Re: How many times must Apple make such DRASTIC architecture changes?

["Laine Houghton" <laine@intergate.com>]

"Wayne Stewart" <waynes@telus.dotnet> wrote in message 
news:n%9re.50461$HI.20178@edtnps84...
> Michael J. Mahon wrote:
>
>> No doubt Apple has convince themselves that their hardware sales
>> will not be at risk in this move.  And no doubt that will be
>> achieved by doing something very arbitrary and proprietary...
>> think of it as "hardware copy protection".  ;-)
>>
>> Maybe Intel has finally found a taker for its "unique processor
>> ID" feature, and each copy of OSX will be licensed to a specific
>> processor.
>>
>> Time will tell if they can get away with this artificial
>> incompatibility, or if people will figure out how to make
>> Apple have to compete on a level hardware playing field...
>
> I'd doubt that they'd even consider that. Right now the OS doesn't
> even require a CD key when installing.
>
> I'm wondering though if they'll use that processor ID feature as part
> of a way to sell downloadable movies for a video iPod. Use the ID to
> make it so the movie is only usable on that one machine and you can
> send the movies to a video ipod but you can't pull them off one.
>
> At present I believe the movie industry is leary of online movies
> because they know every downloaded movie they sold would likely find
> it's way online the same day.
>
> Wayne

As I've been thumbing through this thread I don't think I've seen the term 
BIOS brought up. I think that is as much a part of the machine as the CPU if 
not more so.

What made cp/m such a widely used OS was its generic BIOS that served as an 
API. Only that piece needed to be coded to the metal for a successful 
implementation.