On 12 Apr 2005 at 19:27, Dean Kukral wrote:

> The Apple Computers have traditionally used Motorola cpu's descending
> from the 6502.  I believe that the current cpu in the mini is MC7447,
> but I am not a Mac expert by any means.

  The 8-bit MosTek 6502, used in the original Apple ][ line, was designed to
use the same supporting chips as the Motorola 6800, but was significantly
different from the Motorola CPUs in its internal architecture and
instruction set.

  The original Mac models used the 16-bit Motorola 68000 processor, and
eventually migrated upt to 32-bit derivatives of that, the 68030 and 68040.
Then, somewhere in the mid-90s, Motorola, Apple and IBM collaborated on
design of a RISC processor that went into Apple's PowerMac line and IBM's
RS6000 AIX (UNIX) boxes, and a few IBM "PowerPC" models which didn't have
much impact.
  The current run of Apple processors -- G3, G4, G5 -- are derived from
those RISC processor designs.

  There *is* software ("VirtualPC") available which would let you run
Windows, even including XP, under a Mac OS.  It's pretty remarkable -- but
cost will be higher and performance lower than XP on a true Intel- or AMD-
based PC, and apparently a few hardware details don't quite work out.

> Software for one will generally not run on the other.  Especially
> operating system software, which works in close conjunction with the
> hardware.

  Exactly.  If you basically want to run Windows, a Mac of any sort
(including Mini) is not the way to go.  VirtualPC exists to allow users who
use MacOS >90% of the time to also run a few specific programs that are
available only in Windows versions.

David Gillett

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