“Apple’s Intel-based Mac development kits have started trickling into developer’s hands, Think Secret has learned. The Apple Development Platform ADP2,1, as the systems are officially designated, features 3.6GHz Pentium 4 processors with 2MB of L2 cache operating on an 800MHz bus with 1GB of RAM,” Ryan Katz reports for Think Secret. “The Intel systems run Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger identically on the surface as ordinary Macs, with the exception of a modified Processor System Preference (from Apple’s CHUD tools) that allows the user to toggle Hyper-Threading on or off.”
“Along with running Mac OS X, Windows XP installs without hitch on the Intel-based Mac, just as it would on any other PC, and booted without issue when installed on an NTFS-formatted partition. The only misbehavior sources encountered involved the video card. Initially, Windows refused to budge from an 800×600 setting on a 23-inch Cinema Display. Some prodding managed to get the screen to 1600×1200, but sources were unable to get Windows to take advantage of the entire screen,” Katz reports. “Apple alluded to developers at its recent Worldwide Developer Conference that Windows should be able to run on Apple’s Intel Macs.”
Full article with photos here.
MacDailyNews Take: Mac users won’t care about the added ability to run Windows natively, unless they have a Windows-only program they need to run. We wonder how something like AutoCAD would run and how this ability, if this ability remains in shipping Intel-based Macs, would affect Mac use among architects for example. Extrapolate across many disciplines to see how Apple Mac market share could dramatically rise. Potential switchers would have to try mighty hard to justify not to buying an Intel-based Mac (and get Mac OS X, iLife, and Apple Mac-only application capabilities plus Windows and Windows-only apps) instead of a Dell or some other Wintel box assemblers’ machine that can only run Windows.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Is Apple morphing Mac into the ultimate PC capable of running Mac OS X, Windows, Linux? – June 20, 2005
The Washington Post: ‘In a year or two, the best Windows PC may come from Apple’ – June 19, 2005
Intel’s built-in virtualization tech could be one way to run Windows on Intel-based Apple Macs – June 16, 2005
If Intel-based Macs can run Mac OS X and Windows, buying a Mac will be a no-brainer – June 15, 2005
Apple could use Trusted Platform Module chip to keep Mac OS X off non-Macs – June 14, 2005
Intel-based Macs running both Mac OS X and Windows will be good for Apple – June 10, 2005
Why buy a Dell when Apple ‘Macintel’ computers will run both Mac OS X and Windows? – June 08, 2005
Microsoft and Dell must have a lot of bricks lying around today – June 07, 2005
Apple to use Intel microprocessors beginning in 2006, all Macs to be Intel-based by end of 2007 – June 06, 2005
