Power Macintosh
Apple moves from PowerPC to Intel
processors, and I'm feeling really nervous.
Over the weekend, news.com reported that Steve
Jobs would announce on Monday's WWDC keynote that Apple would transition
Macintosh from the PowerPC processor to Intel processors. Speculation built
over the weekend, as did confirmation by the Wall Street Journal, so by Sunday
night, I fully believed the transition would
occur.
I understood the business
reasons for doing so. IBM hasn't delivered 3 GHz G5 chips yet, despite telling
Steve Jobs they'd do so by last year. Also, IBM hasn't delivered low-power G5's
for PowerBooks. Further, reports and interviews appeared over the weekend
revealing that Intel has long wooed Apple, whereas IBM appears to have turned
their attention to Sony and Microsoft. Intel wants Apple's
business.
However, I've long been a fan
of RISC chips and the PowerPC in particular. I fully believe that, in the long
run, the Power architecture is better -- particularly for floating point
operations and handling large amounts of memory. Right now, PowerPC is better,
and in the long run, Power will still be better. (In the mid-term, however,
Apple needs to refresh the PowerBook line... though no doubt "Power" will not be
part of the name...)
Yesterday morning,
Steve Jobs announced that Apple would transition to Intel processors. A good
presentation, but I was worried and
depressed.
Last night, with Heather's
agreement, I decided to buy a Power Macintosh G5 dual 2.5 GHz machine, last
year's top of the line machine which was in stock on campus at a significant
discount. I don't see that switching to Intel will be a real upgrade, in the
next few years, so a current Power Mac G5 will still be super-fast in the next
two or three years. Also, my software shouldn't suddenly stop, and I expect the
transition to Intel to last a long enough time that a G5 will be supported
during the transition for a very long
time.
This morning, I changed my mind
and placed an order for this year's top-of-the-line Power Macintosh G5 dual 2.7
GHz machine (bigger hard drive and dual-layer capable 16X Superdrive make up for
the increased price, in my opinion). Hopefully, I'll get it at the end of the
week or next week, and I'll probably sell my Power Macintosh G4 dual 867 MHz on
eBay, or donate it.
Posted: Tue - June 7, 2005 at 11:29 AM