What does the Intel & Apple alliance do for me?

[Anjew]

I am a NoOb when it comes to Apple computers.
What is the big thing about this besides speed?

[thebobman]

biggest benefit?
cost.
the Intel chips are made in MUCH greater numbers alongside nearly identical CPUs for PCs, so the cost of the CPU (the most expensive piece (besides a display) decrease, hence you get a cheap mac. yippee

[dj_soo]

uh, not really - have you seen the prices for the new intel macs? Pretty much the same.

Biggest thing is still speed. Still not going to see a huge benefit right away as a lot of the processor-intesive programs aren't running native to the new processors and require an emulator system right now.

[nabs]

the speed is a very noticeable change in the new MAC, higher CPU frequency and Front Side Bus is another plus.

[Gusto]

"Advocates of the transition point out software benefits. Technical users will appreciate the ability of Apple systems to run all four classes of software at near native speeds; OS X binaries, Java/.NET applications, GNU applications and potentially now Win32/x86 applications. No other hardware vendor can offer more than three of these. Virtual PC, a Windows emulation solution for Apple PowerPC sold by Microsoft, could now enjoy much more success with performance improved through virtualisation rather than emulation. For those customers wishing to achieve a more conventional environment, a dual, triple, or even quadruple boot solution would likely be possible on an x86 Apple device. Apple has already indicated they do not intend to take steps to prevent other operating systems being deployed on their new machines."

- wikipedia

[nabs]

^^ makes sense.

[stringbeans]

gusto's got it

speed's not the issue here, its the potential of having complete application portability

[ebbomega]

Originally Posted by dj_soo

uh, not really - have you seen the prices for the new intel macs? Pretty much the same.

Just because apple's making more money doesn't mean it doesn't cost them less to make them.

Biggest thing is still speed. Still not going to see a huge benefit right away as a lot of the processor-intesive programs aren't running native to the new processors and require an emulator system right now.

Actually, biggest thing is dedication to the processors. The reason Apple was always bouncing between IBM and Motorola for their processors was because one or the other would start slacking on processor development.

The advantage of Intel is that they are entirely a processor company, so they won't start slacking on that portion of their development. They will constantly be looking to change things up on the processor side, push new technologies and new ways of handling computer processing... on a CONSISTENT basis. IBM and Motorola are both embedded systems companies, meaning they design entire systems, not just CPUs. Intel only makes CPUs so they'll be able to keep up with the constantly changing market.

Speed may be the only thing for now, but I think that the benefits of having Intel in macs is going to show up about a year or two down the line when the next line of Mac processors is rolled out.