Comparisons Rage On Between PowerPC and x86; Adobe Exec Touts PPC

The eternal processor debate keeps grinding on with part one of a two-part piece by Oliver Masciarotte at Mix Online.

The first part serves mainly as a history lesson, going back to the early roots of modern processor offerings from both the Windows and Macintosh platforms. From the article:

The 4-bit 4004 wasnit much fun, but its children ? the 8-bit 8008 (introduced the following year) and the 8080 (in 1974) ? paved the way for the 8086, which, it could be argued, spawned the whole personal computer industry.

Masciarotte goes on to explain the basic design theory of the chips differ and how the nature of the processor competition evolved. He even explains Intelis public emphasis on clock speed.

...there is one metric that CPU powerhouse Intel has emphasized in its saturation ad campaign: Faster is better! Intel latched onto clock speed as the defining selling point for its products. Unfortunately, clock speed alone is a false measure of real-world performance and can only get you so far...

The most interesting part comes in the articleis conclusions about 32-bit performance in reference to audio applications, including a quote from Adobe exec James A. Moore:

When asked about the current range of 32-bit Intel processors and how they hold up to current PowerPCs, digital audio pioneer James A. Moorer (now of Adobe Systems) doesnit have any qualms about stating that, ?the PPC is light years better and faster than any of the others. [...] Every benchmark Iive done comes out with a difference of a factor of four times over the fastest single-processor Intel processor I could find.

The article can be read in its entirety at the Mix Online Web site. The second part of the series plans to address the 64-bit offerings from Intel, AMD and IBM and will be published next month.