just wondering ...when the new mactels come out, can we still use our current software with it?...eg. FCP, adobe... sayang naman kasi if we have to buy new mactel versions of the apps we already have...
Yes, you will be able to use most of your current applications on the new Intel Macs. Jobs actually demoed this in his keynote during WWDC 2005. He ran PowerPC versions of Photoshop, Word and other applications on the Intel Mac. Apple calls this technology Rosetta.
Rosetta is an emulator, therefore there will be performance issues. Just like when Apple switched from Motorola to PowerPC, everything runs on emulated mode. Software companies have to develop native applications to make their software run better on Mac-Intel machines. But since Apple is giving the developers more than 1 year headstart in developing these applications, we hope that by the time these new machines comes out, major software developers will have beta version that run natively. When it comes to investing in software, IMHO, as long as you use it and make the most out of it, it is worth buying it. New versions always comes out and we always have to pay for upgrades, be it a new processor that the software is using or just a major enhancement to the software. That's how they make money.
...ay last pala.... when these new apps made for the mactels come out... can this rosetta thingamajig be used for the reverse procedure? meaning if a new Adobe CS comes out for the mactels, can we use it for our older PPC macs?
Sorry but you can't use softwares for the new mactels unless they are binary applications (meaning you can install in mactels and PPC) like cocktail now. Rosetta is built-in to the upcoming mactels. Your older PPC macs don't have rosetta on them.
It is possible that because Intel chips have a better performance per watt figures than PPC that emulation may be faster than native performance. I've read of posts from the Mactel dev kit users that Mactels are really that fast.
PPC apps that run in emulation mode under Mac-Intel are SLOWER than Native apps built specifically for Mac-Intel machines. But in comparing the current applications which are built for PPC, there is a chance that these apps will run faster under emulated mode when using Mac-Intel machines. Another reason to buy the new machines and not be afraid that your old apps will not run.
...anyone round here think that they'll have a reverse emulation thing for ppc macs too? so we can run new mactel apps on our ppc rigs?
almost forgot that the speed increase/decrease depends on the app. http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1175
There is much less need for an emulator for PowerPC-based Macs because it's likely that the huge majority of applications that will be available for Mactels will be universal binaries, meaning that they will run natively on both Intel and PowerPC processors. If you write a Mactel application, it probably means that you're using Xcode, which means that it should be a trivial matter to compile for the PowerPC platform too.
