[X4U] Apple to move to Intel

[Nick Scalise]

On Jun 4, 2005, at 11:33 AM, Jeffrey Stormshak wrote:

> On Jun 4, 2005, at 11:12 AM, Johns Maillist wrote:
>
>>
>> On Jun 4, 2005, at 12:04 PM, Jeffrey Stormshak wrote:
>>
>>> I've spent years trying to find a "Solid" platform and after  
>>> trying a loaded Win XP Pro system using AMD chips, nothing beats  
>>> the fully loaded G5.  I could never imagine trying to use Apple's  
>>> Motion, DVD Studio, Macromedia Studio, importing Video, using  
>>> numerous applications, X-Windows and other UNIX tools, etc  
>>> without having to reboot to gain back unallocated RAM...  Point  
>>> of fact, I never could find the tools and applications for XP  
>>> that would execute like those on the PowerMac thus why the (25)  
>>> Million current user base.
>>
>> I am not so sure you would see the reboot issue as we do with XP,  
>> since the OS is what claims and allocates the RAM usage. It would  
>> be a reasonable assumption, I believe, that the Mac OS on Intel  
>> (should this prove to be true) would still perform as we have come  
>> to know and love.
>
> Does anyone know or experience what Apple did when it changed from  
> 68x to PPC concerning software products (besides recompiling for  
> the new chipset)??
>
> Could you imagine having to buy an new Mac with Intel inside and to  
> have to ditch several thousand dollars of software from your old  
> PowerMac since they where compiled for the PPC in the first place?   
> Is Apple offering automatic/free updates for its consumer base?   
> Apple's Motion, DVD Pro and Macromedia alone was over $2200.00.   
> Not to mention VPC7, Music Software, numerous OS X Tools, etc.  Or  
> do they assume, just buy the Intel version instead and eBay the rest -
>
> Just curious - or is it too soon to tell??

The PowerPC had an emulator so that all 68k apps worked reasonably  
well without any re-compiling.

However, apps that were eventually re-compiled did run faster. So, if  
Apple did switch CPU's I'm betting that this would be the same path.  
All existing software would run fine on the new CPU, but newer re- 
compiled software would run faster.

And more speculation here, all exisiting software, if it is written  
in Cocoa may not even need recompiling as it is supposed to be pretty  
'portable' as long as the underlying software knew what to do with  
the API calls coming from the software.  And this is pure  
speculation, as I am no programmer.

But, it's definitely too soon to tell, as all this is just conjecture  
on a rumor.