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Does Anyone Wish that Apple Still Used a Unique Architecture for their Computers?

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gunraidan

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 10, 2009
176
0
We all know back in the day instead of using x86 architecture from intel, :apple: went their own way with PowerPC. But as we know a few years ago due to the waning support from IBM, Apple went with the x86 architecture from intel.

Now that everything has been done and set do you ever wish that :apple: would have went with some other type of hardware instead of x86? Do you miss that "special" feeling for under the hood of your Mac? Or it doesn't really matter to you?
 
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guydude193

macrumors 6502a
May 15, 2009
652
0
MI
The only thing I miss of the PPC days are those unique colors they used to offer. Other than that, Intel was a great move.
 
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liptonlover

macrumors 6502a
Mar 13, 2008
989
0
If you want to talk about how I felt about my Mac, how about this. When I had a PowerPC Mac, it felt cheap and plastic and underpowered. But the move to Intel felt slick, modern/futuristic, fast, and since the Macs got the beautiful aluminum deal that helped a ton too. Plus, I think Intel really is better anyways.

Nate
 
Antares

Antares

macrumors 68000
Jan 16, 2006
1,721
28
Somewhere in the Milky Way....a little place calle
I do miss it on some level. It's cool being different. Now, we can only argue why Macs are better on the design front and the operating system front. I miss also being able to argue why Mac architecture is better. Now, Macs are much more closer to PC's....which is a sad thing (not discounting all the positives with the transition to Intel chips).
 
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gunraidan

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 10, 2009
176
0
liptonlover said:
If you want to talk about how I felt about my Mac, how about this. When I had a PowerPC Mac, it felt cheap and plastic and underpowered. But the move to Intel felt slick, modern/futuristic, fast, and since the Macs got the beautiful aluminum deal that helped a ton too. Plus, I think Intel really is better anyways.

Nate
Click to expand...

I thought PowerPC CPU's were more powerful than x86?
 
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Neotyguy40

macrumors regular
Jul 15, 2009
152
0
I like intel better for 2 reasons:

1. It is on a x86 architecture, which means developers and more people will start using them. Notice a large amount of new applications for it recently?

2. If Apple gets enough business, then they could buy/force intel to make computers only for them! That means dell, hp, and many other manufacturers would need to ask AMD...
 
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sl1200mk2

macrumors 6502
Oct 17, 2006
320
3
Neotyguy40 said:
2. If Apple gets enough business, then they could buy/force intel to make computers only for them! That means dell, hp, and many other manufacturers would need to ask AMD...
Click to expand...

Talk about dreaming big! :D

As of Q1 this year Intel had ~ 77% market share for desktop / laptop. Apple has I think ~ 10% of that market. Unless AMD or a yet unknown company comes out with a product Intel is unable to match and has dominance in the market for the next 8 to 10 years, while Apple steadily gains double digit market share at the same time... let's just say Apple needs to have at least half the market with steady gains AND Intel is at a major disadvantage to it's competition before Apple has that sort of bargaining power. I wouldn't place any great hope in that!

It's amazing to see what Apple has done since the mid 90's and I think the future is very bright, but I don't see even 25% market share in the next 10 years. I for one don't wish to go back to the PPC days. I have the luxury of booting up a G3 800 to see where we were just 5 years ago. The difference is just unbelievable.
 
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MacMonster1985

macrumors member
Aug 15, 2009
87
0
Neotyguy40 said:
2. If Apple gets enough business, then they could buy/force intel to make computers only for them! That means dell, hp, and many other manufacturers would need to ask AMD...
Click to expand...

You do realise that if Apple does get that big it will lead to a lot of anti-trust issues. It's like MS buying up intel and making Windows the only OS that can run on their chip.
 
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gunraidan

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 10, 2009
176
0
What was the main draw with PowerPC in the first place? What did it offer over x86?
 
ravenvii

ravenvii

macrumors 604
Mar 17, 2004
7,585
493
Melenkurion Skyweir
gunraidan said:
I thought PowerPC CPU's were more powerful than x86?
Click to expand...

You have to look back at the time before the Pentium M. Back then, PowerPC CPUs are, clock-for-clock, faster. Especially during the Pentium 4 era.

Then Intel realized the Pentium 4 architecture is crap, and furthermore realized they had a gem in their hands in the form of the Pentium III architecture. From that realization, the Pentium M was born.

And the rest was history.
 
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noaccess

macrumors 6502
Jun 11, 2005
445
1
I do. PPC made Apple different, I guess the company had a more defined identity back in the day, they were more rebellious and less 'corporate', they paid more attention to detail and were much more creative when it came to the products, and just about everything seemed to be about making the user experience as good as possible.

Nowadays, I get the impression the products they release are more rushed out the door. There used to be keynotes, people who loved to hear about the new stuff being released and all that... Everything's more blah with them nowadays.

And I don't like what they've been doing with OS X since Leopard. The user interface seems a little less consistent to me in certain ways, plus the colors are out of whack, the whole aurora theme/Time Machine. I dunno.
 
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nick9191

macrumors 68040
Feb 17, 2008
3,407
313
Britain
gunraidan said:
What was the main draw with PowerPC in the first place? What did it offer over x86?
Click to expand...
Faster, lower power consumption. I believe at one point the fastest Apple laptop was faster than the fastest PC desktop.

In fact, you know the G4 tank advert, well it's actually true. The US Government did actually stop Apple from shipping the PowerMac G4 to certain countries as it was classified as super computer level performance.
 
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