“After three decades of being overshadowed by Intel Corp.’s dominance, Advanced Micro Devices today is unveiling a pair of powerful 64-bit chips in a bold move to boost sales and gain market share,” reports Matthew Yi for The San Francisco Chronicle.
“The introduction of the Sunnyvale firm’s pair of Athlon 64 microprocessors marks the first time 64-bit computing will be available for PC computer users. Apple Computer Inc. started selling 64-bit computers this summer, but AMD’s new chips are the first for the consumer PC industry,” Yi reports. Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “… AMD’s new chips are the first for the consumer PC industry?” What?! Someone explain this one to us, please. We guess by “PC” he means “Windows,” but the words “consumer PC industry” certainly apply to Apple. This ghettoization of Mac is getting old. A Mac is as much a personal computer as Windows, in fact, a Mac is much more personal a computer. “PC” shouldn’t be used to signify “Windows,” as it implies that a Mac isn’t a “personal computer” to many people. Say “Windows” when you mean “Windows” and “Mac” when you mean “Mac,” and stop playing word games in a weak attempt to obfuscate the fact that Apple led the Personal Computer industry yet again.
They use “PC” selectively, you are right. PC originally meant “personal computer,” but came to mean IBM-compatible over time. Now they use it to demean the Mac platform at times. The time to use the acronym “PC” to describe a Windows machine and not a Mac is long past.
Well just to offer an opposing point of view here: The G5 is only available in the Powermacs and Apple itself doesn’t consider the Powermac G5 a consumer PC, rather a professional tower. I know it’s available to every Jow Blow consumer and the Powermac G5 isn’t a workstation, but it really isn’t targeted right now to the typical consumer base, rather to the professionals of the Mac world. If the G5 were in an eMac/iMac/iBook then there would be no question, but as the G5 stands now it is debateable whether it is for “consumers”.
That being said, I think the article is bullshit. They may choose to walk the fine line described by me above, but in truth they know Apple had the G5 out there for anyone to buy well ahead of AMD.
And an AMD 64 bit computer is for the “typical consumer base”??? Give me a break!
^ I didn’t type that!?
And I’m not saying this chip is for the typical consumer, I was just voicing what some people might say about the G5. I don’t personally believe it, but that’s what they’ll say.
It’s all a load of shit.
Only a paranoid could make this much hoopla over that sentence. Go back to your inadequate software library and get over it.
Bull! – Bull! – Bull! (..as in “load-a”)
The Mac G5 doesn’t have a special “workstation”-like OS, nor is it advertised or sold differently from the other Macs. Do you remember the G5 ad on TV? It was in a guys house! In the Apple Store website, it sits right next to the iMacs.
The G5 IS a 64-bit 100% consumer computer!!
What is blatantly missing from this “spectacular” news from AMD is any mention of a viable hardware system or OPERATING SYSTEM that can utilize it. It is the operating system, available software, and a reasonable price-point that make it a consumer grade computer.
AMD is PURE, baseless, hype!!!
Yi is a turkey! As a switcher from Wintel to Mac and about to receive my first Mac(G5 2Ghz, 23″ HD TFT), I most certainly see Mac as a PC. I will use it for some work yes, but mostly at home for Personal (Computer) use. PC, see?
Yi is just plain wrong and use of the term PC to mean only Wintel machines is just an incorrect hijacking of the term.