The Future of the IBM 970..?
I was thinking earlier (then i got a headache, and stopped), that there is a lot of speculation about Apple and Ibm's 970. Presumably they'll use it in upcoming pmacs, possibly mwny, possibly next year, or whatever. In my crooked mind, I got to think about the anti-Apple: Microsoft. Anyone give any credence to the possibility of them using the 970, or ppc's in their future development? Is there any reason for them to not do this? As I see it, if the 970 is as good as some people think it is, then it'll be a wintel killer (atleast in terms of speed). From MS' persective, they may want to capitalize on that advantage, and use it in their OS, perhaps for nothing more than a price break on existing x86s.
Now, I realize that ppc's are extremely different from x86's. But honestly, if MS really wanted to, they could hack up their OS to rise to the 970. There are probably a lot of hurdles, like backward compatibility from a completely different architecture, but supposing they could get over those, anyone think they'd make a PowerPC operating system? Maybe even they'd drop back compatibility, and start a fresh OS. They have enough money to keep it trucking through the first few unproductive years. Eventually, progammers might be cojuled into developing for it, and when they get enough software they could lessen x86-based development, perhaps drop it altogether.
Now, I realize that ppc's are extremely different from x86's. But honestly, if MS really wanted to, they could hack up their OS to rise to the 970. There are probably a lot of hurdles, like backward compatibility from a completely different architecture, but supposing they could get over those, anyone think they'd make a PowerPC operating system? Maybe even they'd drop back compatibility, and start a fresh OS. They have enough money to keep it trucking through the first few unproductive years. Eventually, progammers might be cojuled into developing for it, and when they get enough software they could lessen x86-based development, perhaps drop it altogether.
Comments
MS will not support it. Although it's possible for MS to do so it's definitely not probable.
M$ will even have an x86-64 build of windows (server iThink...) But it all makes me say hmmm... AMD might just pull off a coup of sorts. I recall reading that Intel might just have an X86-64 solution of their own (for the non server market) if the momentuum of legacy 32bit apps proves just too great to overcome.
all speculation of course, but I think that's where the Wintelon CPU drama rests for now.
If IBM can draw a large number of linux/server/blade/*nix users to their platform, that's about as far as I expect them to get with a non Intel/AMD compatible architecture.
Originally posted by der Kopf
Well, it may not be the wintel killer we all hope it would be, but it IS an interesting thought you had there. You hear a lot of rumors on the Marklar front, but this is the first time I have ever read someone speculating about the opposite, and that, in itself, is quite an accomplishment. I don't think Microsoft has any real reason to do this though.
Windows NT was ported to the PowerPC way back when, although the port was never released. This was back when NT was being billed as "a better UNIX."
Originally posted by Amorph
Windows NT was ported to the PowerPC way back when, although the port was never released.
Yes it was.