New Macs to be Intel based

New Macs to be Intel based

Arnawa Widagda, Contributor, Jakarta

In a surprising turn of events, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs announced
at Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference on June 3 that Apple
Computer will be using Intel processors for their 2006 line up.

Traditionally, Apple have used RISC PowerPC processors jointly
developed with Motorola and IBM.

This move has been the substance of rumors and speculation for
some time, but until now it has always been regarded as "just a
rumor".

Steve Jobs cited performance as the main reason for the move.

"As we look ahead, and though we've got great products now,
and great PowerPC products still to come, we can envision great
products we want to build, and we can't envision how to build
them with the current PowerPC road map", said Jobs in his speech
at WWDC.

He later added, "When we look at future road maps, mid-2006
and beyond, we see PowerPC gives us 15 units of performance per
watt, but Intel's road map gives us 70. And so this tells us what
we have to do."

While this move is a big surprise to everyone, Apple is no
stranger to x86 processors such as Intel and AMD processors.

They have had an operating system built for the PC ever since
MacOS X was launched.

The UNIX derived, popular MacOS X actually shares the same
kernel and development tools with the open source Darwin
operating system which is available for PowerPC and x86
processors.

The main difference between the two is the absence of Aquathe,
the much-celebrated MacOS user interface. Technically, there
should not be a problem porting the entire MacOS operating system
to run natively on Intel processors.

The biggest concern for many Mac loyalists and users is
software compatibility. Jobs stated that for existing software to
work on the new, Intel-based Macs, they will have to be emulated
and this task is done by Rosetta -- a software emulation layer
built just for that purpose. Apple is no stranger to emulation
and Rosetta should make the transition much less painful for most
users. However, not all applications will be supported by
Rosetta.

Another concern is how will Apple differentiate their products
with other PC vendors. Steve Jobs stressed that Apple will always
have a different, more complete approach than other PC
manufacturers who rely on Windows.

In product design, Apple have stayed ahead with original and
popular products such as the original iMacs and iBook. Jobs also
said that although the new Intel-based Macs will be able to run
Windows, they will come with the new MacOS X by default. However,
MacOS X can only be installed and run by these Macs. So, PC users
will still have to get a new machine if they want to use the
MacOS.

Most people in the industry believe that this bold move by the
Cupertino based company is a step in the right direction. The new
Macs should be faster, more affordable than before, plus they
will be more accessible to users. Hardware manufacturers tend to
launch their PC peripherals first, so this means PC based Macs do
not have to wait longer for the Mac version of these peripherals.
People tired and wary of Windows security issues now have another
alternative operating system to use other than Linux.