Can you say ApTel?
Submitted by doc on Mon, 06/06/2005 - 22:56.
Well, now we know Apple will move its OS and apps to Intel (x86) — and has been getting ready to make the move for years. Here's a blow-by-blow of Steve Jobs' speech this morning. Key item:
10:29am PDT - “I stood up two years ago and promised this (3.0G PowerMac), and we haven’t been able to deliver.
The CPU Is Meaningless
Doesn't this point to the fact that just like in consumer electronics, what's inside will not matter? Maybe to some geeks but the average Joe doesn't know what's running his/her iPod and in the future won't know what's in their computer or care. Doesn't it also point to Apple being able to choose whatever they need for the device at hand? If they can do this with Intel, couldn't they do it with other processor families for other devices? Apple becomes CPU agnostic?
I'm not a geek so I really don't know but that's what I take from it all.
Windows-capable? Why
Intel processor does not necessarily mean the machines will be capable of running MSFT Windows. It doesn't seem like there's an incentive for Apple to give users that option, as long as they're making money from regular OS upgrades for faithful Mac users.
Other devices have CPUs too
IBM is going to be manufacturing the CPUs for both the next generation XBox and Playstation, correct? Seems to me that the future isn't just about x86, although for some time things will be that way on the desktop and notebook computing side of things.
I think the whole "IBM couldn
I think the whole "IBM couldn't deliver the chips we wanted" is just a smokescreen. Apple is partnering with Intel and Hollywood in developing the next generation digital media content delivery mechanism with ultra restrictive DRM. This is the only article I've seen mentioning this possibility:
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,67749,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2
I told one of my Mac-weenie buddies that he'll be paying top dollar to use digital media that he doesn't own. The bright side to this is that PPC hardware prices will drop like a rock in the next 12 months. Who in their right mind will drop $3000 for discontinued hardware? I can't wait to pick up a cheap secondhand G5 and install linux on it!
- Pat from The Linux Link Tech Show
No argument
Betcha you're right.
The sad thing is, Apple will be less restrictive than Hollywood wants (Jobs does have leverage), but will be far more restrictive than the rest of us would like (Jobs is a Hollywood insider, through Pixar). Won't have much to do with the cpu, but still. Not pretty. Or, pretty (Apple stuff is always pretty), but ugly where it counts.
Real men
Real men
That's right. It was Jerry Sanders. I also think you're right about low-power and mobile devices. And, after all these years, Steve was tired of being marginalized AND disappointed by microprocessing partners. One former Motorola cpu design leader told me Motorola sold Steve a bill of goods on the 68000 architecture when Steve was starting NeXT. Turns out the 68000 was running out of gas. PPC was promising early on, and Apple was a full partner in the project, but now IBM seems to be running out of gas with it.
Chip road maps are hugely important to companies that depend on them, long-term. Intel has one Steve (and the rest of us) can trust. IBM doesn't. Apparently.