Uh-oh.... Anybody following WWDC?

[Dennis Brown]

Apple will win big in one sense.  Apple will not have to put energy  
into an alternative processor path that may or may not perform as  
well as other Intel based PCs.  Apple will be able to get a free ride  
in this area and the MegaHertz "Processor War" will no longer be an  
issue.  By breaking with the Mot/IBM architectures, and embracing the  
Transitive (Rosetta) technology, Apple has opened the door to other  
more advanced architectures from Intel in the future --as well as  
from other suppliers (including IBM if warranted).  I have never been  
a fan of Intel X86 architectures.  I designed/built my first 8008  
based processor when they first came out.  When the 8080 came out, it  
was the same lame instruction set with a superset.  I switched to the  
6800 for my CPUs at that time, because I had to program my  
applications in machine code.  However, I also designed Z80 and 8080  
CPU based systems for special applications.  By the time the 68K came  
out, I was out of the CPU hardware business, but I had learned a lot  
about the problems of differing native hardware and had already  
developed emulators and low level languages that were cross platform  
compatible --like the MC engine.  Believe me when I say that Apple  
has positioned itself well.  They might have made this switch earlier  
if IBM had not promised to win the MHz war.  But IBM fell down on the  
job --leaving Steve with egg on his face (not a good thing to do to  
your customer).  Apple also had to wait for the Transitive technology  
to mature.  I am sure this is marking the end of Apple's reliance on  
any single supplier or CPU architecture.  This could also be a move  
by Apple to start positioning itself to challenge MS for the  
Desktop.  They can't risk an open move like that yet, but the  
transitive technology could open the door to run windows apps  
"Natively" under the Mac OS X without slow emulation software.  That  
would really kick Bill in the teeth --which I am sure Steve has been  
aching to do since he swiped windows from him.

Dennis

On Jun 6, 2005, at 2:18 PM, Jim MacConnell wrote:

> Ugh... I hate the idea of Mactel machines...
>
> But maybe it doesn't matter if we a get better performance? Can  
> that be
> possible? Does this open up new graphics performance worlds for Mac
> Gaming?........
>
> Is this actually a good thing since the PowerPC has had trouble  
> "growing"
> the way I think everyone expected... Is Apple now better off (more  
> stable
> chip supply) or worse off (looking more like a software company all  
> the time
> with a vestigial computer arm?)
>
> Jim
>
>
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