. I have AppleCare too so this machine is going to be with me for at least 3 more years. I want to reserve my final judgement for then.

Reservation is a good plan since your present new iMac will work and be supported for years to come. People who buy a computer today with the INTENTION of using it beyond 2 or 3 years are not looking at the lifespan of an average computer which is about 6 months to 1 year before being replaced in the market by something better (except in the case of the Dual 2 GHz G5 😉 ). If your computer is supported for two to three years from now, you will have gotten what you paid for. Computers do not generally have a lifespan of 5-10 years. Some are used that long, I will concur, but that is not what they are built or intended for. 🙄

 

[tokevino]

All I want to know is:

Are the current versions of my software going to work on these new, crap processors?

Is the G5 development over - is 2.7 all we're getting?

This better not eff me in the wallet software-wise if I decide to buy a new Appletel machine.

And if they put one Intel sticker on the case of any Apple machine, I'm done, OS or not.

According to Apple Insider's live update, I think Job ran Office 2k4 and Adobe PS CS 2 with emulator without problem, with an acceptable speed, too. BTW, these Intel processors are not crap, especially those Pentium M mobile chips. These little Pentium Ms can take on and beat most of today's Desktop processors easily.

 

[Symtex]

From what I can garner of this whole situation, funny that I'd be on my Grandma's PC reading the keynote on Macworld, is that this is one step closer to the end of innovation for the Mac.

If you think about the PowerPC alliance, which Apple helped build. (At the time) Motorola would do anything for Apple, but IBM proved that they would build us faster and relible processors. Even though we had a rough transition to 90 nm processor (which hurt the 3 GHz roadmap), IBM has put the time and energy to making the G5 a success; something Motorola did not quite understand.

Now with Apple running the Intel ***** (oops, chips), we won't see the innovation of the G-series chips anymore. In fact, if Apple passed anything along to Intel, what's to stop them from passing it to Dell, HP, and Gateway first. Apple is going to be the low-man on the totem poll in the x86 realm.

If Apple was looking for a relible x86 developer, why didn't they considered AMD or welcome them into the PowerPC alliance?

But it doesn't matter now, without the PowerPC chip, hardware innovations from Apple WILL be a rarity.

Oh, this is one step closer to making Apple Macs into Windoze boxes.

Apple experience is all about SOFTWARE and USER EXPERIENCE not hardware. It's doesn't matter if it's PPC or X86. Mac OS X is what makes Apple, well, Apple.

 

[Porco]

I think it's a bit sad, but nostalgia won't make my next Mac run faster.

I've gone from Amigas to 680x0 Macs to PowerPC Macs... not planning on going over to Windows anytime soon...

I do think this might blow some of the iPod halo effect though. Not for rational reasons, but the general public aren't always rational.

 

[Dr.Gargoyle]

Look here, naysayers, none of this can be bad IF....

1. Apple still controls it's own hardware design
2. Apple still controls it's own OS design

When 95% of us buys a computer on today's market, it's for the Operating System, NOT the type of hardware it runs on. OSX still crushes any other OS for 95% of all user needs out there. It doesn't matter WHO makes the chips, as long as it's up to Apple's Standards.

If apple starts to farm out however, well, let's just trust that doesn't happen 😉

Personally, I'm hoping that a cooler chip + faster clockspeed x recent apple patents = that OSX tablet I dream about every night 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

I would say that most of us buys the Mac experience. A machine designed for the software and vice versa. The problem is that sales will take a nose dive right now. The question is: Will Apple have any customers in two years time? or worse, will Apple be around at all in two years time?

 

[ImAlwaysRight]

heh-heh

I'll bet Apple wishes they could erase this from their past:

http://www.theapplecollection.com/Collection/AppleMovies/mov/snail.mov

 

[Sirus The Virus]

Possibly a stupid question but since I do not know a lot about those Intel proc.s (yet): are those pentium chips 32-bit or 64-bit?

There 32-bit chips. But Intel does make a 64-bit chip called Titainium i think.

BTW this is the most exiteing thing to happen in a long time to Apple. I can't sit still. I can't wait to use one. I'm going crazy. Seriously. I think I'm goint to go run around the block or something. I'm so happy.

 

[Bonte]

****

Well, allowing clones will be much easier now. Just standard DELL with a mac rom. I want to see a DELL with osX, i hate DELL, let me repeat, i hate DELL but it would do wonders for the market-share. Hope we can dual boot or run win in a classic environment.

 

[gloubibou]

No off the run Pentium

I cannot see Apple going for a plain vanilla Pentium. At least not as it is today.

Apple holds a fair share of PowerPC patents. I guess Apple will team up with Intel to bring forward their architecture. Intel masters the manufacturing process.
I wonder if Apple has the rights to Altivec.

Then again, I did not believe a word of the Intel rumors.

Pierre

 

[SGP]

what is actually of interest...

... to me is the following:

1) will this lead to a more 'open' platform? Possibly the seperation of OS and hardware in the future? This move certainly would pave the way for such a move.

2) will the fact that the CPU is by intel mean more of the architecture is (video cards etc?)

3) what does Intel offer that AMD currently does not have? Is there something like DualCore waiting for mac-users?

4) this move would open up the door for new bits of hardware, not just tablet but anything between an ipod and a Mac - what is to come?