June 3, 2005

An interesting switch

From Slashdot we learn that Apple is finally deciding to switch from the Power PC chips it has been using in every MAC over to the Intel line of X86 processors which all Windows boxes use. When MAC was still running their original operating system, this would have been next to impossible but with the advent of OSX, this becomes simple as OSX is actually a GUI for the underlying OS which is Unix and Unix runs on Intel chips just fine. Blogger (late and lamented) Steven Den Beste writing at USS Clueless had some strong feelings about the MAC CPU and its limitations. An excerpt from Article one
...Motorola has given up on further development of high-speed PPCs, which is almost certain. What we're seeing now out of Motorola in terms of new processors is the result of process improvements on existing designs. The G4 as it exists has hit its ceiling, and the only way Motorola could again become competitive at the top end is by completely rearchitecting, in particular to increase the number of pipeline stages. (Both Intel and AMD have just gone through that, with the P4 and Hammer respectively.) This is a massively expensive undertaking, and given the significant cuts in Motorola's semiconductor group over the course of the last two years, and given that Apple is the only customer they have for top-end processors, it is easy to see that if they had to cut anything, top end PPCs would be high on the list. For their embedded customers, the existing design is more than adequate since in embedded applications low power consumption (and heat generation) is much more important than high compute power.
Article Two is where the meat is. Steven talks about porting the operating system over to X86 chips and getting the applications to run but then he introduces something called the "Launch Loop" and comments:
Yes, Apple could offer such machines for sale. That's not the problem. The problem is this: Who would buy them? Why would anyone want to during the critical first two years?

No matter how cool it is, no matter what its other features might be, the ultimate value of any operating system, and its ultimate purpose, is to run applications. And irrespective of any other feature it might have, its primary value is calculated by customers based on how many and what kinds of apps it makes available. The OS is an enabler; use of an OS gives you access to a certain set of apps. It is the number and kind and variety of apps which is the ultimate source of the OS's value; the features of the OS itself are of minor importance by comparison except to a relatively small population of OS groupies.
If you have ten or fifteen minutes, Article Two is an excellent read. Article One is too and if you are planning to read them both, start there. Steven has stopped writing but he is keeping the website up for reference -- lots of good stuff there... Posted by DaveH at June 3, 2005 9:14 PM
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