The Logic Off Topic list

on 7/25/02 9:33 AM, Murray McDowall wrote:

> You said that you think that Mac's being behind in speed will change soon.
> This would involve a doubling or tripling of speed and soon because the
> competition -- the thing that Macs are "behind" in your own words -- is
> rapidly progressing. This seemed unlikely to me. Macs will undoubtedly get
> faster but it seems unlikely that they will catch up unless they move to
> another processor.  (I argued in my post that the historical trend is one
> of X86 catching and overtaking RISC due to vastly greater R&D budgets.)
> 
> Apple has already moved to another platfrom a decade ago when it moved the
> Mac to the PowerPC from the dying 680x0 platform. Their execution on this
> move was flawless BTW -- the port to the new processor was miraculously
> well managed. Apple could easily get cheap fast processing by going with
> the Nvidia NForce2/Hammer solution that is the stuff of rumours at present.
> That seems a more likely source of fast (competitive) future Macs than
> PowerPC G series.

Rumours are many times based in truth.  Apple isn't stupid.  I think if they
feel they aren't going anywhere with the G series processors, why wouldn't
they jump ship to a Hammer or x86 platform.  It really wouldn't be all that
difficult, especially with OS X.  They aren't going to sit around and get
left in the dust.

I tend to agree with Colin though.  All this testosterone, wasted over
arguing about whose processor is bigger or faster, could be put to better
use.

Garth