garageCube

[cal6n]

I know you guys are still busy ironing out V2, and I must say that you're doing a magnificent job, but I thought it time to start thinking about future hardware.

Given that the powerbook range appears to be most in need of a good seeing too, it seems logical that Apple will prioritise this line for an early upgrade. Now, I don't know for sure but I would guess that powerbooks are probably the most popular choice for Apple based VJs. I recently upgraded one of my powerbooks to a 1.67 GHz machine with 128 MB VRAM specifically to use V2 and very happy I am, now that I've reinstalled Panther and QT 6.5.2. It really flies, although it should be said that running beta 2 under Tiger and QT 7 rendered performance completely unacceptable! I suspect that Tiger and QT 7 will mature over time, though.

I was going to wait another year to upgrade my second machine but now that looks like putting me in Intel territory. How ready for the transition are we likely to be? Apple have as good as said that, in order to generate the Universal Binaries required to maintain cross-platform compatability, the use of X-Code 2,1 is required. Now, I may be wrong about this but I would guess that Modul8 doesn't use X-Code, given the custom, non-aqua, interface (which I really like BTW ), and so is likely to run under Rosetta emulation with a small but, for us at the bleeding edge, annoying performance hit.

So what's your take on the situation? I know you're planning to optimise for all the goodies in Tiger and QT 7 for the next big release, but will the Intel move cause you any major headaches?. Also, what do other users think? Will it be wise to get the last version of the PPC powerbooks to weather the storm, or will the increased performance of the Intel machines make up for the use of emulation?

Calvin

[sigmasix]

Yves doesn't seem to be afraid about intel HERE
I ageee with his theory, and in fact, you will not really see the difference exept you'll have a faster computer. I think it's stupid to buy a new powerbook now (except if you want special prices ) because they will not be upgraded until the release of the first mactel powerbook... (and this one should be at least as fast as what a powerbook g5 could have been).

[cal6n]

OK. I'm sorry I didn't see the previous thread but thanks for the link.

It's very relieving and impressive to know that Modul8 can be ported so easily. My mind is made up and I can safely drool over the impending lappies!

[yves@garagecube]

Rosetta emulation will be pretty bad for any software destined to real time. Do not expect miracles here. Also Rosetta does not emulate altivec code, so most applications will fall back to their G3 path. In Modul8 we do have a G3 path, so it will work but with a bad performance hit for all the pixel filters.

Now the good thing is that Modul8 is built since the V1.0 with XCode. The "kernel" (our open-source library OMT) compiles with nearly everything (GCC, CodeWarrior, Visual C++, etc.). Now for the Modul8 specific code, the biggest issue is a couple of little/big endian problems that need to be fixed in the pixel filters algorithms. I guess I can adapt the code in a couple of days. So having a Universal version of Modul8 for the release of Intel machines won't be an issue at all.

Regarding the quality of the first Intel Powerbooks, we have to examine the Intel roadmap. It could feature the Yonah processor, a dual-core Pentium which would be a pretty good processor for a multi-threaded application like Modul8... We'll see.

Yves.

[Doerak]

Can't wait to perform with M8 on a dual-core yonah 2.16 ghz powerbook. My 1.67/2GB/128VRAM/7200RPM Powerbook is nice, but this wil be a x2 - x3 speed improvement in CPU terms and bus speed!