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Apple to switch to x86 Platform


scuzzman
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A stormy, decade-long relationship between Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) and IBM is over, according to published reports. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to announce Monday morning at the company's software developers conference in San Francisco that Apple will discontinue using microprocessor chips made by IBM in favor of Intel chips, according to CNET Networks Inc. (CNET)'s News.com and The Wall Street Journal.

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News.com reported that Apple would begin the transition to Intel with its lower-end computers, such as the Mac Mini, in mid-2006 and higher-end models a year later.

Full story available on Excite News.

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So what is this going to do to existing apple software and hardware... I know the PowerPC chips used a much different architecture, so apple motherboards are going to have to be changed as well. Why are they doing this? PowerPC is a much better processor... utilizing RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) as opposed to CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computing) used by Intel and AMD.

PowerPC means Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC thus, a 1GHz PowerPC chip can perform the same or better than a 1.5~2GHz x86.

I just don't understand.

EDIT:

Although IBM suffers a setback with the loss of Apple, the company is expected to reap a financial windfall after signing up Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony Corp. (SNE) to use PowerPC technology in future video-game machines.

RISC is turning into a console processor... shame. :o

EDIT AGAIN:

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050606/D8AIA5VO0.html

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They're doing this because they're tee'd off with IBM - but in my opinion, this is a very stupid move as they are going to have to rewrite everything from the ground up...

Time and money... the two most expensive things in this world, and Jobs seems to not care about wasting any of it. I would have liked to see Apple stick with the RISC PowerPC, and would have liked even more to see it start to take over some intel market share, but it appears that will not be happening now...

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They're doing this because they're tee'd off with IBM - but in my opinion, this is a very stupid move as they are going to have to rewrite everything from the ground up...

Nope.

MAC OS X has been running on Pentiums for the last 5 years; 'just in case'. So they've done the majority of the work...

You can [if your a member] get a Pentuim 4, 3.6Gz Mac for developing from......APPLE.....running MAC OS X.

Mac OS X 10.5 'Leapord' that's where we'll see what all the fuss is about.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I found my post in my cache:

Apple doesn't have to rewrite everything from scratch... Darwin x86.

It's might seem like a stupid move to some but I see it as being a very good one. Cheaper processors, motherboards to go with and a wide range of hardware to choose from as well as having a ready made market for their OS... if they open it up and not lock it to some BIOS code inorder to install it. All they'll need is polish the OS in X86 shine and get drivers or open their achitecture to manufacturers to write drivers for devices.

This might, and I think it will happen, reduce the cost of an Apple computer and bring Apple wider appeal.

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