About graphics cards, i've looked through the forums

[doubljdog]

since there will obviously be plenty of ppc macs still out there once the intel beasts come out, what are they going to do about graphics cards? do you think they'll do something special to the mobo so only certain gfx cards will work like they have it now. Like maybe have a different rom on it or a different way the gfx card communicates with the mobo other than standard pc's do

[wesley]

Well, the current PPC Mac's graphics cards need OpenFirmware instead of BIOS due to an architectural difference of interfacing with an expansion card that needs to be available at boot. There's no point in making Mac versions of the cards communicate differently from the PC versions and in fact, other than the ROM difference Mac and PC versions communicate the same way. Non-boot expansion cards are automatically compatible as long as the driver exists, as a proof.

 

So would the x86 Mac use OpenFirmware? My bet is 'unlikely'. Maybe some different ROM tech like EFI, but perhaps by actual 'expandable' Macs (i.e. PowerMac) come out by ~2007, the PC side might be adapting such standard as well, making the differences nil. So I'm sort of thinking that the x86 Macs would use the same graphics cards that normal PCs do. All we need is the GODDAMN DRIVERS.

 

In any case, I'm guessing that working on the drivers won't be 'for nothing' because even if there's a ROM implementation difference we'd just be using 'PC-compatible' graphics card to BOOT into the system, then have the driver loaded later.

[grabberslasher]

Well, the current PPC Mac's graphics cards need OpenFirmware instead of BIOS due to an architectural difference of interfacing with an expansion card that needs to be available at boot. There's no point in making Mac versions of the cards communicate differently from the PC versions and in fact, other than the ROM difference Mac and PC versions communicate the same way. Non-boot expansion cards are automatically compatible as long as the driver exists, as a proof.

 

So would the x86 Mac use OpenFirmware? My bet is 'unlikely'. Maybe some different ROM tech like EFI, but perhaps by actual 'expandable' Macs (i.e. PowerMac) come out by ~2007, the PC side might be adapting such standard as well, making the differences nil. So I'm sort of thinking that the x86 Macs would use the same graphics cards that normal PCs do. All we need is the GODDAMN DRIVERS.

 

In any case, I'm guessing that working on the drivers won't be 'for nothing' because even if there's a ROM implementation difference we'd just be using 'PC-compatible' graphics card to BOOT into the system, then have the driver loaded later.

 

ATI is already selling graphics cards that will work in either PPC or Intel systems, with a dual BIOS/OF implementation of some sort. I don't see why that would be any different with new graphics cards for Intel Macs - apple should be smart enough to have them run on both old and new (PCIe most probably).