![]() Windows NT 4.0 supported Alpha, PowerPC, MIPS and Intel. The Windows NT kernel is actually quite nice, and was designed with portability in mind. PowerPC really did look like the way of the future. MS had also said that their workstation/server OS, WinNT, would be ported to PowerPC, along with Alpha, MIPS, and Intel. MS wasn't not yet entrenched on the desktop. There was alot of doom and gloom that the i386 architecture could not scale. Intel was having a hard time with what would become the Pentium. But at the time the situation wasn't clear. It is easy to look back now and say that Apple made a mistake. IBM made a number of machines based on the PowerPC but eventually lost interest when it was clear that WinNT 4.0 on Intel was going to win on the workstation. When the other computer makers did not show up there wasn't enough demand for faster PowerPCs to keep Motorola interested. IBM was making workstations with both Intel, and PowerPC. Of the three companies only Apple relied on the PowerPC. It was hoped that there would be enough smaller manufacturers and demand for the PowerPC to keep prices down. Over a decade ago the theory was that IBM, Apple, and other companies would want to make workstations and servers with the PowerPC chip that Motorola would make. When the PowerPC workstation market failed to take off Motorola became more interested in the embedded processor PowerPC lines then workstation processors. Part of Apple's problems with the PowerPC and Motorola was because Apple was not a big enough customer. In much the same way that building a spaceship is beyond Apple's expertise. Apple did have some say in the design, but nothing significant.Īpple will never get into the chip design and manufactureing bussiness. Motorola and IBM own the PowerPC architechture.
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