XPost: comp.sys.mac.advocacy, alt.os.linux.mandrake, comp.os.linux.advocacy   
   XPost: alt.os.linux.redhat   
   From: randyhoward@FOOverizonBAR.net   
      
   In article ,   
   znu@fake.invalid says...   
   > > I wouldn't put any money on it, but I wouldn't be surprised, either.   
   >   
   > If Apple was going to move to x86, they would have done it years back,   
   > during the dark Motorola days.   
      
   Maybe they were just trying to stay alive back then.   
      
   > Right now, it's not at all clear who is going to come out on top in the   
   > CPU market.   
      
   AMD has the clearly superior technology, and Intel is now copying   
   *some* of those features, and pathetically missing some, such as   
   hypertransport.  Note that market share != technological superiority.   
      
   > IBM has been doing pretty well -- they've managed to ramp up performance   
   > faster than Intel during the period since the G5 came out, for instance.   
      
   Stop slicing and dicing the data, that's just silly.   
      
   > Odds are IBM, Intel and AMD are all going to move to dual core within just   
   > a few months of each other.   
      
   Bzzt.  Intel is a year late at best on dual core server chips (Xeon   
   EM64t).  They are pretending to be on par with AMD by shipping a   
   dual-core desktop processor at the same time AMD is shipping dual-   
   core Opteron.  Big difference.  That's why Dell is getting hell in   
   the weeklies for not have an Opteron server, and no dual-core   
   solution until 2006.   
      
   > (If AMD or Intel is first, the Mac bashers will crow about the   
   > G5's 'poor performance' incessantly, of course, but nobody will care by   
   > the end of the year). There's just no significant upside to switching in   
   > the near future.   
      
   Dual core is meaningless to most consumers, unless they are running   
   multi-threaded applications, which are not that common today in   
   general.  Photoshop fans will be happy to have it though.   
      
   It's a different story in the server and blade markets where density   
   and thermal issues rule the day.  HP is shipping a dual-core blade   
   now that should be perfect for that crowd.   
      
   --   
   Randy Howard (2reply remove FOOBAR)   
   "Making it hard to do stupid things often makes it hard   
    to do smart ones too." -- Andrew Koenig   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)