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Apple didn't switch processor vendors in the 90's. They dropped Motorola/PowerPC in the 00's in favor of Intel's Core processors that were remarkably faster and

Apple didn't switch processor vendors in the 90's. They dropped Motorola/PowerPC in the 00's in favor of Intel's Core processors that were remarkably faster and more power efficient.

monocasa 7y ago
Well, they did swap processor architectures in the 90s too. 68k for powerpc.
- MengerSponge 7y ago
  Oh yeah, my mistake. Motorola made both though, right?
  - cptskippy 7y ago
    IBM developed the Power architecture and I believe a consortium of Apple, IBM and Motorola (AIM) did the whole ISA.
  - jandrese 7y ago
    Yes, but there were totally incompatible so that didn't help much.
- ultrarunner 7y ago
  Kind of. MacOS had a 68k emulator built in so that the entire OS (and application base) wouldn't have to be ported to PPC. I learned this recently when I disassembled Bolo (Stuart Cheshire, I'm trying to get ahold of you!) and found m68k instructions. Early Apple stuff is fascinating.
  - monocasa 7y ago
    They had a PowerPC emulator on the switch to Intel too.
baybal2 7y ago
And they did it because IBM was not committed to laptop CPUs. Now similarly, they want to ditch Intel because they didn't commit to smartphone CPUs.
- danaris 7y ago
  That was the later PowerPC -> Intel shift in the mid-2000s. The switch from 68k to PowerPC was because PowerPC was an extremely powerful up-and-coming architecture at the time. A PowerMac 7100 (one of the earliest models) blew a 68040 Mac out of the water.
  - kalleboo 7y ago
    The switch from 68k to PowerPC was because 68k was dead, Motorola was pushing the 88k which was already failing in the market, and while Apple also considered other architectures like SPARC, they didn't want to be tied to only a single company's fortunes again like they were with the 68k. So when IBM came to them asking "hey how about we scale down POWER to a desktop chip for you?" Apple also brought in Motorola so that they could dual-source their chips and not be dependent on one company, and PowerPC was born. Rather than being an up-and-coming competitor, PowerPC probably wouldn't exist without Apple's involvement (they would probably still have pursued a scaled-down POWER, but it wouldn't be PowerPC)

Apple didn't switch processor vendors in the 90's. They dropped Motorola/PowerPC in the 00's in favor of Intel's Core processors that were remarkably faster and more power efficient.

monocasa 7y ago

Well, they did swap processor architectures in the 90s too. 68k for powerpc.

MengerSponge 7y ago
Oh yeah, my mistake. Motorola made both though, right?
- cptskippy 7y ago
  IBM developed the Power architecture and I believe a consortium of Apple, IBM and Motorola (AIM) did the whole ISA.
- jandrese 7y ago
  Yes, but there were totally incompatible so that didn't help much.
ultrarunner 7y ago
Kind of. MacOS had a 68k emulator built in so that the entire OS (and application base) wouldn't have to be ported to PPC. I learned this recently when I disassembled Bolo (Stuart Cheshire, I'm trying to get ahold of you!) and found m68k instructions. Early Apple stuff is fascinating.
- monocasa 7y ago
  They had a PowerPC emulator on the switch to Intel too.

baybal2 7y ago

And they did it because IBM was not committed to laptop CPUs. Now similarly, they want to ditch Intel because they didn't commit to smartphone CPUs.

danaris 7y ago
That was the later PowerPC -> Intel shift in the mid-2000s. The switch from 68k to PowerPC was because PowerPC was an extremely powerful up-and-coming architecture at the time. A PowerMac 7100 (one of the earliest models) blew a 68040 Mac out of the water.
- kalleboo 7y ago
  The switch from 68k to PowerPC was because 68k was dead, Motorola was pushing the 88k which was already failing in the market, and while Apple also considered other architectures like SPARC, they didn't want to be tied to only a single company's fortunes again like they were with the 68k. So when IBM came to them asking "hey how about we scale down POWER to a desktop chip for you?" Apple also brought in Motorola so that they could dual-source their chips and not be dependent on one company, and PowerPC was born. Rather than being an up-and-coming competitor, PowerPC probably wouldn't exist without Apple's involvement (they would probably still have pursued a scaled-down POWER, but it wouldn't be PowerPC)