Posted on 12/27/2005 2:17:56 PM PST by Panerai
Appleinsider claims that according to "reliable sources", Apple has contracted out the motherboard design for the next-generation PowerMac to Intel.
According to the rumor site, Apple has its current resources spread so far across the planned Intel iMacs, PowerBooks, iBooks and Mac minis that outsourcing the PowerMac motherboard design may help them keep a targeted ship date of the 3rd quarter of 2006 for the next-generation PowerMac.
The design is expected to take place within the Intel Apple-Group which was quietly formed in November.
Outsourcing PowerMac motherboard design to Intel may have some interesting consequences regarding control and exclusivity of the design. As well, it exposes the PowerMac designs outside of Apple, which could be a source of future leaks.
Appleinsider notes, of course, that the PowerMac case/industrial design will remain under Apple's control.
It's possible, but Apple's left themselves enough breathing room that I doubt they'd be pushing their engineers so hard that they'd have to outsource the PowerMac's design to Intel.
We'll see.
OSx86 already runs on generic Intel hardware. There really isn't any technical reason that Apple couldn't use off the shelf parts for their systems.
I think this will be a future trend for Apple. It will allow them to devote more engineering resources to the operating system and application software development, while Intel provides hardware for PowerMacs, ViiV-based media devices, iPods, etc.
But then they couldn't charge twice the price for similar hardware(and this is from a Mac user).
You really understand Apple.
Well, it's not as if OS X's programmers doubled as hardware engineers, but I suppose you're right.
Intel's stuff isn't bad, but I really wonder if this is the right move.
OS X runs via an emulation program, yes. No one's dual booting XP and OS X--at least, not that I know of. If they've progressed beyond an emulated install to full usage, please link me to some screenshots and "how we did this" pages. I'd love to be proven wrong on this.
There are a list of install techniques discussed here...
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Installation_Guides
Most of them are native, with only a couple using VMware.
It still sounds like something of a black art, but it is certainly a popular geek pastime.
Unless Apple has decided to change their paradigm, it doesn't sound likely to me. The motherboard is the core of Apple's hardware business, and Apple is, at heart, a hardware company. They write an O/S to sell hardware, not the other way around.
Also, keeping the motherboard proprietary lets them continue to control everything else.
Ipods, etc., will be spun off into another division, or into an entirely new company in a year or two, I think.
The Mac OS X operating system will run in native execution mode (i.e., full speed) on Intel hardware. The emulation mode is used only when executing PowerPC-native application code on Intel hardware.
No one's dual booting XP and OS X--at least, not that I know of. If they've progressed beyond an emulated install to full usage, please link me to some screenshots and "how we did this" pages. I'd love to be proven wrong on this.
I believe dual-boot XP and OS X has been working for a while on the ADP hardware, and there are reports of several hacked versions of Mac OS X for various PC brands.
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