RSS FeedApple and Intel
By now I’m sure everyone knows that Apple is going to be making macs using Intel’s x86 architecture chips. I’m not going to bang on about how surprising and impossible the whole thing is because its actually not that crazy.
OS X is built on FreeBSD. Now as far as I know FreeBSD will run on anything that can understand zeroes and ones including Intel’s x86. In fact I’d say 90%+ systems running BSD are on Intel or AMD chips. Why is it such a stretch then that Apple built this compatibility into OS X? You can’t change the core and the core is compatible. In fact, you could say it would be foolish NOT to support it… cause you never know when you might need Intel. So Apple have obviously had the warm blanket of being able to switch to Intel and have done a decent job of keeping quiet about it for the last 5 years.
Cringely weighed in with his usual wild predictions claiming that Intel and Apple are going to merge. In this case I think he’s wrong. In fact, I’d say that this time he’s absolutely batshit fucking loco. Why would big blue piss off 95% of their business? Just because they are unhappy with Microsoft’s tactics? Why would Intel cut off their nose to spite their face? Also, if Intel are even thinking about Apple it would be an aquisition, not a merger. They’d also need to pry control from the icy grip of Steve Jobs’ cold dead hands. He definitely wouldn’t be on stage hugging the CEO of Intel if he was going to be Jobs’ future boss.
No, the real reason is just what Jobs declared at the WWDC. IBM aren’t playing ball. This is hardly surprising given that they’re moving further and further from the desktop business and deeper and deeper into hardcore servers and gaming consoles. All the signs point to this, from the sale of it’s PC business to Lenovo to developing the Cell processor for the PlayStation 3, its obvious IBM’s focus is no longer on the desktop chip market. The only reason it has a tenuous foothold in the market in the first place is, you guessed it, Apple.
Sorry Bob. I think you got it wrong this time around.
Tags: apple, bat-shit fucking loco, cringely, intel