Apple Archive

"Apple Computer is looking toward a 64-bit future for the Mac -- courtesy of PowerPC partner IBM. According to sources, IBM Microelectronics, a division of IBM, is working with Apple on a 64-bit PowerPC processor for use in the latter's high-end desktops and servers. Sources said Apple is testing the CPU, dubbed the GigaProcessor Ultralite (GPUL) on Mac OS X-based hardware at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, and making sure that the processor complies with a new bus architecture on tap for future Macs. In addition, IBM plans to offer the processor as the centerpiece of future Linux-based systems, the sources said." Read the interesting article at eWeek. Also from eWeek recently, they reported that Apple is backporting to the x86 as a fallback plan.

"It has now been a few years (over 5) since NeXT took over Apple, and they’ve had time to implement their ideas. OS X is shipping in it’s 3rd version, and I think we can recap and try to learn from history. Let’s recap. In the mid 1990’s Apple had been working hard on Copland. This was a new kernel underneath the MacOS and new UI and features up above. It was bringing MacOS into the 90’s (and into the next millennium)." Read the interesting article at iGeek. Three more Apple-related articles today, an editorial about OSX 10.2 here, printing capabilities of OSX and more from Seybold here and why OSX on Intel would be bad for Apple is here.

MacNN reports on some unofficial IBM comments that took place in a briefing of IBM's high performance computing technology meeting. The asked presenter said that the Power4 derivative CPU is not for Apple. Its 160 instructions that will be introduced in the new CPU are not Altivec and that IBM pitched the desktop Power4 to Apple, but Apple was not interested. This new information, if true, again turns the posibility for the future of the Macs to x86 as the Motorola G5 is a dead horse by all accounts, OSNews heard. eWeek recently reported in the existance of an x86-based MacOSX, codenamed Marklar.

The August 2002 Mac OS X Developer Tools Update addresses issues with the July 2002 Mac OS X Developer Tools originally released with Mac OS X version 10.2 (Jaguar build 6C115 or later)." The download can be found at Apple Developer Connection (ADC login required). On other news, Apple says it's not just opening up the source code for its Rendezvous networking tool--it's actively courting open-source developers to work with the technology. Also, Apple now sells PowerMacs with MacOSX 10.2-Server pre-installed. Prices start at $3,000 USD for a dual 1 GHz G4 machine.

BareFeats has a benchmark, testing the SDRAM-based dual G4 at 1Ghz with the new DDR PC2100 ones. The new PowerMacs are the same or slower than their previous models, the test reveals. The Mac community got a bit dissapointed (judging from the forums). The author says that the slowdown is because the two processors share a 1GB/s pipe to Apple's custom AGP/Memory controller. While the shared bandwidth is a factor, it is not the reason that makes the new Macs slower. Having a better look at the specs, show that the author have forgot a very important detail:

Apple Computer will likely shift to using Intel chips, while circumstances exist that could well push Dell Computer and Sun Microsystems into a friendly embrace, predicted Bear Stearns analyst Andrew Neff. More and more analysts, editors and even users are getting smoother to the idea that Apple might have to make the jump to x86, simply because IBM/Motorola are not interested anymore in fullfilling Apple's CPU needs. I wrote an editorial about it two weeks ago (a pretty successful article I might add, judging from the outrageous number of hits received). That article seemed to have re-ignite a number of similar articles on the web since then to several tech news sites.