Apple may yet win the speed wars on x86
Apple might have a performance advantage over identical x86 hardware running Windows or Linux.
Intel is going to give Apple a secret weapon later this year that's rarely used in the Windows world, ICC and IFC (Intel compilers). By going exclusively with Intel, Apple is guaranteed 100% compatibility and support with these compilers on their hardware. ICC and IFC are legendary in performance, often significantly faster than GCC or any other compiler in existence for modern x86 processor (but don't play well with AMD processors). Apple will likely integrate ICC into XCode once Intel comes through.
Intel is going to give Apple a secret weapon later this year that's rarely used in the Windows world, ICC and IFC (Intel compilers). By going exclusively with Intel, Apple is guaranteed 100% compatibility and support with these compilers on their hardware. ICC and IFC are legendary in performance, often significantly faster than GCC or any other compiler in existence for modern x86 processor (but don't play well with AMD processors). Apple will likely integrate ICC into XCode once Intel comes through.
Comments
Intel's compilers are fast but they're not the fastest -- and there are endless arguments about how stable they are. I think that they are better than average but they are not the best.