This week at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, CEO Steve Jobs announced the fading into history of the last of Apple’s PowerPC-based Macintosh computers. The first PowerPC Macs debuted in 1994. The product of an Apple/Motorola/IBM partnership, the PowerPC used RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) technology instead of the CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computers) technology used in PCs with Intel and AMD processors.

Way back when, the PowerPC gave Apple a “leg up” in processor power. Over time, however, as CISC processors became more RISC-like (and vice versa), the PowerPC’s advantage diminished. The IBM-produced G5 processor used (until this week) in Apple’s high-end machines is a very capable processor, but its clock speeds have stagnated, its cooling requirements are extreme, and it uses too much power to operate efficiently in a portable.

Therefore, last year Apple announced its intention to transition the entire Mac line to Intel processors. Now, just 210 days later, Apple has completed the transition by introducing the Intel-based replacement for the PowerMac. They call it the “Mac Pro”.

Although housed within the PowerMac G5’s striking anodized aluminum chassis, inside the Mac Pro is a whole different animal. Mac Pros are powered by Intel’s dual-core Xeon processors, and all Mac Pro models come loaded with two of them. That’s four processor cores, running at either 2.0, 2.66, or 3 GHz. The Xeon is a 64-bit processor, capable of processing twice the information per clock cycle than a 32-bit Pentium. These machines are, to use a technical term, wicked fast.

There’s more to computer speed than just the processor, and since the Mac Pro is built for speed, inside you’ll find room for 16 (yes, that’s SIXTEEN) gigabytes of RAM. The bus architecture, that handles the transfer of information into and out of the processors, blazes as well. Only the most powerful graphics processing units (“video cards” for use “old heads”) make the cut for the Mac Pro.

Because the Xeon processors don’t produce localized global warming like their G5 predecessors, there’s room in the Mac Pro case for four 500GB SATA hard drives. You’re right. That’s a terabyte of internal storage. Whew.

So, these are Macs, right? They’ve got to be more expensive. Nope. Dell workstations with similar configurations are at least $1000 more than equivalent Mac Pros. A “mid-range” configuration Mac Pro can be had for $2500. They ship for free in 1 to 3 business days.

© 2006 Peter F. Zimowski