Mac transition to Intel processors: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:37, 15 September 2005

Revision as of 21:17, 15 September 2005

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The '''Apple Intel transition''' is an announced change in the architecture of the [[Macintosh]] platform. At the [[2005]] [[Worldwide Developers Conference]] (WWDC), [[Apple Computer]] [[CEO]] [[Steve Jobs]] made the historic announcement that the company was beginning a transition from the use of [[PowerPC]] [[microprocessor]]s supplied by [[Motorola]] and [[IBM]] in their [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]] [[computer]]s, to processors designed and manufactured by [[Intel]], a chief supplier for most of Apple's competitors. The new Macs (dubbed "Mactel" or "MacIntel" as a [[portmanteau]] of "Mac" and "Intel") will run on future versions of Intel's x86 processor architecture.

==Precedents==

The Macintosh line underwent a similar transition in the [[1990s]], when Apple switched from the use of Motorola's [[68K]] series of chips to their [[PowerPC]] processors, developed jointly with Apple and IBM. This took several years, and was accomplished by Apple producing versions of the [[Mac OS]] which could run on either platform, fairly low-level emulation of the 68K architure by the PowerPC models, and third party developers releasing "fat binaries" that could run natively on either architecture.

More recently Apple has brought the Macintosh line from the earlier [[Mac OS]] family to [[Mac OS X]], a [[Unix-like]] operating system with a different user interface. This transition also took a number of years (a small percentage of older Macintoshes still run the earlier operating system), and was facilitated by the inclusion of [[Classic (Mac OS X)|Classic]], an evironment in which an instance of [[Mac OS 9]] could be run, permitting the execution of programs which had not been ported to Mac OS X.

A long-rumoured internal project within Apple, known as "[[Marklar]]" was designed to ensure that builds of Mac OS X were sufficiently [[cross-platform|portable]] as to compile for both PowerPC and x86-class processors. Jobs confirmed this, stating that every version of OS X had in fact been compiled for Intel processors as well as PowerPC. It is not known what other processors, if any, for which Apple maintains current builds.

==Reasons==

Jobs stated that Apple's primary motivation for the transition was their disappointment with the progress of IBM's development of PowerPC technology, and their greater faith in Intel to meet Apple's needs. In particular, he cited the [[performance per watt]] (that is, the speed per unit of heat generated) projections in the [[Technology roadmapping|roadmap]] provided by Intel. This is an especially important consideration in laptop design.

In 2003, Jobs had introduced Macintoshes based on the [[PowerPC 970|PowerPC G5]] processor and promised that within a year the [[clock speed]] of the part would be up to 3 [[Gigahertz|GHz]]. Two years later, 3 GHz G5s were still not available, and rumours continued that IBM's low yields on the [[POWER4]]-derived chip were to blame. Further, the heat produced by the chip proved an obstacle to deploying it in a [[laptop]] computer, which had become the fastest growing segment of the [[personal computer]] industry.

Some observers were surprised that Apple had not made a deal with [[AMD]], which has in recent years become a strong competitor to Intel, sometimes introducing technologies more quickly than the traditional industry leader. AMD's shorter track record and smaller production capacity, and Intel's significant [[brand]] awareness among the consumers and ability to also provide Apple with complete motherboard designs, have been offered as possible reasons for the choice of Intel. Also, as the laptop market was cited as a major reason for the switch, Intel was a more appropriate choice than AMD, as the [[Centrino]] line of mobile chips has been proven to deliver better performance and lower heat than AMD's rival [[Turion]] chips.

==Benefits of the Move==

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There are questions over the extent to which Apple will retain control over the non-processor components of the system design. Apple is traditionally a systems builder, and some fear that Apple's [[industrial design]] philosophy may be impacted if Apple switches to generic parts. Others have said that the impact would be minimal, as Apple has slowly been switching to standard parts since the introduction of the PCI Power Mac in 1995, and that using a generic chipset in itself would not harm the Mac's image.

Apple has indicated that the new Intel PCs will not use their traditional [[Open Firmware]]. A new Intel technology for [[firmware]], [[Extensible Firmware Interface]] (EFI), promises more functionality and removes the traditional PC reliance on the [[BIOS]], but Apple has not yet stated which system will be used.

The use of the x86 architecture has brought forth the possibility of running Windows natively on Apple hardware, as well as using the [[WINE]] package to run Windows executables directly. Some fear that the change will make OS X a less valuable target for software developers, since Windows users could use WINE or a [[dual boot]] setup to run Windows apps instead; others say that it could be a boon to switchers, since they would not have to leave their Windows applications behind while trying out OS X. The idea of OS X being available on regular PCs has also been discussed, but Apple has said that they will not allow regular PCs to run OS X (though they have no concerns about Intel-based Macs running Windows).