http://news.com.com/Apple+to+ditch+IBM%2C+switch+to+Intel+chips/2100-1006_3-5731398.html?part=rss&tag=5731398&subj=news

This is crazy news! I’m a bit skeptical it will happen but this is Cnet here, they’d be making a massive mistake if this doesn’t happen. I’m hoping its just a big ploy to get IBM to focus on the Mac more.

In my opinion this deal would be good for the iBook and Powerbook lines, although not so for the desktops. The top end G5 is already faster than most equivalent Intel and AMD CPUs in top end benchmarking, the fact that it isn’t 3GHz is irrelevant. If you then factor into the equation that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo will be ordering massive amounts of RISC processors soon it seems even more of a bad move. This makes it feel all like a stunt pulled by Apple to get IBM to work harder with Apple in the light of all this new console money coming in.

I think this would generally be a bad idea for Apple. The areas where it’d be lose out are too large:

-Apple faithful would be pissed about moving over to a “Wintel” style “Inpple” partnership.
-Developers would be pissed at having to recompile applications.
-Users would be pissed at having to pay to get x86 versions of their apps.
-Desktops would inevitably run hotter in comparison to RISC based chips.
-Performance difference between G5/Opteron/Xeon not massive at top end.
-IBM about to make substantial advances to the RISC based PowerPC chips; MS, Sony, Nintendo.

The advantages could be:

-Only temporary changeover. A year after the switch most people would have settled in.
-Faster and cheaper chips in the low end.
-Apple would probably choose higher quality chips and skip Celeron, making it easier to differentiate between Mac/PC.
-Faster and more superficial clock speeds.
-Lighter and faster laptops.
-Easier game porting due to alleviating x86 -> PowerPC issues.
-Very easy emulation??! Run Windows apps natively in OS X?

Hmmm, I think I just convinced myself this is a good idea. Bollocks. So basically what I’ve said is that in the short term (next two years) this is definitely a bad idea and I’ll definitely not buy a new Mac for at least this time. But then after those two years when Apple has had a substantial knock in market share and share price, we’ll have a decent line-up that will compete clock for clock with Windows PCs… Possible more switchers?

If it’s true, it might just as well be a G5 equivalent chip… nothing says it will be existing Intel chips after all. I doubt Apple would settle for already existing chips.

Anything is possible in this crazy world….

I still think it’s more like this: CNET gets more or less undeniable information that Apple is gonna work with Intel, but no clues as of what it’s about… more than using Intel produced chips. The sad journalists forgets that there’s tons of other uses for chips than the main CPU in a computer and writes a story on one of the oldest rumors in the Mac history. I mean, if it’s been around that long it has to be true… no?

Yeah there are a lot of variables that aren’t solid here.

What makes me laugh is that Tuncer is posting all over the IMG forums that this is fact and that whatever Cnet says is holy since they’re a massive news corp…

[quote author=“ConEEE”]Yeah there are a lot of variables that aren’t solid here.

What makes me laugh is that Tuncer is posting all over the IMG forums that this is fact and that whatever Cnet says is holy since they’re a massive news corp…

Well Tuncer always was a dumb bitch.

I’d prefer Ap-Tel to “inpple”

Not to plunge into a massive debate of mac vs. PC here, but I do have a 1.5 year old Dell that cost me $800 that performs around the same as a mid-low end G5 with a healthy amount of RAM (using Maya as a benchmark, mostly). Hell, I’ll even say it’s a $1200 computer after a hard drive and RAM upgrade. The fact that I could get this sort of bang-for-the-buck on the PC side is frustrating when comparing PCs and Macs, and I’d personally welcome a change that might result in lower priced hardware. Imagine buying a video card at PC prices, that only needs a Mac driver to operate. I’d like that. Wine style emulation would also be great compared to VPC.

Personally, I don’t give a fuck what processor is running inside my machine, as long as it’s fast and does the jobs that I need it to.

This kinda leaves a sour taste in my mouth, and I’m worried if the Intel chips can keep up with the PPC ones - but I recognize that it opens some interesting possibilities too.

Either way, I’ll wait for Steve’s official word before i get any funny ideas. Should be an interesting keynote.

Its sad, we’ve riding the second renaissance of Apple. For the first time in my life I walk around and see more people touting Macs than PCs, over hear people talking about goodness of OS X and so many white ear buds you’d think that Apple had a monopoly the music industry. Its been way fucked up at University of Oregon.  At the education department is a strange alternate universe of Mac laptop touting girls (One of several majors I should have pursued instead of Multimedia) . I just assumed when I first got here last year that it just went with the turf and education majors have always been Mac users. It didn’t take long for me to see that the education majors weren’t the only ones. I overhear architecture students talking about how next year all Architecture majors will be required to buy a Mac and even crazier that both students were thinking this was a good idea. Erm, what hell is going on? That’s when I noticed in my classes, I’ve actually started assuming fellow students are Mac users. Its seriously fucked up. All my life I’ve been isolated in this small self reserved island of Macintosh and then suddenly other people are looking at it like, “Hey, its not so bad over here”. Granted UO is like Mac Hippiedom, I fear that it could all end badly… I don’t have much fan boyism in my body but I must say, the only soft spot I have for a corporate identity is Apple. I long ago gave up the gospel of Apple, made fun of blatant Mac only diehards but deep down I still have some old tendencies. I fear it will all end badly.

There’s some part of me that likes knowing that when I’m paying out the ass for a computer that at least the OS couldn’t be run on much cheaper hardware. I I’ve become pretty content with being overcharged for my computers just for the satisfaction simplicity and ease of use. If there’s any switch to CISC, I feel like that’s in jeopardy. We’ve already been down this road. MOTOROLA+IBM WILL SAVE THE DAY. IBM WILL SAVE THE DAY. INTEL WILL SAVE THE DAY.  I’ve lost hope. In fact, I’ve even stopped caring if my Mac is faster than the fastest PC, just long they’re worthy opponents.

I don’t have any hopes about this rumor other than that it doesn’t involve porting OS X. But what do I know? I’m some college kid who doesn’t have anything better do than chat on msg boards.

Indeed. I doubt any massive recompiling of all current Mac applications will be necessary. Simply put, it’s possible (see below) Intel has been granted the means to design and produce their own PPC chips. The Mac OS may not become x86-based.

As the CNet article states, it goes back to the deal between Apple and IBM, and the promise of a 3 GHz chip in 1 year, that has ceased to show now 2 years later. Steve Jobs has become increasingly impatient.

Keep in mind this is only a theory taken from a Slashdot poster, but it sure sounds plausible:

- IBM and Apple sign a multi chip agreement with very specific clock speed, power usage, production quantities and target dates built into the contract. The first chip is the PPC970.

- Jobs and IBM publicly trumpets that the chip will hit 3GHz in a year’s time which is actually well below the contractual promises IBM made.

- Jobs and IBM get humiliated by the fact they didn’t even come close and still aren’t there after 2 years.

- Jobs throws constant fits and points out that IBM has missed every metric they contractually promised to meet. Jobs also points out that the way the contract is structured that Apple now has a right to a significant chunk of IBM IP and the right to shop for a manufacturer who is able to produce any and all of the chips under the original agreement.

While this is unfolding, IBM has been making the same pie in the sky promises to Sony and MS. As with Apple, IBM begins significantly scaling back the promises made to Sony and MS.

- Jobs gets jealous of the attention paid to said console manufacturers.

- Jobs exercises the options available and IBM gets taken to the cleaners.

The contract Apple has with IBM has a “Moto” contingency. There are extremely tough provisions in the contract that Apple insisted upon to prevent another Motorola scenario from happening. IBM had no problem with the provisions because they were positive the could meet the goals by two in half the time. IBM fucked up badly.

Apple now owns a large amount of PPC IP and Intel will now be manufacturing and designing PPC chips.

This is bad news for me because I had planned to buy a new tower next year. With this now abrupt change in events I’m not sure what to do or how this will effect the average consumer yet. I was really looking to buying a high-end tower, but with rumors that a change in the towers might not take place until 2007, I grow weary just thinking about having to wait that long.

*sigh* I just suppose we’ll find out all the details from WWDC this week.

>< Doh and I was gonna buy a new iBook this month too to replace my 2 year old one… le sigh…

I guess I shouuld wait… or gee.. >< bleh ...

confused now…

Yahoo is off and running with the story now, which all but confirms it for me.

yep. Is true. OK, well…. I’ve not got much of an opinion for the moment, and am very curious about backwards issues, particularly classic. In the school where I work, we rely on a classic only grading system. If it can’t run, I don’t know what will happen, but it may seriously effect our ability to convince the board of ed to switch to a new mac compatible school management system. Once you start talking needing to spend $100k on a piece of software, people will start hollering for the school to switch to windows.

This will be interesting: I worked for Apple through the bulk of the transition to OS X (10.0-10.3), and will be working for Apple through this new major transition. I’m really curious what sort of surprises this will hold.

Overall, I will say it’s certainly exciting.

Sucks for the people who bought a G5 recently. You can bet when the new macs debut in a year they will be significantly faster than their PPC counterparts.

And who’s going to buy a Mac now, when there is going to be a whole processor change in a year? Dropping 3.5k on a G5 mac now would be stupid. I wonder if this announcement will freeze apple’s computer sales…

I’ll be getting a new mac in a few weeks. But I’m planning on getting a mini. No big loss for a $600 computer to be obsoleted in a year and a half. I also have very little choice in the matter (unless I can pull some strings with some developer friends to get a intel OS X transition kit)

CNN claims that it’ll mean cheaper (by 20 or 30%) and cooler Macs. I guess that’s nice.

I can’t wait to see the keynote. Should be fun to see people’s reaction.