Graphisoft is going to fully support the Apple-Intel transit

[Anonymous]

[AFR] What I'd like to talk a little bit amount now is the Apple-Intel announcement.

[Don] Sure.

[AFR] I understand that Graphisoft is going to fully support the Apple-Intel transition -- and I think that is wonderful and I didn't expect, honestly, anything less than that from Graphisoft. But what I'm really interested to know -- because you describe this chain or sequence between the original ArchiCAD product, which supports the Mac of course, and this construction BIM product that doesn't -- is, will the Apple switch to Intel allow more Graphisoft products to support the Mac platform in the future?

[Don] You know one of the reasons we chose the Maxon product to move forward on was because it supports all the platforms [Editor's note: Don is referring to the Windows platforms and the Mac platform as the platforms]. Whenever we can, we always want to support both platforms. So some of the ways in which we are going to go back at the market -- in the future with new technologies and products -- we will support the Mac platform.

[AFR] But not some that are developed around Windows technology?

[Don] Some of the products that don't are small enough still that we need to grow larger before we do that, and I'm not the decision maker there either, so there's a rationale for that, because the level of complexity is significant for supporting both platforms, and it's a challenge.

But we have a great system for handling this development and going forward this should expand. And hopefully the Intel announcement going forward will make that easier for us. And that will service everybody.

[AFR] Don, thanks for this discussion. We've covered a whole bunch of great stuff here and I look forward to seeing your new products and services come to market in the future. Best of luck.

[Don] You are welcome.[AFR] What I'd like to talk a little bit amount now is the Apple-Intel announcement.

[Don] Sure.

[AFR] I understand that Graphisoft is going to fully support the Apple-Intel transition -- and I think that is wonderful and I didn't expect, honestly, anything less than that from Graphisoft. But what I'm really interested to know -- because you describe this chain or sequence between the original ArchiCAD product, which supports the Mac of course, and this construction BIM product that doesn't -- is, will the Apple switch to Intel allow more Graphisoft products to support the Mac platform in the future?

[Don] You know one of the reasons we chose the Maxon product to move forward on was because it supports all the platforms [Editor's note: Don is referring to the Windows platforms and the Mac platform as the platforms]. Whenever we can, we always want to support both platforms. So some of the ways in which we are going to go back at the market -- in the future with new technologies and products -- we will support the Mac platform.

[AFR] But not some that are developed around Windows technology?

[Don] Some of the products that don't are small enough still that we need to grow larger before we do that, and I'm not the decision maker there either, so there's a rationale for that, because the level of complexity is significant for supporting both platforms, and it's a challenge.

But we have a great system for handling this development and going forward this should expand. And hopefully the Intel announcement going forward will make that easier for us. And that will service everybody.

[AFR] Don, thanks for this discussion. We've covered a whole bunch of great stuff here and I look forward to seeing your new products and services come to market in the future. Best of luck.

[Don] You are welcome.


http://www.architosh.com/features/2005/features/interviews/don/0508-interv-1.html

[Anonymous]

My question is: Will ArchiCad 10 be ready for Macintel? This could effect my purchases after the first of the year.

[TomWaltz]

If the rumors are true that AC10 is due in 1Q2006 and the MacIntel G5's are due in 3Q2006, I doubt AC10 will be immediately compatible. Maybe a service pack or update of some kind will be released when the Intel machines are released?

[Karl Ottenstein]

Graphisoft has firmly announced, in various places, their solid support of the Macintosh platform. I have every reason to believe that they will have support for Wintel Macs when they arrive - unless of course Apple surprises us all and delivers them sooner than anticipated. In that case, like Tom suggests, I am sure that GS will have an update as soon as possible.

Future Mac software will be delivered in what Apple calls 'universal binary' format - which is really two copies of the program in one bundle, transparent to the user. If the user is on a PowerPC Mac, then the PowerPC version will be installed. If the user is on an Intel-based Mac, then the Intel based version will be installed. Apple has already released the development tools to produce these new binaries, and we can expect all manufacturers to begin releasing their software in that format before long.

Apple released special Wintel development machines to the Mac development community this past year. I would expect that at least one such machine is in Budapest and that GS is on top of this situation.

Cheers,
Karl

[Thomas Holm]

Not intending to be overly pessimistic, I respectfully disgree with Karl. From experience, I'd say AC 10's development was well underway, probably in early beta testing already when Apple announced the Intel shift. To utilize the Intel shift in an efficient way in development, it would need a general re-organizing of the code, requiring quite an effort and thorough testing. That is too big for AC10 in the current time span. If AC 10 is due early next year, it's improbable that there will be a universal binary version. And this issue is too big for an intermediate release. AC11 (or whatever), perhaps due late 2007, is another matter, though!

However, as a Mac user, I refuse to be pessimistic. The early tests of the Rosetta translation engine in OSX/Intelshow that with the Intel processors due next year, AC10 will be faster than now on Intel Macs, regardless of the binaries. I say let Graphisoft find the bugs before releasing an OSX/intel Archicad. This is more important for us.

[glenn_peters]

Karl wrote:
I have every reason to believe that they will have support for Wintel Macs when they arrive...

Apple released special Wintel development machines to the Mac development community this past year.

Cheers,
Karl

Karl.... stop scaring me with your use of the word "Wintel" and "Mac" in the same sentence!

That would imply Windows OS running on Intel CPUs inside an Apple Macintosh computer as the primary configuration (hopefully this will be possible, but it should not be the desired ArchiCAD environment for we Apple disciples.)

Let us use the more comforting "Macintel" designation to note OS X running on Intel CPUs inside a Macintosh computer!

[Karl Ottenstein]

glenn_peters wrote:
Karl.... stop scaring me with your use of the word "Wintel" and "Mac" in the same sentence!

Sigh. Fast-typing fingers with brain disengaged.

Let us use the more comforting "Macintel" designation to note OS X running on Intel CPUs inside a Macintosh computer!

[stefan]

ArchiCAD is coded on CodeWarrior for the OSX version and on Visual Studio for the Windows version.

CodeWarrior will not support the Intel-platform and the product will be discontinued for the OSX platform as well. This would imply for Graphisoft to be able to release a "universal binary" it would mean the need to switch to XCode development environment, using a different compiler (gcc, best known from Linux develoment).

I'm not sure about this, but such a switch might be quite complex for such a large project.

The benefit for developers would be good: XCode is free to use for all Mac's and it compiles for both PowerPC and "mactel" hardware. But porting ArchiCAD over to it... well, that's up to Graphisoft.

If ArchiCAD 10 would be released in Q1 2006 (which is still just a rumour), then most of the code should allready be finished, so I have my doubts. But then again, with the proven dedication of Graphisoft for the Macintosh platform, I think they might as well take the leap and go for it. Let's hope that such a huge step doesn't de-stabilise ArchiCAD...