Oh, and to say that the modern x86 (eg Athlon) is unoptimised and inefficient is blatent FUD!!! I suggest you get yourself a good book on cpu design, and read it.
Actually it isn't. Yeah the chips that AMD and Intel are getting fast, but not because of a good or efficient design. The sad part is that I have seen Sun Boxes outperform Athlon Machines that had almost 3 times the clockspeed, I work around both platforms 50+ hours a week, I also love working with both platforms regardless of Sun's performance superiority. I also own 2 PCs and 3 Macs, I know first hand about the pros and cons of both and I am convinced by the PowerPC technology, regardless of the overhyped and overclocked Intel chips and the propaganda that follows behind it. Like it or not x86 is not a superior design, it is almost reaching its end, with Intel trying to figure out how to go about it with the IA-64 bit era. Yeah I have also read that SPEC article from ct' and since someone was posting 'arstechnica' articles they might as well read this one as well;
http://www.arstechnica.com/cpu/2q99/benchmarking-1.htmlSPEC is Intel's playground just like those totally unbelievable Photoshop tests are Apple's playground plain and simple. SPEC's benchmarks doesn't show anything more politically correct than someone doing some Photoshop tests. There hasn't been a good benchmark to go by yet. Especially when you have to figure in software and its optimizations, or lack of (OSes included)! The really funny thing is that PC (x86) folks sit here and ask why do we supposedly run more expensive and slower hardware, when they are running more expensive and slower software, it's almost like an oxymoron... Windows is the slowest OS running on the x86 platform, take Windows and BeOS on the same machine and tell me which is faster... that question has only one correct answer (I'll give you a hint... it's not Windows)! Amiga OS is also going to put Mac OS to shame when you see its speed on PowerPC, I know that, but that wont make me sell my Macs nor will it make me sell my PCs running whatever!
For the Amiga I see no future in the x86 and it being a terrible design is not my argument, it's Microsoft and Intel... they dominate the PCdom and there is no room for outsiders. Apple is no threat believe me, they got other fish to fry, and the only way to beat the Darkside, is for the Amiga, Mac and Linux communities (developers included) to share our resources, help each other along and get the bits together we need in order to over come this Mono solution that has plagued the computing industry... you know what I am talking about!
I might sound sorta biased, zealot or whatever, but I have been on both sides of the fence, both as a professional and a hobbyist, and I like this side of the fence... it has more to offer and that is why I am staying, PERIOD!
'nuff said
:-D
[ Edited by AmigaMac on 2002/5/3 20:39:26 ]