IBM Introduces Power6 Chip @ 4.7GHz

[kap]

So does it mean Apple should have stayed with IBM as its chip maker instead?

[Baby Tats]

[quote Jp!]I bet there is still PowerPC code being maintained on OS X.
[quote Pat]Did you mean 680x0 code?

I bet there is both.

[AllGold]

It was originally supposed to be released in 2006. Same $h!t different year for IBM.

[JoeH]

[quote kap]So does it mean Apple should have stayed with IBM as its chip maker instead?
As I understand it, as of the Power6 line the PowerPC and Power lines were supposed to have been merged into one. So for the desktops, lower speed versions at 3.5 GHz or so would have been available for PowerMacs. But that does nothing for the laptop lines that Apple is selling more of these days. Looks like Apple made the best choice given where its business model appears to be headed. Given how late Freescale was on delivering the 7448, that line of options for powering laptops certainly was not viable given that IBM was concentrating on high power usage chips.

[Pat]

[quote Baby Tats][quote Jp!]I bet there is still PowerPC code being maintained on OS X.
[quote Pat]Did you mean 680x0 code?

I bet there is both.
Who would bet against there being PPC code? Last I checked OSX still comes in 2 flavors, PPC and Intel. And I have heard that there is/was still some 680x0 code lurking around in X.

[Silencio]

Leopard is going to unify the PPC and x86 code bases into one, though I wonder if PPC and x86 updates will still be split off to save on bandwidth or disk space or whatever. But no matter, PPC will still be supported for quite a while.

And no, the Power6 and 7448 really don't change a thing. Intel's current lines and future roadmaps look fine to me.