Intel in Apple
So it's now official, Apple will use Intel chips and phase out IBM chips. This is fairly major news and raises a whole load of questions and possiblities.
For those with no idea what this means, the CPUs in computers can be a variety of types, most computers use use type of CPU called x86 made by Intel, though there are also a lot of computers using x86 chips made by AMD. These chips go by the brand names Pentium and Athlon. However, Apple computers used a type of chip called PowerPC, made by IBM. These chips talk a distinctly different language and so software made to work on one won't work on the other, hence the reason you can't stick your Windows CD into an Apple computer and have it run.
But now Apple has announced that they will stop using PowerPC chips and start using x86 chips in their computers. This is a major shift. Basically, un-aided, nothing is going to work to begin with. You can't take your existing Mac OS X disc and expect it to run on a computer based around the x86. No software will work either. So as you can imagine, this is a major transition. Apple has secretly been working on a version of Mac OS X that will run on x86 computers though. This is the first piece of the puzzle. The second is a technology called Rosetta which will translate software compiled to work on PowerPC so that it will work on x86, however it will do this as the software is running, resulting in a performance hit. The next piece of the puzzle is Universal Binaries. This basically means creating two copies of any software you make, one for PowerPC and one for x86, they then get bundled up together and the application will run on computers based on either chip.
Apple is doing all of this to make sure that people who have computers based around PowerPC will be ok, and so will people who buy new computers from them based on x86. They aren't going to start selling x86 computers for a while yet, to give developers time to start producing Universal Binaries and playing with Rosetta.
But quite aside from that there are a whole load of other possibilites. I'm sure it won't take long before someone figures out a way to make Mac OS X run on normal x86 hardware not made by Apple. And Apple has already said it has no intention of stopping people from running Windows on Apple hardware based around x86. The ability to run Mac OS X on x86 has been something that has been long desired, and while Apple will go to great lengths to stop anyone doing that on any hardware that Apple hasn't made I have serious doubts that they'll have any sucsess. So quite soon home users may well have a choice of running Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware, or Windows on Apple hardware.
We do indeed live in interesting times.
Personally, I'm still planning on buying myself an iBook laptop sometime quite soon. After all, there's always something bigger, better and faster just around the corner and I want Mac OS X now, not in more than a years time. I'm also keen to get in on all this. It's going to present fascinating technical challenges and interesting possibilities for the future.
And I want in on all this.
So now we continue to wait and see what new wonders will unfold.
For those with no idea what this means, the CPUs in computers can be a variety of types, most computers use use type of CPU called x86 made by Intel, though there are also a lot of computers using x86 chips made by AMD. These chips go by the brand names Pentium and Athlon. However, Apple computers used a type of chip called PowerPC, made by IBM. These chips talk a distinctly different language and so software made to work on one won't work on the other, hence the reason you can't stick your Windows CD into an Apple computer and have it run.
But now Apple has announced that they will stop using PowerPC chips and start using x86 chips in their computers. This is a major shift. Basically, un-aided, nothing is going to work to begin with. You can't take your existing Mac OS X disc and expect it to run on a computer based around the x86. No software will work either. So as you can imagine, this is a major transition. Apple has secretly been working on a version of Mac OS X that will run on x86 computers though. This is the first piece of the puzzle. The second is a technology called Rosetta which will translate software compiled to work on PowerPC so that it will work on x86, however it will do this as the software is running, resulting in a performance hit. The next piece of the puzzle is Universal Binaries. This basically means creating two copies of any software you make, one for PowerPC and one for x86, they then get bundled up together and the application will run on computers based on either chip.
Apple is doing all of this to make sure that people who have computers based around PowerPC will be ok, and so will people who buy new computers from them based on x86. They aren't going to start selling x86 computers for a while yet, to give developers time to start producing Universal Binaries and playing with Rosetta.
But quite aside from that there are a whole load of other possibilites. I'm sure it won't take long before someone figures out a way to make Mac OS X run on normal x86 hardware not made by Apple. And Apple has already said it has no intention of stopping people from running Windows on Apple hardware based around x86. The ability to run Mac OS X on x86 has been something that has been long desired, and while Apple will go to great lengths to stop anyone doing that on any hardware that Apple hasn't made I have serious doubts that they'll have any sucsess. So quite soon home users may well have a choice of running Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware, or Windows on Apple hardware.
We do indeed live in interesting times.
Personally, I'm still planning on buying myself an iBook laptop sometime quite soon. After all, there's always something bigger, better and faster just around the corner and I want Mac OS X now, not in more than a years time. I'm also keen to get in on all this. It's going to present fascinating technical challenges and interesting possibilities for the future.
And I want in on all this.
So now we continue to wait and see what new wonders will unfold.