Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during a keynote speech at a developers conference that Apple will gradually shift its Mac line to Intel-based chips during the next two years, confirming a timetable first reported by CNET News.com.
In his speech, Jobs revealed that Apple has been developing all versions of OS X since its inception to run on Intel and PowerPC chips. "Mac OS X has been leading a secret double life the past five years," he said.
The move to Intel marks a tectonic shift for Apple, which has used processors from IBM and Motorola (now Freescale Semiconductor) throughout the life of the Mac. However, the company has changed architectures before, shifting in the 1990s from Motorola's 68000 family of chips to the PowerPC architecture jointly developed by IBM and Motorola.
The move appears to spell the eventual end of support for older, pre-Mac OS X programs. Current versions of Mac OS X support the running of Mac OS 9 programs in a "Classic" environment. However, documentation for Apple's Rosetta technology says the transcoding software will not support programs written for Mac OS 8 or Mac OS 9.
Rosetta is the translation software technology intended to help ease Apple's planned transition to Intel-based chips. Rosetta will allow most Mac OS X programs to run on Intel-based Macs even if the software has not been compiled to run natively on Intel chips.
A Silicon Valley start-up called Transitive is supplying the crucial bridge to enable the move to Intel-based computers, but skeptics worry about performance problems that have plagued similar products. Success has been elusive for computer makers trying to support one chip's software on a machine with a different chip.
On the heels of Apple's move, IBM is taking new measures to spread its Power processors and make them a stronger competitor to Intel chips. IBM announced that 11 new members have joined a consortium of Power processor users. It also released specifications and software to make it easier to build computers using the forthcoming Power-based Cell processor that IBM, Toshiba and Sony developed.
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IBM PowerPC, Apple Computer, IBM Corp., Mac OS 9, Apple Mac OS
summary of last week's news.
gist. It's for the fun of reading anyway but history reminds us,
the greatest ambition and the tragic fall. Now let's see how all
these matches, somewhat interesting. September 1944, the
harzardous British, Polish and American joint Airborne mission
to secure key bridges across Holland leading allied forces on hot
pursuit to destroy the fleeing Germans. That was to end the war
by Christmas however, the largest in history, ambitious air
assault fell doomed shortly. The daring plan - "Market Garden"
led to a complete fiasco.
The assault plan. "Market" was to drop 35,000 British, American
and Polish paratroopers behind enemy lines to hold several
bridges in line ushering a path for advancing forces dubbed
"Garden", of Armour and Infantry forces that will finally punch
Germany. Thus, "Market Garden". The old military maxim; "No
plans ever survives initial contact." That's how it ended.
So, what exactly is No.1 Infinite Loop up to? Could year 2007 be
the full scale Mac assault to annihilate the PC by first engaging
DELL? And the alliance with Intel to supply more, faster, cooler
chips to drive those Mac machines across personal computer
front and spearhead into the server batteries? Forging ahead and
onwards consumer electronics positions.
June 6, 2005 in the annual World Wide Developers Conference,
hyperbole speaker Steven P.Jobs holds the floor and in this
spoof, he takes the role of Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law
Montgomery while Intel's Paul S.Otellini plays Lieutenant General
Frederick Browning. How does it match? Two years transition
expected to complete in mid 2007, with Mac OSX - leopard
debut, MacIntel machines rolling out of Apple arsenals armed
with supplies, the Universal Binary applications.
So, the Apple Intel: Market Garden. "Market" is to create
Universal Binary applications and "Garden" shall be none other
than the Intel-based machines to be released (hopefully) in mid
of 2006. The complete transition from IBM G5 to Intel-based
Macintosh will be at the end of 2007. Brilliant isn't it? So
rumours hit the nail, once again.
At the WWDC, Apple claimed that a "double-life" took place
throughout the past five years of stealth work on Mac OSX for
Intel platform. It's hard to believe but it all sounded so true
when "Developer Transition kit" for developers was introduced.
Gearing up with Xcode 2.1, developers will head straight to the
long march, towards 2006 WWDC.
So the developers work to the ground securing the OS with
Universal Binary applications while makers put together the
Intel-based Mac machines. It will be a tough road ahead for
"Market". Depending on the drop zone. Carbon developers will
be far behind objective, not to mention obstacles such as land-
mines to "tweak" with and get things going "recompile". Cocoa
developers are in advantage of shorter route, thus less
obstacles. The bridging engineers (Rosetta) will relieve the
forces throughout the cause of delivering these apps to run on
Intel-based machines. Now the question, how many will make it
there especially the major forces such as Adobe and Mac Office
while "Garden", the hardware might encounter technical hurdles
at the same time. For both elements to coincide will all depend
on immense effort.
So here's the story of Apple Intel - Market Garden, a fabricated
piece of write-up spoof based on September 1944, Operation
Market Garden. But true enough, for great endeavor, takes big
risk, lots to lose. The alliance raised lots of questions
unanswered and perhaps along as we go, some truths might
transpire. Will the MacIntel be the eventual case of "Market
Garden" or the "Osborne Effect"? Well, for us Mac citizens (Mac
users) and partisans (Mac advocates) to brace ourselves for the
day, developers to secure the MacIntel tanks to the rescue! Ha!