Gizmodo: powerpc

Source: OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Will Support PowerPC Chips

Elaine Chow — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:10:00 EDT

Contrary to rumors that Apple would drop PowerPC architecture support with its newest OS, a tipster and possible Apple insider was able to get his hands on the most recent build of the yet-to-be released 10.6, and found some evidence that Cupertino might be keeping the chip alive.

The tipster, who asked to stay anonymous lest he incur the wrath of Jobs, found a WWDC seed release labeled 10.6. After poking around a bit, here's what he got:

• Work has definitely been done on PPC-native drivers, which means that PPC is unlikely to be dropped.
• A number of drivers didn't load on a Core 2 Duo MacBook, because it was using a 64-bit kernel and the drivers were only 32. The kernel was not only 64-bit though.
• "uname -a" reports: Darwin localhost 10.0.0d1 Darwin Kernel Version 10.0.0d1: Thu May XX XX:XX:XX XDT 2008; root:xnu-1286~1/RELEASE_I386 i386
• Googling that kernel reveals that there might actually be SnowLeopard releases out in the wild already, processing Rosetta@Home protein folding clients.

If the tipoff is true, then it looks like Apple's not quite ready to let go and hand over chip building to a third party. Perhaps we'll have to wait for a few more builds before we get to a completely Intel-only Mac OS X.

Department of Defense Unhappy With Apple Chip Company Purchase

matt buchanan — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:00:00 EDT

P.A. Semi, the chip design company Apple picked up for a song, is best known for its super-efficient PWRficient processor, a PowerPC variant. One of the big customers for the CPU is the Department of Defense, which makes use of it in programs in every major branch of the military, and they're not thrilled by the possibility of Apple ending production of the chips.

Ten defense systems, to the tune of $100 million in products over the next four years, use P.A. Semi's PWRficient processor. On Monday, P.A. Semi told its customers they were being acquired and couldn't guarantee chip supplies anymore. (Brings us back to the problem of obsolete tech in the military.)

It's possible the licensing issues could get worked out to maintain supply "on an end-of-life basis" but in that same statement, P.A. noted that their buyer (Apple) wasn't interested in their products or roadmap, just their IP and engineering skills. Which means Apple has no interest in anything their currently making or about to make, despite Blam's reasonable assumption that was the case. So it's all about their design chops, or they really are just a bargaining chip. [EETimes via GigaOM]

Amiga Announcing Two PCs Next Week

Jason Chen — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 13:30:53 EDT

If you've still got any amount of fondness for the Amiga brand in you, you'll be happy to hear that the old-timey PC maker is planning on releasing two brand- spanking-new PCs next week. Amiga's still using the PowerPC architecture, which makes it unlikely that you're going to be running Windows Vista on it natively.

However, for those who have been eagerly awaiting Amiga's OS4, which has been in development nearly as long as Duke Nukem Forever, next week will be a good week for you. – Jason Chen

Press Release [Amiga via TGDaily]

Booting an Intel Mac From An iPod

Jason Chen — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 01:25:10 EDT

Christopher over at Playlist Mag has devised a method of booting those fancy new Intel Macs from an iPod. Power PC-based macs could be booted off Firewire compatible iPods with no problem, but apparently Intel-based macs would tell you it isn't a valid target.

Christopher's solution involves cloning a working startup volume onto the iPod, and then booting from there. Take a gander at his walkthrough in order to get your boot on.

One caveat still remains, older Power PC-based macs still can't boot off of USB based iPods. Good thing we couldn't afford upgrading!

The return of the return of iPod booting [Playlist Mag]