Confirmed: Apple WILL use Intel chips in 2006

Reuters ^ | 6/5/05

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

Apple Computer Inc. plans to announce on Monday that it will switch to using Intel Corp's microprocessors and phase out its current chip supplier, International Business Machines Corp., CNET News.com reported late on Friday.

[tubebender]

Well damn... Stay tuned for the WWDC Keynote on Monday, June 6th at 10am PST.

I'll be out of touch with this drama for four days as we leave Monday for a long planned trip. What to do - What to do...

[Brainhose]

Very interesing. I would love to see the breakup of the WinTel monopoly. Is Apple about to cave in? I hope not

[js1138]

It's difficult to see how Apple can prevent unauthorized ports to existing PCs.

[general_re]

It's less about preventing unauthorized ports than not having authorized ports that someone can just buy and install on any random PC. That's definitely not going to happen. As for unauthorized ports, you probably can't prevent it completely on x86, although you can do a lot to mitigate it. Make sure it only runs on very specific hardware - the x86 version of Darwin barfs if you try to run it on anything other than a machine with a 440BX chipset, for example. Put key parts in the hardware - back in the 680x0 days, Apple had parts of the OS in 4MB ROMs on the mobo. So if you wanted to run MacOS on your Amiga, you had to find a copy of those ROMs, or it wouldn't go, and it was illegal to distribute those ROMs, of course.

And so forth. None of this is a panacea - someone dedicated enough will get around all that, but you can make it enough of a hassle that most people won't bother.

[antiRepublicrat]

True, but even 10 years ago NeXT, which OSX is based on, could create a single binary, from one set of source code, that ran on the NeXTStep OS running on FOUR different architectures

OS X has fat binaries too. Right now you can make a binary with a G5-optimized 64-bit version for G5/Tiger combos, a G5-optimized 32-bit version for pre-Tiger G5s, and a G4-optimized 32-bit version. It'll get maximum performance out of each, and the users won't even notice.

[antiRepublicrat]

I don't understand Intel, unless they're just looking at the Pentium M for the mini. For anything requiring performance, you'd think they'd go for the lower-power, better-architected, faster AMD Opteron.

[general_re]

Supply capacity. Intel shipped 6 million Xeons last year alone. Opteron - about 200,000. You're about to ditch your current supplier, not only because they can't deliver future products on schedule, but because they can't keep you supplied with your current line of products. So who do you go with to avoid those problems in the future?

That, and it's not just about the Mini - Intel has a credible laptop/portable solution, which AMD doesn't. Also, because of its capacity, I suspect that for the prestige of landing Apple, Intel can and will offer them a very, very nice price on chips, maybe a nicer price than AMD can afford to match. Opteron is expensive, if you haven't noticed.

[Golden Eagle]

I don't understand Intel, unless they're just looking at the Pentium M for the mini. For anything requiring performance, you'd think they'd go for the lower-power, better-architected, faster AMD Opteron.

This isn't about what technically may or may NOT have a small technical advantage today, this is about what will create the maximum effect long term politically and who will make a better business partner in namesake. While technophiles like you may know the in's and out's of AMD v. Intel, most people don't, and the name Intel resonates. And as you said Intel has the Pentium M to offer, and with notebooks now outselling desktop computers, it's the best choice they could make IMO.

[Golden Eagle]

It's less about preventing unauthorized ports than not having authorized ports that someone can just buy and install on any random PC. That's definitely not going to happen. As for unauthorized ports, you probably can't prevent it completely on x86, although you can do a lot to mitigate it. Make sure it only runs on very specific hardware - the x86 version of Darwin barfs if you try to run it on anything other than a machine with a 440BX chipset, for example. Put key parts in the hardware - back in the 680x0 days, Apple had parts of the OS in 4MB ROMs on the mobo. So if you wanted to run MacOS on your Amiga, you had to find a copy of those ROMs, or it wouldn't go, and it was illegal to distribute those ROMs, of course. And so forth. None of this is a panacea - someone dedicated enough will get around all that, but you can make it enough of a hassle that most people won't bother.

Excellent analysis, as usual. "Pear PC" can supposedly work some of those tricks, but accoridng to their own site it takes 8 hours of configuration just to get the new Tiger up and going, plus I'm not one that likes to operate outside the actual vendor's licenses, and the Apple license requires the use of Apple hardware, doesn't it? Any reason you know of they haven't tried to shut Pear PC down?

[noblejones]

Another aspect of all this that no one seems to have noted is that Intel is a neighbor in Santa Clara. Might just make them easier to deal with.

[Bush2000]

I highly doubt this report. As I said on another thread, Apple is trying to get IBM to lower the price of PPC chips. This is a good way to ensure that.

[Swordmaker]

I highly doubt this report. As I said on another thread, Apple is trying to get IBM to lower the price of PPC chips. This is a good way to ensure that.

A rumor like this also assures the undivided attention of the press to Jobs' keynote speech tomorrow...

[SunkenCiv]

...but still, having four or five FR topics about it, just to show what an awful company Apple is, really makes all our days. ;')

[SunkenCiv]

A rumor like this also assures the undivided attention of the press to Jobs' keynote speech tomorrow...

Heh... heh... I'm sure the complete silence from Apple regarding this issue has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the "leak" was officially sanctioned. ;')

That said, I think that any use of Intel chips by Apple would be remarkable, at least; an Intel chip version of Mac OS X to produce more entry level boxes (as we discussed yesterday or maybe today) is about the best explanation for this. Not that Jobs isn't volatile, but he's been big on the PPC and 68K before that.

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

"a unit" with "linux" on it.

What unit with what linux?

The microsoft(and apple) world is very different. There is no "HP windows", no "GE windows", or "compusa OS 10.4".(I think you get the point) There's only one windows. Only one Mac OS. There is not only one Linux.

Had you gotten a linux OS that was 3 or so years old I can see your sentiment.

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

Ok?

From your first link

^^^^^^^^^^^^Linux's strongest workload gains were in the smallest and largest organizations, while Windows gained workload fastest in the midsize companies, Cowen said. Windows, however, gained workload faster than Linux in all but the smallest companies.^^^^^^^^^^^

Most companies are midsize.

The second link honestly doesn't matter.(to me) To say that linux is going nowhere on the desktop...... What does that say about Apple(Mac OS), the #3 guy on the block? Besides, as I've stated in other threads on this topic, linux is going to make it's biggest gains around the globe as capitalism continues to grow. China is pushing linux hard. So is Europe. But other areas that are poor such as... it seems like the entirety of south america is the perfect spot for linux. They can't afford anything else. Most of the userbase/marketshare is going to be gained here.

As Microsoft continues to make it more difficult for pirates. WPA is not the end.

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

fair enough.

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

I agree. But as I stated at (i think)post 1, don't forget those smoke filled rooms. Who knows what kind of deal intel/apple have been cooking up. Apparently there's a keynote speech coming up in a few days, keep your tuner locked.

[A CA Guy]

I bought a PC at Frys for fun. It was a $99 computer and they had linux on there as the operating system.

It was too primitive for my taste and reminded me of windows 3.1.

After two days I F-disked it, installed windows 2000, other stuff and it has been OK.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I saw that, think that was Linspire.....