Speed of Apple Intel dev systems impress developers

Duke3d87

The speed of Mac OS X running on Intel hardware is impressing some developers who've been privy to one of Apple's first Intel-based developer transition systems.

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The systems started shipping to Mac OS X developers three weeks ago, each equipped with a 3.6 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor with 2 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz front-side bus, 1GB of 533MHz DDR2 Dual Channel SDRAM, and an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900.

Developers are renting the $999 hardware from Apple for a period of 18 months in order to get a head start in porting their applications to run on the Intel version of Mac OS X.

"It's fast," said one developer source of Mac OS X running on Intel's Pentium processors. "Faster than [Mac OS X] on my Dual 2GHz Power Mac G5." In addition to booting Windows XP at blazing speeds, the included version of Mac OS X for Intel takes "as little as 10 seconds" to boot to the Desktop from when the Apple logo first displays on screen.

Included with the Mac OS X for Intel distribution is an Applications folder stocked with a mixture of PowerPC and Intel-native applications. Applications that are compiled only for PowerPC processors are of filetype "Application (PowerPC)" whereas Intel-native binaries are labeled of standard type "Application".

Developers sources say the early version of Rosetta, a dynamic binary translator that is designed to run unaltered PowerPC applications on Intel Macs, is also impressive. "Rosetta is completely 100 percent seamless and nothing like the Classic environment used to run older Mac OS 8 and 9 applications under Mac OS X," one source told AppleInsider.

"With the exception of the "PowerPC" denotation and the presence of "Open in Rosetta" checkbox in the application info boxes, you can't tell which applications are universal and which are PowerPC-only unless you examine package contents," the source explained.

Since the developer version of Mac OS X for Intel offers users the option of running any application under Rosetta, developers have been able to perform rudimentary speed comparisons between native Intel Mac applications and those that must first filter through the Rosetta binary translator.

"Taking a universal binary and timing its startup in Intel native speed versus its startup when opened via Rosetta results in a slowdown, but not as much as one would think," said another source. "The apps run at about 65 to 70 percent of their normal speed."

However, some PowerPC-native applications realize little to no speed reductions while running under Rosetta. A source told AppleInsider the current PowerPC version of the popular Firefox web browser loads just as fast under Mac OS X Intel as it does on a high-end dual processor Power Mac G5.

If reports are accurate, Mac users have a lot to look forward to in regards to web browsing under Mac OS X for Intel. According to sources, web browsing in general is much faster under Mac OS X for Intel than it is under the shipping version of Mac OS X for PowerPC. Web pages snap to the screen, the same way they do in Internet Explorer running on a new Pentium system, they say.

The first Mac systems to sport Intel processors are expected to hit the market around the middle of next year according to statements made by Apple, though recent mumblings indicate that the company may be striving to beat those estimates by several months.

Source

I think this is interesting becuase the Pentium 4 costs a lot less then the G5, and the G5 is suposed to a lot more powerful then the Pentium 4. Maybe in the Mac OS HT works better? I don't know, but I can't wait to see how Conroe based Mac do.

dj krypplephite

Where is Snooziums?

snooziums

Right here.

One important note: The Intel-made Mac mainboard in that computer is highly custom. It is not an ATX or BTX design, and uses a 25 volt power supply.

Since it does not have any legacy ports, like serial or parallel ports, it does not have those parts of the chipset. Because of the custom chipset, that only has the parts it needs, and not parts to allow for backwards compatibility, it is faster than most other mainboards (including PC mainoards).

I have seen pictures of the mainboard, and it is very small, almost as small as a Shuttle ITX mainboard. It does have four memory slots, one PCI-E 16x video card slot, and one PCI-E 1x slot, and two standard PCI slots.

With Apple having priorities over Intel's fastest CPUs, and using high-performance Intel designed mainboards, and since Intel's CPUs cost less, Apple will end up having some of the fastest computers, running a stable OS, at a reasonable cost.

The future looks good for Apple. Very good.

Duke3d87

Do you think the fact that a single CPU Pentium 4 can outperform a two way IBM G5 somewhat supprisingly? Cause I didn't expect that. The G5 is said to be really powerful and to have a single processor Pentium 4 outperform is is amazing.

snooziums

The G5 is an impressive processor, if software was made for it. However, a lot of what makes it great requires software to be written to take advantage of its new features, which would make it incompatible with G3 and maybe G4 processors.

Another problem is that the G5 is fast at handling a single task, however is not so good at multitasking. The Intel chips have better multitasking instructions and protected memory addressing.

And finally, the G5 tops out at 2.7 GHz, and is increasing very slowly. In two years it has gone from 2.0 to 2.7 GHz, which is not a big speed increase for that amount of time.

So the G5 is a great CPU, and would be good for one-task applications, since as a super computer running one program (like most do), or a gaming system. However, it is multitasking, which most personal computer users do, where it has its shortcomings.

Duke3d87

Wait, I thought tiger was designed to take advantage of the G5 processor wasn't it? BTW, how do you know the stuff about apple and the custom chipset?

dj krypplephite

That is a good question, where is this information available?

Duke3d87

BTW, I was wondering. What makes the Pentium 4 so good at multitasking? Reading about the G5, it should be able to multitask quite well. What seperates the Pentium 4 from the competition?

snooziums

I have seen pictures of the new mainboard of the developer system.

If desired, I can post pictures of it. However, since the site does not allow direct image linking, I will have to host them somewhere and then post them here. Would be this evening, if anyone is interested.

I also have a long developer article as well, however it is pages long. Yes, I subscribe to the Apple Developer mailing list. If I wanted, I could get my hands in that Intel Mac prototype for $999 dollars. However I just do not have that kind of money laying around.

Duke3d87

I'm wondering if the pics that you saw are the same ones that i saw. Here's a hosting service: http://tinypic.com

calcal

mac comp sucks they lag too much on the desktop, even with simple windows like internet explorer

Intel will take care of that

KiGrind

Think of it like you vs your sister and brother. Your sister and brother are washing your moms car, your washing your dads car. They try to to pick up and do different ares to cover more ground, only to get confused and have to redo most of it.


While on the other hand can soap and spray at the same time and move at a much quicker rate. Your wheels are also shiny which makes you the winner.



And that has absolutly nothing to do with why Intels chips destroyed AMD 5 years ago and there just now catching up.

dj krypplephite

Good call, I agree.

KiGrind

It is funny though, my I got my first computer about 5 years ago when my dad upgrade to a new P4 when they were pretty new.

People, I was in Elementry school when there chipset released... I'm graduateing this May... count... How can you not expect AMD to surpass such a old chip? Sure they upgrade it in some fashions but the architecture design hardly changes does it?

Hell I dont know.

dj krypplephite

Eh, they're all essentially based off of the original Intel 400 KHz design.

KiGrind

Pretty funny stuff if you ask me. No wonder people spend there money on it... usually a computer is a big investment for a family. Not as big as a house or car but you know its not cheap.