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That is not really the same. I wouldn't be surprised if Mac OS is still full of PowerPC specific code that just isn't easily identifiable as such.
by dtech 5y ago
That is not really the same. I wouldn't be surprised if Mac OS is still full of PowerPC specific code that just isn't easily identifiable as such.
- tambourine_man 5y agoIt's not. NeXT was already multiplatform in the 90s.
- eyelidlessness 5y agoNeXT was, but Carbon and its remnants were not produced at NeXT. Carbon is long gone, but those remnants still exist in iTunes/the various apps split off from it. And being multiplatform doesn’t suggest the absence of platform-specific code. I’ve hypothesized recently (to some chagrin) that Apple probably still maintains a skunkworks version of macOS for PPC, as insurance. It would be silly if they didn’t, given the history. So, probably yeah there’s a bunch of PPC code in macOS, but I’d bet it’s generally quite identifiable.
- tambourine_man 5y agoI bet you there isn’t. It would have to be emulated, which would be too easy to spot. And there’s also no need. They’ve been using a much higher level tool chain for decades. There’s plenty of legacy code, sure, but no PPC. Rest assured.
- eyelidlessness 5y agoWhy would it be emulated?
- tambourine_man 5y agoMaybe we’re not taking about the same thing. You’re saying there’s PPC code running on current macOS. If it’s running on recent hardware, it’s running emulated, since Apple hasn’t shipped a PPC machine in more than a decade.
- eyelidlessness 5y agoI’m saying the exact opposite: that there’s likely PPC source code in macOS still maintained just in case. I really doubt all of the Carbon remnants are ISA specific, the point of bringing that up was that macOS’s roots are not entirely NeXT and things that still exist are based on APIs largely from classic Mac OS.
- tambourine_man 5y agoI really doubt they are maintaining a PPC fork. It's not a trivial effort and it would be hard to justify the investment and even harder to motivate the talent needed. ISA specific code is restricted to kernel and drivers. What's left of Carbon has been through 3 transitions (PPC to x86, x86 to x64 only, x64 to ARM). It's ISA clean all right.
- jclulow 5y agoI don't know why they would do that now. They're doing their own ARM thing, and the contingency would surely be more x86, even if not from Intel.
- eyelidlessness 5y agoI don’t know why there would be a “the” contingency, but we know they’re also hiring for active RISC-V engineers. It’s definitely not obvious the field is as limited as that.
- tambourine_man 5y agoYeah. Makes no sense. I loved PPC (and 68k before that) but it’s a dead platform that Apple has no interest in.
- eyelidlessness 5y agoThe Power ISA recently hit the front page here. It’s not a dead platform, it’s just mostly server focused.
- tambourine_man 5y agoIt’s not strong on embedded, mobile or desktop, debunked by x86 and now ARM on super computer, cloud and enterprise. If it’s not dead, it’s on life support.
- eyelidlessness 5y agoARM wasn’t strong on many of the platforms it’s now running and will be soon. Apple has historically backed weak hardware platforms both to a fault and to astonishing success. Part of the way they did that was maintaining cross ISA builds internally for platforms no one would bet on.
- tambourine_man 5y ago
- dtech 5y agoThe linux kernel is multiplatform, and is full of ISA-specific code. They are not exclusive.