http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,158723,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4612951.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4612951.stm
They must be out of their minds... moving from good to bad technology? >_<
An interesting result, instead of being on the margin of the main PC market, Apple by adopting the major architecture in x86 are starting to target the core of PC users instead of just the vertical market fringe. If I remember correctly the current OS on a MAC is FreeBSD based so there may end up being a decent Unix style system available for x86 yet.
It's impossible to satisfy everyone, but at least I must be feel satisfying by myself.
Let's think about it from an assembly language point of view. This will make the x86 architecture the undisputed "standard", maybe this will breathe new life into the need for assembly language programmers for tight optimizations :D
SpooK, it's sad that the x86 patchwork will have even longer life, considering there's better architectures out there (and I'm not just thinking about the CPU, but the whole PC platform).
I think AMD might be going in the right direction though. Supplement x86 architecture with 64-bit and slowly phase the chaotic thing out. You have to remember that above all else, these companies are out to make money... alienating the majority is foolish.
An interesting result, instead of being on the margin of the main PC market, Apple by adopting the major architecture in x86 are starting to target the core of PC users instead of just the vertical market fringe. If I remember correctly the current OS on a MAC is FreeBSD based so there may end up being a decent Unix style system available for x86 yet.
http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/darwin/faq.html (under "Where does Darwin fit into the BSD family?")
You can run Darwin on x86 processors right now; x86 binaries are available under http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/ , though i'm sure you guys can compile the latest version, Darwin 8.1. :)
Based on info regarding Universal Binaries, the instruction set is similar to what i presume are P4 instructions, having myself not actually used anything more fancy than MMX ops. Now if only i can get my hands on an OS X assembly tutorial for Intel-based Macs... (and an Intel-based Mac, for that matter). Devkits are ~$1000 US + ADC select/premiere membership and include a P4 with Phoenix BIOS, but who knows what the retail systems will look like...
It's a pity that the graphical manager (Aqua Desktop) is not (yet?) Open Source!
Regards, bilbo
Regards, bilbo