Slashdot | AMD Alleges Intel Compilers Create Slower AMD Code
This one is interesting. I am posting the Slashdot listing because the comments give a better understanding of what is going on here than anything else I have found on this issue. Apparently several of the slashdotters have known about this for quite a while, and have been in communication with either Intel, or AMD, or both, about this. IANAL, but AMD’s case is looking better all the time. Sabotaging your compiler to make your competitor’s processor run slower than yours may not be against the law, but when you deny it in the face of what the code says, it sure ain’t going to help your monopoly court case.Slashdot | AMD Alleges Intel Compilers Create Slower AMD Code
Themocracy
Whatever crunches my pixels is fine with me. And will run linux. I still haven’t upgraded (?) to tiger and am not sure I am. The damn drm thing is really getting to me here. But to get this back on subject (?) I am not set on a particular architecture as long as the machine will let me do my job. Be it browse, code, work with graphics or whatever it is at the given moment. The mac does that better than any os/platform i have ever used. The iBook is about the only machine i use now. Still and all I can’t understand WHY Jobs chose Intel to go with. I’ve got linux running on 2 amd machines now. One laptop with intel. The amd chips have always worked fine for me. And I can’t say that for intel. Makes me wonder how many of the folks working at intel knew about this. Talk about disjointed writing. Once again… Time for bed…
After looking at the comments on /., I believe AMD. Of course, not that many people use Intel’s compiler, but some of the ones that do are looking for really fast code. And if you are running an AMD64, you get screwed, which is Intel’s entire point. If they just had it in the documentation, it would be COMPLETELY legal (IANAL, but that is my take on it), they are not forced to support AMD equally, but stealthing it that way and denying that they are doing it is at LEAST unethical. The worst thing about it for them is it shows intent-they can hardly say they don’t know what the code they wrote is doing. “Gee, your honor, I guess we’re just a bunch of incompetent dweebs!”
As to why Jobs went to Intel, you can find a bunch of different reasons online, but I think it comes down to money, speed, and power. (Throw in sex, and you pretty much have all the reasons ANYONE does ANYTHING, eh?) MONEY, because Intel, through volume discounts, can beat ANYONE’S price. (Ironic, considering the context here.) Speed, because while the PPC is a WONDERFUL processor, IBM is just not pushing development fast enough for Apple to keep up with the PCs. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHY. That is the thing that many Mac fans have to see. It just doesn’t matter if IBM can’t, won’t, or isn’t allowed by God, Allah, or Ghu to develop the PPC any faster, they aren’t. Ipso facto. Power-wise, the new line of Intel chips coming out of Israel blow everything but the mini-itx chips out of the water, and on a compcycle-per-watt basis, the mini-itx chips aren’t even in the same UNIVERSE. (Hey, don’t flame me, I LIKE the mini-itx chips. Just stating facts here.) When you throw in the fact that OSX is written on top of BSD, which could give a rats-ass if it was running on Intel, PPC, AMD, SPARC, or the machine that the aliens used in “Independence Day”, the only reason to keep the PPC is the Alti Vec. And I wouldn’t count out Intel coming up with something like the Alti Vec, either on chip, or as an add-on. Remember, Apple is a full partner in the PPC consortium, and has the right to carry Alti Vec with it, I think. Or at least license it. Motorola/Freescale could always use the money. And Jobs could ALWAYS say to the developers “Just rewrite your code-it’s only a few thousand lines….”
AMD, you say? Why not AMD? One word-volume. AMD is stretched right now delivering what it does deliver. Add Apple in the mix, and we have just what Apple has had it’s entire lifetime-a chipmaker that can’t meet its production goals. (For WHATEVER reason.) Jobs would probably outsource to MARS to avoid that. I LOVE AMD chips, and am looking forward to seeing what OSX does on an AMD64 (you know that SOMEONE will hack it, and so do Jobs and Co., but they will make it so difficult that only the true hackers will do it, just to show they can), but don’t bet against Intel having GOOD 64-bit chips by the time Apple uses them. “The roadmap. Always remember the roadmap, Grasshopper.”
I was shocked/dismayed by the switch at first, also, but after getting to the thinking part, I think that it will be a good thing. Or at least not bad. Time will tell. And you gotta wonder how many people will decide to at least TRY a box that will run both OSX and XP…….