Re: Apple and the Holy War

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

Mike Pfaiffer <pfaiffer@mbnet.mb.ca> wrote:

>Supertimer wrote:
><snip>
>	I agree with your assertion Apple blew it. The G4 was a great chip for
>a few months. Now what are they going to do? They can't say our machine
>is just as fast as a 1GHz chip. The architecture and structure of the G4
>might bring it close. Unless they come out with a G5 or something a lot
>of PC owners may include this arguement as to why their machines should
>be bought rather than Macs.

The G4 is a great chip that's hampered by one thing.  They can't
get the clock speed higher easily.  If they could get the G4 to
operate at 1Ghz, it'll toast any Athlon or Pentium III.  I've read
that it is precisely because of the superior architecture of the G4
that they have a hard time increasing the clock speed.

At a certain point, clock speed would make up for any architecture
advantages.  I think the 1Ghz Athlon has reached this point.

There are several things Apple can do.  One possibility is to
release an x86 compatible MacOS as they had planned to
do before Rhapsody morphed into MacOS-X.  This would allow
MacOS to compete in the open.  MacOS is an extremely
refined OS better than Windows in many ways and I'm sure
it would make a great splash in the PC world.  At least as well
as Linux is doing but I predict much better.  PC users do not
have the same emotional hatred of the MacOS as Mac users
do of Windows.  I, for one, like MacOS.

The second possibility is to jump ship.  If Motorolla cannot
up the G4's clock speed soon enough and Athlons reach the
point of 1.5Ghz or even 2Ghz, then an integrated PowerPC
emulation within the MacOS would be possible.  Apple could
make the same jump it did when it switched from 68k to PPC.