Apple Inc (AAPL)

[Tex]

on platform independence

I recall Wilfredo Sanchez saying that the Darwin-on-Intel project was intended to enable Apple to reap the benefits of platform-independent design, and thinking this was pretty funny given that listeners would mostly miss what he meant. Yet, here it is: MacOS X + Cocoa's platform-agnostic frameworks means Apple can do whatever it wants with the processor, and neither the OS nor the userspace apps will give a care in the world. http://hivelogic.com/articles/iphones-cpu-still-irrelevant/

When Intel starts creating x86 chips with diverse networking capabilities and a power profile that will set them up to compete in telephones, Apple can migrate to them without pain. It gives Intel something to strive for. If Intel builds it, Apple will come, and there will be millions of units to sell. Intel need not fidget with the task of getting folks to move weird codebases of strange and diverse operating systems to a new chip; Apple can do it as soon as Intel supplies a good compiler.

If this is the trajectory, Apple will be a great partner for Intel: Intel will be able to do what it wants in the low-power area and not worry about software being able to run on it. Apple won't have to sorry that it'll be playing catch-up with folks with better processors. Platform-independence is very sweet.

I wonder if platform independence will, down the road, open up the possibility of supporting a new instruction set, without the x86-to-RISC translation and other kludges that are used to make old instruction sets operable on modern processors. As long as MSFT ships the overwhelmingly dominant OS (which is locked into x86), x86 is pretty much here to stay. Heck, x86/32-bit is even here to stay. What Apple's done is pretty awfully cool.

I wonder when Apple's kernel will start running in fully 64-bit. I gather Apple's memory management has some 64-bit addressing hacks, but isn't actually 64-bit through-and-through. I'd like to see 64-bit all the way through, because Intel's 64-bit instructions are backed with better hardware for accelerating the same work one might do in 32-bit, meaning you get a "bonus" for not using legacy x86/32.

Ahh, well. Apple is trying to lead Kext developers more gently into the future, apparently.

Take care,
--Tex.