You too can Mintelac
Mintelac, (intel inside Mac), if you haven’t heard yet, was not a rumor. Macs will within the next two years completely transition to using Intel microprocessors. Steve Jobs revealed at the WWDC keynote address that OS X has been leading a secret double life for five years, and since 10.0 has been compiled and running on Intel machines. In fact, it was a design directive to be a platform-independent system, without structuring code for specific processors or hardware. Certainly this was a motivating factor in choosing the Unix FreeBSD-based core.
In order to help developers migrate their apps, Apple is releasing a developer’s transition kit, a PowerMac with a 3.6GHz Intel processor. Incidentally, for developers already using XCode to develop on, migration to a universal binary doesn’t sound like that big of a deal. Wolfram Research, makers of Mathematica, compiled that app for the Mintelac in two hours. And not the stable release version, but an internal, bleeding edge developer revision.
But the point! Ah yes, the point! Do you want a Mintelac now? You can have one for $1500. Get a Select Membership for $500, and then you can buy the Mintelac for $999.
Steve says you have to give it back by the end of 2006 though, as they don’t want these non-production units floating around down the road. So, what’s the penalty for not returning it? When they stop offering these units to developers, how much do you think they would go for on eBay?
Posted Tuesday June 7, 2005 in by Derek Jones
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