Comments on: We have always been at war with Eastasia http://www.hyperborea.org/journal/archives/2005/06/06/apple-intel-switch/ Sci-fi, comics, humor, photos...it's all fair game. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:03:41 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Kelson http://www.hyperborea.org/journal/archives/2005/06/06/apple-intel-switch/#comment-6370 Kelson Tue, 07 Jun 2005 16:19:10 +0000 http://www.hyperborea.org/journal/?p=907#comment-6370 Odd. Although that might explain why they're starting with the lower-end Macs and working up. If they're closer to having it working well on 32-bit processors, they can upgrade the still-32-bit G4 lines to newer Pentiums first, then start upgrading the 64-bit G5 lines to IA64 or AMD64. I just can't imagine that with the move to 64-bit processors finally getting underway, and current high-end Macs being 64-bit, that they would move back to a 32-bit design. On the other hand, I also wonder whether anything but the OS is going to distinguish a MacIntel from a high-end Windows box, and what effect this is going to have on Apple's hardware business. (Though I like the idea of triple-booting Mac OS, Windows, and Linux on one computer!) Odd. Although that might explain why they’re starting with the lower-end Macs and working up. If they’re closer to having it working well on 32-bit processors, they can upgrade the still-32-bit G4 lines to newer Pentiums first, then start upgrading the 64-bit G5 lines to IA64 or AMD64.

I just can’t imagine that with the move to 64-bit processors finally getting underway, and current high-end Macs being 64-bit, that they would move back to a 32-bit design.

On the other hand, I also wonder whether anything but the OS is going to distinguish a MacIntel from a high-end Windows box, and what effect this is going to have on Apple’s hardware business. (Though I like the idea of triple-booting Mac OS, Windows, and Linux on one computer!)

]]> By: brion http://www.hyperborea.org/journal/archives/2005/06/06/apple-intel-switch/#comment-6366 brion Tue, 07 Jun 2005 01:52:24 +0000 http://www.hyperborea.org/journal/?p=907#comment-6366 In Jobs' WWDC keynote he shows the 'About this Mac' dialog on a prototype, which lists the processor as a 3.6 GHz Pentium 4. That doesn't mean that's exactly what they'll be shipping a year from now, of course, but there's no clear indication of x86_64 support. The "Universal Binary programming guidelines" PDF on the Apple developers' site has no mention of 64-bit anything, but does include details of the "IA-32 Application Binary Interface (ABI) on a Macintosh using an Intel microprocessor"... In Jobs’ WWDC keynote he shows the ‘About this Mac’ dialog on a prototype, which lists the processor as a 3.6 GHz Pentium 4. That doesn’t mean that’s exactly what they’ll be shipping a year from now, of course, but there’s no clear indication of x86_64 support.

The “Universal Binary programming guidelines” PDF on the Apple developers’ site has no mention of 64-bit anything, but does include details of the “IA-32 Application Binary Interface (ABI) on a Macintosh using an Intel microprocessor”…

]]>