From a reader:
Oh, Geee, Tom....
Where is your pining and whining why AMD - YOUR PERFECT MATE FOR APPLE ( Ha !) - inside the MAC !!
Stand on your principles, why don't you?
Apple and AMD would have made beautiful music together. I still believe it would have been the right choice given AMD's overwhelming design leadership. But in considering the practicality of it, I was so caught up in the technology that I neglected to consider the politics. I left out one important variable: Sun already got the AMD exclusive. Apple didn't want to go "me, too" with Sun, and Intel wants in on commercial Unix now that Unix's survival is assured.
It'll be fun to watch Apple and Sun pitted against each other in the PC Unix arena. But you can't blame me for wishing that Apple had chosen to take advantage of Hypertransport, Direct Connect, NUMA and all the high-performance goodness that only AMD brings to the table. Apple will have to rely on software leadership to distinguish itself from Linux (and now Solaris x86/x64), which will be a stroll in the Spring rain for Apple.
--------Posted by Tom Yager on June 15, 2005 12:51 PM
