more on Opinions Re: Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips rumor on CNet

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Matt Clauson <mec () dotorg org>
Date: June 4, 2005 11:32:29 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Opinions Re: [IP] Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips  
rumor on CNet


On Jun 4, 2005, at 6:39 AM, David Farber wrote:


> http://news.com.com/2102-1006_3-5731398.html?tag=st.util.print

I have significant doubts that Apple as a corporation is stupid  
enough to shoot themselves in the foot like this.  Anyone who follows  
the more hardcore tech rags, or even a news aggregator like Slashdot,  
will remember the recent PearPC/CherryOS debacle, where the specifics  
of emulation of grossly different hardware (in this case, the PowerPC  
CPU architecture on the Intel x86 platform) can have massively  
horrible results in performance.  In this case, it's allegedly due to  
the horribly different CPU designs, including instruction sets and  
number of registers between the two architectures.  Apparently the  
reverse type of emulation (x86 emulation on PPC architecture) doesn't  
have as many problems.

The major question to ask is what will Apple's user base do if this  
switch happens?  A lot of current (and theoretically non-legacy)  
applications will have to run under the emulation, significantly  
impairing performance.  Does Apple expect that the users will shell  
out hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars to upgrade their  
applications to something that will run natively on the new  
platform?  What about the thousands of dollars in man-hours for third- 
party software vendors (like Adobe) to port their products to OSX/ 
Intel platforms?  While users pay a premium for Apple hardware  
currently (and I'll admit, I've been bitten by the bug recently and  
am beginning my own conversion after over a decade of almost-rabid  
Linux usage) that premium is usually well justified in the elegance  
and performance of the hardware, especially the past few years under  
OSX.  Does Apple really expect their users to end up paying thousands  
of dollars to switch to what seems to me like a computationally  
inferior platform?

I pray that they don't, for this would almost be a form of corporate  
seppuku if they do.

--mec


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