Posted on 07/13/2005 6:16:19 PM PDT by general_re
The speed of Mac OS X running on Intel hardware is impressing some developers who've been privy to one of Apple's first Intel-based developer transition systems.
The systems started shipping to Mac OS X developers three weeks ago, each equipped with a 3.6 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor with 2 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz front-side bus, 1GB of 533MHz DDR2 Dual Channel SDRAM, and an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900.
Developers are renting the $999 hardware from Apple for a period of 18 months in order to get a head start in porting their applications to run on the Intel version of Mac OS X.
"It's fast," said one developer source of Mac OS X running on Intel's Pentium processors. "Faster than [Mac OS X] on my Dual 2GHz Power Mac G5." In addition to booting Windows XP at blazing speeds, the included version of Mac OS X for Intel takes "as little as 10 seconds" to boot to the Desktop from when the Apple logo first displays on screen.
Included with the Mac OS X for Intel distribution is an Applications folder stocked with a mixture of PowerPC and Intel-native applications. Applications that are compiled only for PowerPC processors are of filetype "Application (PowerPC)" whereas Intel-native binaries are labeled of standard type "Application".
Developers sources say the early version of Rosetta, a dynamic binary translator that is designed to run unaltered PowerPC applications on Intel Macs, is also impressive. "Rosetta is completely 100 percent seamless and nothing like the Classic environment used to run older Mac OS 8 and 9 applications under Mac OS X," one source told AppleInsider.
"With the exception of the "PowerPC" denotation and the presence of "Open in Rosetta" checkbox in the application info boxes, you can't tell which applications are universal and which are PowerPC-only unless you examine package contents," the source explained.
Since the developer version of Mac OS X for Intel offers users the option of running any application under Rosetta, developers have been able to perform rudimentary speed comparisons between native Intel Mac applications and those that must first filter through the Rosetta binary translator.
"Taking a universal binary and timing its startup in Intel native speed versus its startup when opened via Rosetta results in a slowdown, but not as much as one would think," said another source. "The apps run at about 65 to 70 percent of their normal speed."
However, some PowerPC-native applications realize little to no speed reductions while running under Rosetta. A source told AppleInsider the current PowerPC version of the popular Firefox web browser loads just as fast under Mac OS X Intel as it does on a high-end dual processor Power Mac G5.
If reports are accurate, Mac users have a lot to look forward to in regards to web browsing under Mac OS X for Intel. According to sources, web browsing in general is much faster under Mac OS X for Intel than it is under the shipping version of Mac OS X for PowerPC. Web pages snap to the screen, the same way they do in Internet Explorer running on a new Pentium system, they say.
The first Mac systems to sport Intel processors are expected to hit the market around the middle of next year according to statements made by Apple, though recent mumblings indicate that the company may be striving to beat those estimates by several months.
Boink.
I have been patiently waiting for an Apple thread for two weeks! My son just ordered an ibook and it should be here by Friday. What I was looking for were the Apple enthusiasts so I could ask questions before he spent his money, but, alas I could find no Mac Ping List. So please someone gather the flock so I can ask questions.
Swordmaker keeps the Mac ping list
I am sure Swordmaker will be happy to add you to the list when he arrives ;)
Thanks all...we only have PC's here at home but he loves his ipod so much he decided to purchase the ibook based on that good experience.
I have so many quesions...do I wait for Sword?
I for one welcome our intel overloards
and of course
In soviet Russia developers impress Apple intsl dev systems..
Go ahead and post 'em and we'll see what we can do.
I'd recommend you start a thread in chat under the computers topic. This isn't the right thread to discuss general Mac issues.
Be sure to ping swordmaker to your thread so he can ping the mac list
:^)
He'll love his ibook. I had one for years, and when I upgraded to a powerbook I gave it to a friend and it's still going strong. He bought a new battery and some more RAM but that's it.
That's been my home page for years, but lately there's just too much stuff there to absorb
I usually just skim over the first few headlines per section and then keep going if there's nothing interesting.
That's what I do too, but they have an annoying habit of scattering updates all over a section, rather than at the top or bottom. It's still an invaluable resource
LOL...sorry, I still find the Yakov jokes funny...as long as they're not from Yakov...
So they just going to start selling the OS instead of the hardware? I'm sure they would make more money just doing that.
Gosh, what a surprise!
It's BSD under the hood Balrog, so they already know they are going to get increased speed. As for tsr's, spyware, etc. dat's da Gates debil making yo talk gibberish.
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!
Run naked, run deep!
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