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Cringley Thinks Apple & Intel Are Merging

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-that-would-be-something dept.

SamSeaborn writes "In Bob Cringely's latest column he talks about the Apple switch to Intel and concludes: 'what's behind the announcement is so baffling and staggering that it isn't surprising that nobody has yet figured it out until now. Apple and Intel are merging.' "

9 of 834 comments (clear)

  1. Hey Cringely, WTF - RTFA! by EccentricAnomaly · · Score: 5, Informative

    Quoth Cringely: "Certainly, he never said WHICH Intel chip they'd be using, just mentioning an unnamed 3.6-Ghz development system -- a system which apparently doesn't benchmark very well, either (it's in the links)."

    Those stupid benchmarks are comparing a G5 running native PPC code to the 3.6 Ghz Pentium running PPC code under emulation. Follow Cringely's link to an article that in turn links to ThinkSecret which then explains that the benchmarks are for Rosetta.

    --
    There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
  2. Re:Idea for new Slashdot section by JabberWokky · · Score: 4, Informative
    When I started to reply to you, I thought Cringely was a nom de plume for a set of columnists. Turns out it's not quite correct, but the story is interesting. He's a computer writer who can't legally write (under that name) for a computer publication. Hunh.

    And the reason? Because Dvorak held the position before him.

    --
    Evan

    --
    "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
  3. To the Cringely Haters... by Embedded+Geek · · Score: 5, Informative
    I know you loathe the guy, but you have to give him this: at least he keeps score on his predictions. That's a Hell of a lot more than anyone else in the pundit biz does. If he's wrong on this one, you count on him publicly eating crow over it (eventually).

    Disclaimer: Personally, I have no idea on how much faith to put in this particular prediction, either. I just keep my money in the S&P 500 and don't loose any sleep over the specifics.

    --

    "Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."

  4. Re:I don't know about "merging" by nocutename · · Score: 4, Informative

    Which is one major reason that OS/2 withered - it did such a good job running Windows program that nobody saw the need to actually buy OS/2-native programs... If Apple undertook a similar strategy, it would probably be the last straw for many Mac developers...

  5. Re:Answers to his questions... Even More by guidryp · · Score: 4, Informative

    >Question 1: What happened to the PowerPC's supposed performance advantage over Intel?

    Dissapearing as we speak and that is part of the reason for the move.

    >Question 2: What happened to Apple's 64-bit operating system?

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16819116198
    intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott 800MHz FSB 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 EM64T
    $289 NOTE the EMT64T.

    The Chip in the dev platform is reportedly:
    Nntel Pentium 4 660 Prescott 800MHz FSB 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 EM64T
    Again note the EM64T

    >Question 3: Where the heck is AMD?
    To me this is the lamest question people ask. There are so many reason that it would be a much bigger surprise if it were AMD. Want some:

    0: Better deal, simpler engineering if you stick with one.
    1: Intel provides the whole platform from a single vendor. Massively simplifying engineering the new platform
    2: The myriad of reasons that Dell does the same. Most of them Dollars.
    3: Pentium-M Laptop platform.
    4: Truly massive Fab capacity, vs AMD history of production problems.

    >Question 4: Why announce this chip swap a year before it will even begin for customers?
    As said before Developers. Because there is no other way you can give ALL the developers a heads up and keep it a secret.

  6. The True Cringely? by PCM2 · · Score: 4, Informative

    InfoWorld still runs a column by yet another columnist who goes by the name Robert X. Cringeley. It's sort of an IT industry gossip/society column, and it's often actually pretty good.

    --
    Breakfast served all day!
  7. Umm... by Paradox · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm pretty sure that Apple has admitted to the devs at WWDC that Rosetta is in fact a Transative-powered technology.

    We all knew that Transative believed they had something big. Evidently they do. The Mach-O binaries with their lazy symbol lookup provide a very nice, natural framework for Rosetta to run.

    --
    Slashdot. It's Not For Common Sense
    1. Re:Umm... by g1zmo · · Score: 4, Informative

      On a completely unrelated note: I wanted to add another pet peeve of mine regarding Latin phrases. It's when people write "et. al." rather than "et al.". There should be no period after the "et" because "et" is the entire word. Thanks for listening.

      --
      I have found there are just two ways to go.
      It all comes down to livin' fast or dyin' slow.       -REK, Jr.
  8. Re:Wow by FredFnord · · Score: 4, Informative

    > There are interesting nuances to this, though, for one that Apple is using PC BIOS...

    For GOD'S SAKE, get a GRIP! Their preliminary, not-for-sale, we'll-rent-you-a-system-for-a-year-and-then-you-gi ve-it-back, please-don't-show-this-to-anyone systems have a BIOS.

    Their final shipping products are as likely to have a bios as the final PPC X-Box is to have APPLE ROMS. (Yes, the x-box dudes at MS are currently using PowerMacs to develop on. Get the parallel?)

    God, I'm so tired of people leaping to conclusions like this. The first prerelease of what eventually became Mac OS X was Intel-only, and yet somehow when the actual first release of Mac OS X for consumers came out, it was for PPC.

    Preliminary hardware is preliminary hardware. Stupid assumptions are stupid assumptions. Neither one is, frankly, worth terribly much.

    -fred

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