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Durandal wrote:Since when? They ported a very stripped down version of the NT kernel to PowerPC for the Xbox360.

I do not know since when, I am not sure they actively develop them anymore, and I doubt it was ever going to be released, it was probably just a prudent move at the time.
I wasn't reffering to the Xbox360 and I've heard it was a 2k kernel, but theres not a huge difference there, oh well.

Not quite the same thing as porting the entire OS. Hell, the x86-64 version of Windows XP took years to get right, and that wasn't even switching to a different architecture entirely.

When did they start on the x86-64? 2002 sometime? When was it actually finished?

I think it is important though to keep in mind though that Apple has kept a separate x86 version under development for years alongside PPC(on arstechnica I heard since 2000 or 2002), microsoft did no such thing for x86-64. So looking at it that way the difference is not that large.

Yes, and those versions were canned before 4.0 went final.

I believe support for all other architectures but Alpha and x86 where not dropped until service pack 2, but given the radical nature of Sp3 I guess you could say Nt4 wasn't final until SP3.
Alpha was supported after that however.

Durandal wrote:

And at one time NT also ran on PPC, Dec Alpha and MIPS. The NT kernel was designed with modularity in mind.

Yes, and those versions were canned before 4.0 went final.

NT4 was actually the last of the multi-architecture NT releases; the box came with install media for MIPS, PPC, IA32 and Alpha. There were also persistent rumours that W2K was ported to Alpha but never released.

phongn wrote:NT4 was actually the last of the multi-architecture NT releases; the box came with install media for MIPS, PPC, IA32 and Alpha. There were also persistent rumours that W2K was ported to Alpha but never released.

Any truth to them you think? Or the PPC thing?

His Divine Shadow wrote:I do not know since when, I am not sure they actively develop them anymore, and I doubt it was ever going to be released, it was probably just a prudent move at the time.

Possibly, but Windows has so many problems of its own that I can't imagine Microsoft spending a whole lot of time maintaining a PowerPC version.

When did they start on the x86-64? 2002 sometime? When was it actually finished?

They started 2002 sometimes, I think. It was finished around 2004.

I think it is important though to keep in mind though that Apple has kept a separate x86 version under development for years alongside PPC(on arstechnica I heard since 2000 or 2002), microsoft did no such thing for x86-64. So looking at it that way the difference is not that large.

Yes, Apple have compiled an x86 and PowerPC version of OS X since 10.0. My overall point was that Apple had the good sense to keep an x86 version of Mac OS X running internally. I doubt that a feature-complete version of Windows XP exists for PowerPC or any other architecture within the bowels of Microsoft. Though who knows.

I believe support for all other architectures but Alpha and x86 where not dropped until service pack 2, but given the radical nature of Sp3 I guess you could say Nt4 wasn't final until SP3.
Alpha was supported after that however.

Yes, you're right. NT4 SP2 was the last multi-architecture release.

the .303 bookworm wrote:Soon they will see the power of the AMD side.

Apple's reasons were performance per watt.


AMD has more raw power at this point (but from what we've heard they're going to start with Intel processors at the low end), but Intel has better power consumption in the form of the Pentium M.