well, seems the rumors were true. apple will be switching over to intel chips. never thought i’d see the day. jobs assures everyone it will be an easier transition than the one developers and consumers went through on the introduction of os x, but we shall see. one annoying fact, new operating system “apple leopard” to be released lat 2006 / early 2007, i haven’t even picked up “tiger” yet! see below for a summation of intel related remarks given this afternoon, grabbed from macworld.
The rumors are true: Intel will be inside
Jobs talked about the major transitions in the Mac’s life — starting from the Mac’s Motorola 68000-series processor to PowerPC. “The PowerPC set Apple up fro the next decade. It was a good move,” he said.
“The second transition was even better — the transition from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X that we just did,” he continued. “This was a brain transplant. And even though these operating systems (9 and x) vary only by one in name, they are very different, and this has set Apple up for the next 20 years.”
As the Intel logo lowered on the stage screen, Jobs said, “We are going to make the transition from PowerPC to Intel processors, and we are going to do it for you now, and for our customers next year. Why? Because we want to be making the best computer for our customers looking forward.”
“I stood up here two years ago and promised you 3.0 GHz. I think a lot of you would like a G5 in your PowerBook, and we haven’t been able to deliver that to you,” said Jobs. “But as we look ahead, and though we’ve got great products now, and great PowerPC products still to come, we can envision great products we want to build, and we can’t envision how to build them with the current PowerPC roadmap,” said Jobs.
Intel processors provide more performance per watt than PowerPC processors do, said Jobs. “When we look at future roadmaps, mid-2006 and beyond, we see PoweRPC gives us 15 units of performance per watt, but Intel’s roadmap gives us 70. And so this tells us what we have to do,” he explained.
Transition to Intel by 2007, and yes, Marklar exists
“Starting next year, we will introduce Macs with Intel processors,” said Jobs. “This time next year, we plan to ship Macs with Intel processors. In two years, our plan is that the transition will be mostly complete, and will be complete by end of 2007.”
Jobs then confirmed a long-held belief that Apple was working on an Intel-compatible version of Mac OS X that some have termed “Marklar.”
Mac OS X has been “leading a secret double life” for the past five years, said Jobs. “So today for the first time, I can confirm the rumors that every release of Mac OS X has been compiled for PowerPC and Intel. This has been going on for the last five years.”
Jobs demonstrated a version of Mac OS X running on a 3.6GHz Pentium 4-processor equipped system, running a build of Mac OS X v10.4.1. He showed Dashboard widgets, Spotlight, iCal, Apple’s Mail, Safari and iPhoto all working on the Intel-based system. The system itself was not revealed.
Apple needs developers’ help to complete the transition
“We are very far along on this, but we’re not done,” said Jobs. “Which is why we’re going to put it in your hands very soon, so you can help us finish it.”
Widget, scripts and Java applications should work in the new environment without any conversion, said Jobs. Cocoa-based applications will require “a few minor tweaks and a recompile.” Carbon-based applications require “a few more tweaks,” recompiling, and “they’ll work,” said Jobs. And projects built using Metrowerks’ CodeWarrior need to be moved to Xcode.
The future of Mac OS X development is moving to Xcode, said Jobs. Of Apple’s top 100 developers, more than half — 56 percent — are already using Xcode, and 25 percent are in the process of switching to Xcode. “Less than 20 percent are not on board yet. Now is a good time to get on board,” said Jobs.
A new build of Xcode, version 2.1, is being released today. This new release enables developers to specify PowerPC or Intel architectures. “… and you’re going to build what’s called a universal binary. It contains all the bits for both architectures,” said Jobs. “One binary, works on both PowerPC and Intel architecture. So you can ship one CD that supports both processors.”
“This is nothing like Carbonizing”
Many developers reading this news may be thinking that they’ll have to go through the same woes they had to in order to get their Mac OS 9 applications “Carbonized” to run on Mac OS X. Jobs assured the crowd that this isn’t like that at all. To demonstrated, he brought on stage Theo Gray, cofounder of Mathematica maker Wolfram Research.
Gray said that Mathematica is encumbered by “ancient code that hasn’t been changed since the Reagan administration,” but despite that, it only took about two hours to get Mathematica’s Mac OS X code running on an Intel-based Mac. “We’re talking about twenty lines of source code out of millions, from a dead cold start. This is nothing like Carbonizing. It’s pretty good when the biggest problem from your port is to figure out what to do with the rest of your weekend.”
Rosetta keeps old apps running
Jobs also discussed a new technology called Rosetta, that he described as “a dynamic binary translator.” It runs existing PowerPC applications on the Intel platform, he said. Jobs described Rosetta as “lightweight,” and said “it’s nothing like Classic.”
Jobs demonstrated Rosetta by running Microsoft Office applications, Quicken and Photoshop CS 2 — all unmodified PowerPC-binary versions, unlike Mathematica — on the new Intel-based hardware.
“So that is Rosetta, Jobs concluded. “These PowerPC apps just run. And that’s what we’re going to have for our users, because every app isn’t going to be there for our users on day one.”
Big names pledge support
Microsoft’s Roz Ho and Adobe’s Bruce Chizen both took the stage to reaffirm their commitment to the Macintosh platform. Ho said that Microsoft has been “working with Apple for some time” to create future versions of Office using Apple’s Xcode tools, and will create universal binaries accordingly.” Chizen called Apple’s decision to move to Intel “great,” and gently chided Steve Jobs: “What took you so long?”
Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini was next on stage, greeted by Jobs with a warm embrace. “I expect there’s a whole lot of people who’d never expect you’d see that logo on this stage,” said Otellini, who launched into a story tracing the history of his company, founded in 1968, and Apple, founded in 1976 — two high-tech firms that have blossomed over the decades in Silicon Valley.
Despite occasional jabs over the years, including Apple’s infamous ad where they set fire to the Intel “Bunny Man,” (an ad that was shown), Intel doesn’t hold a grudge, said Otellini.
“I think this brings the skills and the opportunities and the engineering excellence of two great companies,” said Otellini. “They combine our strengths and play on our respective strengths. Apple has legendary capability at hardware and software design and innovation.”
“Our strengths are different but entirely complementary. We’re about architecture, about scale and scope, and what we are most about is the relentless advancement of Moore’s Law to give you better and better machines every year. So after thirty years, Apple and Intel are together at last. I don’t think of this as a fairy tale with a happy ending. I think of this as an exciting and important story with a very happy beginning,” concluded Otellini, who then left the stage.
Leopard
Apple’s next major operating system release will be called Leopard, said Jobs. “We’re not going to be focusing on it today, but we intend to release Leopard at the end of 2006 or early 2007, right about the time Microsoft expects to release Longhorn,” he said.
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developing an intel ready version of os x parallel to the power pc version, for 5 years? pretty sneaky sis.