R: Minix 3 vs portability - was Re: Looking for a small fast VAX development machine

[Paul Berger]

On 2016-02-22 3:07 PM, Geoff Oltmans wrote:
>
>> On Feb 22, 2016, at 10:36 AM, Mazzini Alessandro <mazzinia at tin.it> wrote:
>>
>> Not to intrude, but apple could also have gone with the serious power cpu,
>> thus not "needing" to move to x86. As long as there's enough of a push, sw
>> houses release versions for a different architecture... and power is hardly a dead end.
>>
> Iirc ditching Power in favor of x86 had a lot less to do with the computing power but more to do with:  A. The mobile versions of Intel processors being available in both more powerful and also lower power for laptops,  and B. Being able to leverage off of the x86 desktop/laptop chipset available to drive down costs.
>
> Clearly Power is doing quite well in embedded and portable solutions today.
...Not to mention AIX and IBMi systems.   I would agree that laptops 
where probably the biggest reason for the swing as they where already 
seriously lagging behind and no suitable replacement in sight on the 
PowerPC side, but there was also little chance of a follow to the G5 
that would be suitable for Apples needs.  The G5 is a stripped down 
POWER 4 processor that IBM also used in some low end systems aimed at 
the technical workstation market, that was already rapidly moving 
towards the lower cost Intel platforms.  When POWER 5 came along there 
where no models aimed at this market anymore.

Paul.