Should Apple dump the G-Series and go with INTEL?

[Kyle Fenton]

Originally posted by MattK
I have been watching apple, to see what they are going to be doing with their processors. Rumor has it that apple is going to dump Motorola and go with AMD or Intel.

What do you think,

Is it not a Mac without a Motorola chip

Or is the software what REALLY matters?

This rumor has been a big one. But I think this is highly doubtful for 2 reasons.

1. Software vendors will have to re-compile their products for an Intel/AMD processor, which right after compiling their Apps for Mac OS X would anger developers even more.

2. Intel is still somewhat a CICS processor, which Motorola has always been a RICS processor. They would have to re-write a lot of drivers, system files, etc. to get right.

This is more of an analyst dream than a actual dream. To the eyes of an analyst an Intel processor is cheaper and more readily available than a Motorola processor. The technical feats would be too much to bear.

Plus

* Even though Motorola processors only go at 1.25 GHz, they can still compete with even the latest 3.0 GHz due to its Velocity Engine.

* The next generation of processors will most likly be a 64 bit IBM Power 4. (Kind of Ironic, but hey) Its a PowerPC compatible processor with a Velocity Engine. Right now it is used in Linux servers.

All things fair I have also heard of a project called Marklar which is just in case the PowerPC fails to deliver it can be ported to X86.

Also Darwin, the core of Mac OS X has been ported to an X86 for some time now.

Don't be fooled with MHz, it is only a partial measurement of speed, there are many other factors that come into play.