HT201580: Does my Mac have an Intel or PowerPC processor?

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Tim Kasp
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: When did Apple switch to intel

When did Apple Switch to intl

PowerBookG4, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Feb 24, 2015 9:26 AM

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Tim Kasp

Q: When did Apple switch to intel

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  • by Allan Eckert,

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert Feb 24, 2015 9:30 AM in response to Tim Kasp
    Level 9 (53,700 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 24, 2015 9:30 AM in response to Tim Kasp

    Because PowerPC was not able to give Apple what it needed.

     

    Sorry read that was why. 2006 was when they switched from PowerPC to Intel.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Feb 24, 2015 9:28 AM in response to Tim Kasp
    Level 9 (50,684 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 24, 2015 9:28 AM in response to Tim Kasp

    2006

  • by MlchaelLAX,

    MlchaelLAX MlchaelLAX Feb 27, 2015 9:47 AM in response to Tim Kasp
    Level 4 (2,256 points)
    Feb 27, 2015 9:47 AM in response to Tim Kasp

    There was no G5 chip at that time that was capable of being used in a laptop type Mac without severe heat and battery limitations.

     

    Apple, not wanting to lose momentum in their share of the portable market decided that a complete shift to the Intel CPU family was their only prospect and they did so in 2006.

     

    They included a "translator" which they called Rosetta (and licensed from a third party) in OS X from Tiger through Snow Leopard, so that all Mac users could continue to use their PowerPC software seemlessly, while users and publishers could update their titles to Intel versions.

  • by stevena1,

    stevena1 stevena1 Mar 3, 2015 5:15 PM in response to Tim Kasp
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Mar 3, 2015 5:15 PM in response to Tim Kasp

    the announcement was in 2005, the first Macs with the Intel chips appeared early the following year. This was also released a year after Tiger, and one of the updates was designed for both platforms (I think 10.4.3 or so).

     

    As MichaelLAX mentioned the reason the G5 CPU was only engineered for desktops (and servers.) They maxed out the G4s for the PowerBooks as much as they could, but they could go so far. Also Apple introduced Boot Camp where someone could install a licensed copy of Windows onto their Macs and boot seamlessly by hitting Option at startup. The latter was probably a great selling point to draw in new, never used Mac owners. This was around the time Apple was selling Macs in record numbers quarter by quarter.