It’s been a heated debate in nerd circles for some time now. Every year the rumor surfaces in some form or another, only to be shouted down by Mac fans everywhere. “Macs will never switch to Intel processors.”
So when the rumor arose around the middle of last year, it raised few eyebrows. Only this time, the “cry wolf” was real. Apple had ended its decade long relationship with IBM and, following the advice of their own ads, made the “switch” to Intel.
Apple unveiled their plans to partner with Intel back in June 2005 and started shipping units in January 2006.
The first lines of Intel-based Macs included several models: the iMac, with the Intel chip, which was quickly followed by the MacBook Pro (the Intel equivalent to the PowerBook). More recently, they’ve released the Intel line of their popular Mac minis.
Although the changes are mostly under-the-hood, the average user needs to understand a few things in this early phase.
The first thing one notices is an overall speed boost. Apple claims the iMac benefits from a speed boost over the older PowerPC models, while the Mac mini and MacBook Pro both claim 400 percent speed increases over their previous models.
Early reports from actual, field-tested models seem to back up Apple’s claims.
However, as in any system change, kinks are bound to pop up in the early stages.
Switching to a new chipset isn’t as seamless as switching out monitors or keyboards. Software is generally written with a specific chipset in mind, to be as optimized as possible. When the chipset is switched, the software gets lost.
Fortunately, Apple planned ahead with a two pronged strategy: Rosetta and Universal.
If software gets confused when the chipset is switched, Rosetta is the guiding light. Running unobtrusively in the background, Rosetta serves as a translator between software originally written for the IBM PowerPC chips and the newer Intel chips. It’s included in the latest release of OSX (10.4.4) and works without the user having to do anything.
The downside to using such a “middleman” is that the user will inevitably experience some slow-down and possible flat-out incompatibilities.
That brings us to Universal, which is fairly self-explanatory. If you see the Universal logo on any piece of Mac software, it simply means that software has been designed to work with the Intel IBM chips natively (i.e. without the need for Rosetta to do any translating). This means that the software will take advantage of the speed boost the Intel chips provide.
Apple has promised to have their entire software library Universal-compatible by the end of the calendar year. Other third party companies are releasing “Universal software patches” on their own schedules.
Apple’s software that is currently non-Universal will work with Rosetta except for Pro applications (Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, etc). Unfortunately, those will not be Universal-compatible until March 31, when there will be a small “crossgrade” fee of anywhere from $29 to $49 depending on the application.
Also, all existing Adobe applications (Photoshop, GoLive, etc) will not have their current versions patched to run in Universal mode. The last issue to tackle is games. The Mac’s gaming library is anemic compared to the Microsoft Windows library, and the switch to the Intel chip won’t do much to change that. A game developer usually chooses to make games for Windows-based machines due to their large market share. For Macs, which corner about five percent of the market, it usually isn’t worth it to developers to spend an extensive amount of time re-coding a game for such a small return.
However, there is a silver lining to the issue. What if you could boot up Windows XP on an Intel Mac? With Apple’s new beta software “Boot Camp,” you can.
There have been several hacked efforts to get XP running on the new Macs, and, while they technically work, they can be buggy, hard to implement and don’t offer very much support.
With Boot Camp, you get all the comfort of Apple know-how and support, as well as the blessing of Microsoft. Boot Camp is free to the public in beta form and will be implemented in the latest OSX release “Leopard.”