Re: [microsound] Re: max/msp for pc

[jhno <ear@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> Interesting, thanks for the info. We'll probably see a huge shift to PC
> based work rather than the long favoured Macintosh...

maybe, maybe not. i personally will remain mac-centric as long as 
possible, both as a developer and as a musician/producer...

> anyone tried a desktop with these new Pentium 4 chips yet? wowzers... they
> look fast.

yes. that is because marketing people are experts at appearances.

---

excerpted from

Slower Than Its Predecessor: Pentium 4
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/28/technology/28STAT.html

....
the unthinkable has happened: the Intel Corporation has released a
new processor chip, the Pentium 4, that's actually slower than the
Pentium III.
....
To the millions of people who believe that clock speed is a good
comparative gauge of a computer's speed, those Pentium 4 numbers
may induce shortness of breath, salivation and in extreme cases, an
involuntary movement of the hand toward the wallet.

In various studies performed by PC World magazine, IT Week
magazine and Web sites for techies like www.anandtech .com and
www.sharkeyextreme.com, the Pentium 4 makes it around the test
track of everyday computing tasks at a speed that's about 10
percent slower than that of the 1- gigahertz Pentium III chips. And
if you crave ultimate speed, note that the first- place winner in
almost every test isn't a Pentium at all; it's the 1.2-gigahertz
Athlon, a chip made by AMD, Intel's rival.

Yet a PC containing the slower Pentium 4 chip costs $500 to $700
more than a PC containing a Pentium III or Athlon chip. To make
matters worse, the Pentium 4 requires a special kind of memory
(Rambus memory, or RDRAM), which costs about $250 more per 128
megabytes than standard memory. (Intel plans to remedy that
drawback with a new Pentium 4 model in late 2001 that won't need
special memory.)

[etc. etc.]
---

apparently software will run faster when it is re-written to access 
new routines in the processor. i don't know if this process is any 
easier than doing G4 optimization for mac os applications, but it 
will take some time.

i hope both platforms continue to develop, in parallel.

although, i must say the amiga is tempting...

jhno