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PC and Mac CPU Architecture

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apu318

Disabled
Joined
May 22, 2004
Location
Welland: Most drug use per capita in Canada.
I was wonder what the difference in CPU Architecture is between a Mac and an Intel or AMD cpu? Like why cant you install windows on a Macintosh. I know other hardware is part of the reason, but specifically, what is different about the CPU's?
 
Its like Apples & Oranges. PPC Processors & AMD CPUs are much closer than PPCs & P4s are but even then they aren't too similar. The PPC Processor is a RISC CPU with its own instruction set that is completely different than the RISC-like Micro OP instructions the Athlon series of CPUs use. Both processors have an integer unit, both have L2 Caches, both have Floating Point Units, both have their own vector units, but the way they work is different. That said, if you compiled Windows XP for PPC chips & made it understand the HFS file system & then wrote a boot loader that would load the NT Kernel after Open Firmware initiates the boot sequence it would be very easy to have XP running on a Mac. Its been done on other Open Firmware PPC based servers with Windows NT. Theres also a PPC version of 2K which was scraped after completion of the source.

Personally I would love to see AMD making PPC chips. It would probably help them out in areas they want to grow into as PPCs are used in everything from Routers to Electronic ignition systems to Macs. IIRC AMD wanted to get into more markets like that which are dominated by Intel, IBM, & Motorola RISC chips & DSPs. It would also make for a good alternative to Motorola who seems to be unable to make inexpensive 2GHz+ chips which would help Apple make faster Mac Minis, eMacs, & iBooks. Of course that probably wont happen soon.
 
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