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Originally Posted by Shazam
Uh, no. Drivers, for instance, will usually use the hardware directly using kernal level routines which will be CPU specific. This will result in compatibility issues.
Since Intel and PPC CPUs are so different in the way they process assembly instructions, there can be vast performance differences as a result. Many programs will have to recompiled so that they are optimized for the x86 platform, which means that you'll have to get a new version of your program if you want to have a decent running app.
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I might have oversimplified, but you are unnecessaraly complicating the issue. From an end user's perspective, the difference between an Apple PC using an Intel CPU rather than a Motorola CPU will be no different than a Windows user running on an Intel CPU rather than AMD.
Backwards compatibility is virtually a must-have in computing today, and it will be a good long time before applications that are written post-Intel will become incompatible with PCs running the Motorola chip. Certantly longer than the lifespan of Phanuthier's prospective iBook. Until a significant majority of Apple computers are running Intel chips, any maker of applications, drivers, etc would be amazingly foolish to cut their software off from users who bought pre-Intel.
Just like you see with Windows PCs, most programs will be written with compatibility for any recent OS, and any widely used CPU.
Also, the kernel is the core of the OS, so a kernel-level application/driver is still going through the OS. The kernel itself will be different, depending on which CPU it is running on - ie when you install Windows, it will install the proper kernel and libraries to run on an Intel or AMD processor, depending on what you have.