Briefly: Multi OS PowerPC, Canadian iPod price reduction

New PowerPC to Run Multiple Operating Systems

Sometime next year, IBM is expect to announce a revision to its next generation of PowerPC 970 processors that will allow it to run multiple operating systems simultaneously, according to CNet News.com. Doing so will allow a computer to handle more jobs at the same time and to be used more efficiently, said Karl Freund, vice president of IBM eServer pSeries.

"The technology, called partitioning, relies on a concept called virtualization that breaks the hard link between an operating system and the underlying hardware. Partitioning is available today only on servers using IBM's higher-end Power4 and Power5 processors and in competing server designs from Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and Intel."

According to Freund, IBM's goal is to make virtualization capability ubiquitous across the Power line of processors. Although he declined to comment on precisely when the chip scheduled to arrive, he said it's pretty late in the design cycle and Apple plans to use it in upcoming Mac-based hardware products.

iPod Price Reduction in Canada

Canadian retailers will soon slightly reduce the price of all Apple iPods following a recent Federal Court of Appeal decision throwing out the levy on digital music players with embedded memory.

According to an article in Market News, the price will be reduced at Future Shop and Best Buy stores by the amount of the previously imposed levy, which equates to $25 for Apple iPods, which come in 20GB and 40GB versions. For iPod Minis, which start at 4GB capacities, the savings will be $15.

26 Comments

murk 893 comments · 23 Years

About 19 years ago

Wonder if Karl will get a Christmas card from Apple legal?

hobbes 1233 comments · 23 Years

Virtualization is a seriously interesting twist to Apple's current situation. Let's take a leap and say that this feature is available in new PPC (and, very possibly, x86) chips sometime in 2006.

When a computer can run any OS, how will that affect Apple's strategy?

If Macs can run Windows out of the box (with minimal overhead), it's clearly a big plus for switchers + adders.

But on the flip side, if PCs can run OS X (will Wintel ever allow this?), the Mac strategy may undergo an enormous shift.

Before the iPod, I would have scoffed at Apple changing their core business model. But if the cross-platform iPod success continues, it's intriguingly possible that we may be looking at a very different Apple some years down the road.

kenaustus 909 comments · 21 Years

I don't think it's going to help PC users that much - it's IBM's competition against Intel and AMD that is driving the technology. I also believe that Apple will continue to ensure that OS X runs only on a Mac. It may, however, help MS on the VPC side a bit.

Looks like Steve J will have something to offer the developers in the mid year Keynote. Major changes in the G5 at that time allow for a little speed bump in January with major announcements focusing on other products, like a flash iPod.

mdriftmeyer 7395 comments · 20 Years

My interpretation is that it will allow one to run AIX, Linux and OS X on the same hardware in their own space.

How that involves Windows would hinge upon Microsoft porting XP/Longhorn to PPC and it's ISA.

converted2truth 3 comments · 20 Years

Why would any home 'user' want to run two operating systems simultaneously? I just don't get it. I'm more for dual processors running one OS, or dual core processors running one OS. What's the point in getting a computer with a permenant case of concurrent skitz-o-phrenia(sp)?