Byte By Bite

Apple takes new direction with processors

by Marv Dealy

Published June 17, 2005

Much is being written about the switch Apple has announced it will make to Intel microprocessors for its computers by the end of 2007. Apple has used IBM PowerPC processors for years, and for some the switch is unsettling.

faster Intel chips. In fact, Apple has resorted to building dual-processor machines to compete, a move that led to the somewhat

I suppose it shouldn’t be a real surprise as the IBM chips have been increasingly at a disadvantage compared to the ever expensive G5 series.

Some pundits ponder that the change to Intel chips is “likely to be rocky at first for Apple, programmers and customers” (Greg Sandoval and Matthew Fordahl, http://apnews1.iwon.com//

article/20050612/D8ALV19O0.html?PG=home&SEC=news).

Writes Andy Ihnatko for the Chicago Sun Times, “It’s a huge change. A switch in CPU families is just about the biggest wedgie you can give to a hardware platform.” (www.suntimes.com/output/worktech/cst-fin-andy09.html)

In an article in The New York Times, John Markoff writes “Apple's decision in the 1980s to use a different chip from the one put in most personal computers ‘fit in with the idea of Think Different,’ Stephen Wozniak, who founded Apple with Jobs in 1976, said in an e-mail exchange. ‘So it's hard for some people to accept this switch.’”

“So what could a Macintel possibly hope to accomplish?” (http://news.com.com/Whats+really+behind+Apple-Intel+alliance/2100-1047_3-5742034.html)

Possibly some very good things. Some of those PC-only games will finally be available for the Mac. And the price of Mac’s might come down a bit. It is certain that their CPU speeds will increase a lot. Writes Ihnatko, “The only thing the users will notice is lots of new, faster Macs for sale.”

Now, don’t get the idea that you’ll be able to take the Mac OS and just install it on any old Intel-powered machine in the near future. After all, Apple wants to sell you multi-thousand dollar computers, not multi-hundred dollar software CDs. The Mac OS in the future will still only run on Apple hardware; you’ll never get it to work on your old Dell.

You can bet, however, that within hours of the release of the first new Intel Inside Macs that someone will release a piece of software that will let you run any Windows based application on your new Macintel, as long as you have bought and installed a legal copy of Windows XP.

Whatever the outcome, the end of the 14-year relationship with IBM came to a rocky end.

According to Markoff, “Each side disputes what led to the breakup. People close to IBM said pricing was a central issue, while Jobs insisted…that IBM had failed to meet promised performance measures.”

As to the success of the switchover, Markoff concludes, “Even more important will be Jobs' ability to persuade the Macintosh faithful to join him in his journey from IBM to Intel. That is where he has an advantage over virtually every other executive. Indeed, Jobs has always set himself apart from other corporate executives. After all, which other American business executive would have thought to name the holding company for his executive jet airplane ‘Marmalade Skies’?”

For all three of you fellow Mac users out there, a sobering consideration may be that the programs we’re used to using that were developed under the older OS 8 and 9 (and supported by “Classic” or 9.2 on newer Macs) might not work on the new machines sporting the Intel chips unless the programmers recompile them and wave various magic sticks and sprinkle wizard water everywhere.

That shouldn’t be a real shockeroo as Apple has been predicting the demise of the older operating systems for over three years. Eventually this prediction will come true. So we’ve got a couple of choices here: we can run out and buy Mac hardware knowing our old favorite programs may not work much longer. Or, we can wait a couple of years for the new Macs and then not only will we buy a new computer but we’ll have to buy all new software, as our old stuff won’t work any more. What fun!

For a really, really, really complete list of a number of news stories concerning the Apple-Intel deal, visit News.com (http://news.com.com/Its+Intel+inside+for+

Apples+Mac/2009-1006_3-5733937.html?tag=nl).

But wait—here’s news that will make Mac users smile: Microsoft released three new security patches for its Windows XP operating system this past Tuesday. The patches are necessary to prevent an attacker from taking complete control over a Windows computer.

Well, there’s a problem Macheads never ponder.

Microsoft rates the patches, by the way, as “critical” or the highest threat level they can assign. Well, OK, I suppose they could eventually term a threat as “really, really critical” and that would be an even bigger problem. But I digress.

Unless you have Windows XP installed and are running Service Pack 2 and have the automatic update feature turned on (I don’t; one last little rebellion I suppose), you’ll need to install these updates.

Microsoft also released four “important” security bulletins, as well as re-released three earlier security bulletins.

In an even better piece of news, some of the problems can affect computers with operating systems as old as Windows 98. Says John Leyden of The Register, “Put simply almost all Windows users are going to need to patch their systems.” (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/15/ms_june_patch_batch/)

Digital Security, “a leading developer of network security software…today announced the discovery of a new critical vulnerability related to Microsoft Windows®. The discovery uncovers a serious flaw in Microsoft’s HTML Help. This critical security flaw affects unpatched Windows 2003, XP, 2000 and 98 machines.” (http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndm

ViewId=news_view&newsId=20050614006185&newsLang=en)

Don’t worry about the reference to HTML Help, worry about your Windows machine. If you don’t have it patched with all the new patches available for your particular flavor of Windows, you have some work ahead.

Continues Digital Security, “left unpatched, an attacker could take harmful action including installing programs; viewing, changing or deleting data; or creating new accounts with full privileges.”

Were this to happen to your computer, you might think it’d been possessed. Your computer might be remotely used to do anything from hose the rest of us with spam e-mails to hosting “adult themed” web sites. You might not even know about the intrusion unless, of course, some data was stolen.

Get yourselfs on over to Microsoft’s Favorite Patch Page at http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.mspx; you’ve got some downloadin’ to do.