Windows on the Mac?
In one of the more unusual developments to take
place within the digital monde, it was revealed that Microsoft has released
software development kits (SDK) for its Xbox 2 gaming console that require
high-end Apple Power Mac G5 systems to run. The Xbox SDK's do not run on Apple's
OS X operating system. No, they run on a modified version of Windows, a
veritable PPC version of NT. This means that there exists a version of Windows
NT that runs on Apple hardware!
Does this mean we will soon see a version of
Windows that runs on the Mac? No, that we won't see. Beyond this obscure version
of NT designed only to allow Xbox developers to get started developing games for
the Xbox 2. Eventually IBM will design a chip for the Xbox that will not likely
be fully compatible with the G5 chip designed for high-end Apple Power Macs.
Besides, a PPC version of Windows would be useless. No Windows applications
would run on it, nor could you attach any printers or other peripherals to it.
Windows applications are compiled not merely within the Windows OS, using
Windows API's, but on the x86 architecture. Most application binaries are both
OS and architecture specific. It would, however, be much easier to port Windows
applications to a PPC version of Windows than to Mac OS X. Applications ported
from Windows to Mac need to be more or less rewritten, at least all the API
specific code. But windows ported across architectures within the same
OS-development platform need little, if any, rewriting.
Posted: Mon - March 1, 2004 at 10:40 PM