PowerPC Strikes Back*
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo unveiled their latest video game consoles a couple of weeks ago and all of them share one common brain: Power PC processors. PowerPC chips are the brains of Apple's Macintosh computers since the mid 90's and they have been copping flack for not moving to the x86 platform currently headed by Intel and AMD.
Analysts have over the years derided Apple's decision to stick to PowerPC created by the Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance of the 90's by saying the dependence on Moto and IBM will be the death of Apple because of the perceived inability of those companies to boost the production and performance of the PPC platform. The fact that Apple seems to be the only high profile customer of PPC chips only serves more fuel to the debate.
The lack of perceived speed behind these chips compared to offerings from Intel and AMD has been a major sore point on Mac vs PC debates as Motorola and IBM have been unable to match the Mega/Gigahertz rate of x86 chips since the days of Power Computing, an Apple clone maker of the mid 90's who have since been absorbed into Apple.
At MacWorld Expo in July 2003, Apple CEO Steve Jobs promised, on the advice of IBM that they will ship PowerMac G5's with 3GHz chips from July 2004. Eleven months after the due date, the fastest PPC G5 chips to come out of IBM's microprocessor plants are clocked at only 2.7GHz, well below Intel's 4GHz.
When Microsoft revealed in 2004 that the next XBox console will be powered by IBM processors, it sparked a wave of resurgence among Apple fanatics as Microsoft have been seen as a long standing rival of Apple with probably the most publicized animosity among technology companies. Even more so because that meant Microsoft will be dumping Intel, whose chips power the current XBox and are the driving engines of Microsoft's Windows operating system. Apple have the only publicly accessible computers with IBM chips and that meant Microsoft would have had to develop their console on PowerMacs, Apple's flagship computers.
It is funny to see Microsoft needing Apple to develop their next generation game console given that Macintoshes have had a reputation as being laggards when it comes to games. Granted, it's not the Mac they need, rather the IBM-powered hardware, but it meant game development on PPC chips will soar. The unveiling of XBox 360 back in mid May revealed that the demo units that were used to show off the games were not XBox 360s at all but in fact Apple's PowerMac G5s.
The PPC chips in the new consoles and in Macintoshes are undoubtedly different variants of the PPC family but they share many of the same instructions and it can only spell improvements for Mac gaming as it will not be as difficult to port games to Macintoshes as it stands today where games are made largely on Intel platforms.
The move by all three major game console makers to PowerPC certainly quashed the myth that PPC systems are weaker than x86 because it has become the platform of choice of video game companies. It vindicates Apple's choice of swearing by PPC and sends all those so called analysts who have been saying Apple needs to move to x86 platform back to square one.
*This piece may well have been titled A New Hope or even Return of the PowerPC but I think PowerPC Strikes Back fits better ^_^
Analysts have over the years derided Apple's decision to stick to PowerPC created by the Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance of the 90's by saying the dependence on Moto and IBM will be the death of Apple because of the perceived inability of those companies to boost the production and performance of the PPC platform. The fact that Apple seems to be the only high profile customer of PPC chips only serves more fuel to the debate.
The lack of perceived speed behind these chips compared to offerings from Intel and AMD has been a major sore point on Mac vs PC debates as Motorola and IBM have been unable to match the Mega/Gigahertz rate of x86 chips since the days of Power Computing, an Apple clone maker of the mid 90's who have since been absorbed into Apple.
At MacWorld Expo in July 2003, Apple CEO Steve Jobs promised, on the advice of IBM that they will ship PowerMac G5's with 3GHz chips from July 2004. Eleven months after the due date, the fastest PPC G5 chips to come out of IBM's microprocessor plants are clocked at only 2.7GHz, well below Intel's 4GHz.
When Microsoft revealed in 2004 that the next XBox console will be powered by IBM processors, it sparked a wave of resurgence among Apple fanatics as Microsoft have been seen as a long standing rival of Apple with probably the most publicized animosity among technology companies. Even more so because that meant Microsoft will be dumping Intel, whose chips power the current XBox and are the driving engines of Microsoft's Windows operating system. Apple have the only publicly accessible computers with IBM chips and that meant Microsoft would have had to develop their console on PowerMacs, Apple's flagship computers.
It is funny to see Microsoft needing Apple to develop their next generation game console given that Macintoshes have had a reputation as being laggards when it comes to games. Granted, it's not the Mac they need, rather the IBM-powered hardware, but it meant game development on PPC chips will soar. The unveiling of XBox 360 back in mid May revealed that the demo units that were used to show off the games were not XBox 360s at all but in fact Apple's PowerMac G5s.
The PPC chips in the new consoles and in Macintoshes are undoubtedly different variants of the PPC family but they share many of the same instructions and it can only spell improvements for Mac gaming as it will not be as difficult to port games to Macintoshes as it stands today where games are made largely on Intel platforms.
The move by all three major game console makers to PowerPC certainly quashed the myth that PPC systems are weaker than x86 because it has become the platform of choice of video game companies. It vindicates Apple's choice of swearing by PPC and sends all those so called analysts who have been saying Apple needs to move to x86 platform back to square one.
*This piece may well have been titled A New Hope or even Return of the PowerPC but I think PowerPC Strikes Back fits better ^_^
This entry was posted
on Thursday, June 02, 2005 at 3:10 PM.
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On Thursday, June 02, 2005 3:57:00 PM,I was reading an article somewhere (can't remember exactly it was probably linked off slashdot or something), that was saying that hopefully with the new next gen consoles requiring PPC chips the volume required will help drive Apple system prices down.
Can't wait for that! ^_^
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