If you look at the Apple developer documentation for the switch,
you'll see that they will in fact be using standard x86 chips in
future Macs. Given the timeframe of the switch, and Intel's processor
roadmaps, I'm betting on them replacing G4s with the "Yonah" Pentium
M (32-bit 2.13GHz+, dual core, "667MHz" FSB, 2MB L2 cache), and G5s
with the "Merom" (64-bit, probably starting 2.5-3GHz, dual core).
The new Macs also won't have Open Firmware -- reportedly, they'll use
Intel's new EFI (http://www.intel.com/technology/efi/).
The jury's still out on exactly what they'll do with the chipset,
whether it'll be a standard Intel type or custom-made for Apple, but
either way, it won't be too far removed (technologically) from
ordinary PC hardware.
Personally, I'm looking forward to replacing my 1.67GHz PowerBook
with something roughly 3 times as fast (if what I've been hearing
about OS X performance on the developer boxes is correct) in about a
year's time. The transition will be a headache for a lot of
developers, but it's definitely the right move to make.
Cheers,
Ben
On 13 Jun 2005, at 12:24 , Laurent Daudelin wrote:
The exact processor is pretty irrelevant. As was demonstrated at
the WWDC,
Mac OS X is easily portable to another processor. That doesn't mean
any
processor but they could recompile OS X for pretty much any
compressor they
like. The key is here: as long as they have a compiler that can
generate
executable code for that processor, we are in business!
So, I would take the references to the "x86" with a grain of salt...
-Laurent.
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