Mac chose intel over IBM ?

Shadow_2k5

Hi Can any one give me a bit more infomation on this news i keep hearing that Mac are ditching IBM for intel over the PS3 Xbox 360 & the Nintendo one. is Its a bad choice for Apple to switch to intel ?
i always tought That the IBM G4 & G5 are so much better then the intel P4 & the others. i recentely just got a Powerbook G4 & compared to a Sony Vaio with Pentium M the G4 turned out being better even when it had less Ram then The Vaio.


Cheers

Shadow_2k5

if they are going to switch why intel when AMD are so much better ?

secret_squirrel

Coz Intel have more marketing dollars to bribe them with!

Also it will be interesting to see how the new (also last) generation of G5's will perform. IBM have just released a long awaited G5fx for laptops that use about 1/2 the power of the pentium-m. The dual core G5mp has also just been released.

Having said all that once intels bribes have run out it wont cause apple any pain to play them and AMD off against each other.

WUSBDesign

Intel is reportedly including digital rights management hardware in its Pentium "derivative", and this is key to protecting digital content which Apple is pursuing with its iTunes and HD contents. If IBM does not offer such a migration (possibly due to it being busy with XBox), then it all makes sense Apple switches.

ZENER

I got the impression that it wasn't so much Apple shunning IBM as the other way around ! The new CPU's to be used in the XBox and PS3 will offer IBM better revenues than a few million Power Macs using expensive to produce CPU's. I think if IBM et al were serious about the PPC they would have had mobile versions out last year and have speeds of 3 plus GHz on the shelves now.

Cycle for cycle the G5 is a better cpu than the Pentium, problem is there are more cycles available on a pentium 4 3.6GHz than a G5 2.7GHz leaving FSB and memory access tricks out of it.

Intel's DRM stuff also helps apple bridge the gap between M$ media player and iTunes so perhaps subscribed .wma files will become accessible on OS X and iTunes ?!

Personally I'd rather see the PPC develop to it's full potential on all Macs but technologically and financially I can see the advantages of switching to Pentiums.

Zen

DubTony

From what I heard Apple went to Intel because the IBM and Motorola (or whatever they're called now) chips weren't keeping up with the pace. Apple hasn't done a "look, ours is faster" show for quite a while.

secret_squirrel

ZENER wrote:

subscribed .wma files will become accessible on OS X and iTunes ?!

Yea and hell might freeze over!

I think it was a bit of both sides. Apple were annoyed that they werent getting their needs seen too, with IBM not delivering (until now) on cool running high speed G5's, and G5's suitable for powerbooks.

For IBM I read that Apple was worth just 3% of their PPC business, and the volumes MS, Sony, and Nintendo are throwing at them makes it far more rewarding for them to concentrate their resources there.

As I say its a shame since IBM have the capability to deliver top performing chips if they put their minds to it. Their own Power5 line amply demonstrates that.

As for Apple the major benefits are going to be more standard PC parts - lowering their costs. Im sure they are getting a few marketing dollars from Intel too. However as far as Intels output goes Apple are going to be a tiny fish in a massive pond compared to their previous situation.

Shadow_2k5

perhaps its not such a bad choice. I had a good think about it . intel chipset would be much eazyer to upgrade then IBM chipsets. speaking of sony I know its compleatly off topic I cant see why Sony Wont Make Sonic Stage for Mac's if there trying to Kill the iPod with there new advertisement Sayings * Sony's New iPod Killer*. any way back to the topic the intel Apple switch is Perhaps gona be ok But we will just have to wait and see.

Looking Forword to the X-Box 360

SixShot

Not a bad choice intel just sit & wait

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

SixShot

You know the intel switch thing so if OS X is gona run on an intel based Mac will Mac OS X run on lets say a sony Vaio

Shadow_2k5

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

is there any 3th party softwear that will work with sony NWHD5 for the Mac it would be very helpful

ZENER

SixShot wrote:

You know the intel switch thing so if OS X is gona run on an intel based Mac will Mac OS X run on lets say a sony Vaio

Not sure about a Sony Vaio but I hope to have it running on a Pentium 4 desktop machine by the weekend ! Will keep you posted

ZEN

tomMK1

i think apple fell out with motorola as well over the g5 chip.

If one thinks logically though, and remembers that apple owns alot of the intellectual copyright of the G series of chips, then I would assume they will be using Intel only to manufacture the chip to Apples specs - not using an Intel chip.

secret_squirrel

SixShot wrote:

You know the intel switch thing so if OS X is gona run on an intel based Mac will Mac OS X run on lets say a sony Vaio

Dont bet on it. You might be able to get a dev version that will run on something very close to the Apple Baseline hardware, and you might get some home brew versions that will run. But unless you have apple derived hardware you wont stand a chance of getting it to run and run well.

Just think of the driver issues! Thats enough to kill it right there. I wouldnt be surprised to see hardware and bios tweaks to make sure bog standard intel machines cant run OS X.

On another thought - you can bet if apple had an alpha/beta OS X running on intel they also had it running on amd 64 or opteron too.