Re: Virtual PC 2.1 on Power Macintosh 6500/250 SLOW!

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance


"Helpful Harry" <helpful_harry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:200620051306415276%helpful_harry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Although, Transitive's supposed abilities to run an application created
> for any chip on any other chip with "no noticable speed penalty" seems
> to good to be true (and difficult to understand how, or if, it works).
> We'll have to wait and see, especially since Apple is evidently using
> it to allow their new generation Intel Macs to run older PowerPC
> software.

It'd make sense if Apple are relying on the fact that they plan to use
high-performance Intel processors (like the Pentium D) in the initial
release of Intel-based Macs so that Rosetta can actually perform up
to par with today's generation iMac G5 or Power Mac G5 machines.

(Personally, I think supporting the Pentium M is a waste of engineering
time, frankly.)

When Apple made the transition to PowerPC from Motorola's 68000
architecture, they had the same issues... the PowerPC was released as
top-of-the-line systems, which, despite their almost double processing
power compared to the 840AV, couldn't run some 68K titles as fast
as the fastest 68K-based Mac. Some of the problems were fixed in later
revisions of System 7, since they were due to system software
components that were still present as 68K code! Another part of the
problem was due to the fact that the emulator in Apple's system was
a 68LC040 emulator... lacking support for 68851 PMMU and 68882
math co-processor instructions.

While the facilities for making the transition would be better now
than it was back then (unlike the 68K->PowerPC transition, there will
be no case where PowerPC-based code will remain anywhere in Darwin
or the Mac OS X frameworks) I still think that there are going to be some
serious issues running some demanding PowerPC-based applications on
Rosetta... and much of it will do with the absence of AltiVec support.

I don't think the claim of "no noticable speed penalty" will hold water.
There are bound to be problems... and some of it is due to the fact that
Rosetta is, for the most part, a G3 emulator.


> Officially Mac OS X won't be sold to run on any non-Apple Intel / AMD
> boxes, at least not for some time. Eventually Apple may change their
> mind. Of course there will be hacks in the pirate world that will get
> it running on any box.
>
> There may or may not turn out to be any exclusion of running Windows
> (without Virtual PC) on an Apple Intel box. Reports so far say you will
> be able to.
>
>
>
> Helpful Harry
> Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)


.

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