CompuServe Messages

#Power PC

    09-May-93 11:38:05
Sb: #98935-#Power PC
Fm: Paul Idol 71024,3245
To: Don Curtis/SYSOP 76703,4321
I'm not sure what will happen – MSoft has an 80k emulator built into NT for its RISC platforms, and I doubt (except on the really expensive platforms) that a 2x speedup will happen – but recompiled apps _will_ run faster, and there are plenty of NT apps coming out. Not whordes, yet, but enough on the high end to at least open the door. As to Macs, 68k-compiled apps will probably run slower on the first few PowerPC Macs, but I'm sure Apple will manage to pull several PowerPC recompiled Apps out of the wood-work, and unlike Clone-owners, Mac people won't have a choice – the 060 is the last 68k chip, so where else are they going to go? I can't imagine that the entire Mac platform is going to instantly die when it shifts to another chip. And what are we going to do when the Amiga shifts to another chip? I hope not curl up and die. (If I don't get a new one sooner and assuming nothing strange and unfortunate happens) When it comes time for me to get a new Amiga I'm not going to get an 060 Amiga when the entire platform is shifting to, say, Alpha Amigas – 68k apps would run reasonably fast on an Alpha and as time went by (I would hope) there would be more and more native Alpha apps. It's a different game for us (Macs and Amigas) than it is for Clones. Our chips are drying up.