Whats the difference between a PC & a MAC

[iMav]

well i was on the phone with a friend of mine and we were talking about the OS X and then he asked me a question as to what was the difference between a MAC & a PC ... didnt know much about it so decided to find out and here again is another post in which i will try to explain 2 concepts in lay man's terms ....

the article is divided into 5 parts:

1. The mac:- hardware & software
2. THe PC:- hardware & software

4. Boot Camp
5. MAC OS X vs Vista

Note: Sincere efforts have been made to not to make this a history lesson

The difference between a Mac and PC can be summed in one sentence: "Macs and PC's operate and work differently."

Well please remember this comparison before reading further coz this forms the heart of the pc and the mac ...

RISC:- Reduced Instruction Set Computers
CISC:- Complex Insruction Set Computers

The Mac - RISC
The PC - CISC

and there in lies the reason as to why the apple has been so rigid coz it uses a RISC processor, what makes RISC a rigid processor, well here is why:

RISC

• It reduces the flexibility but increases the simplicity of the processor
  Instruction size is fixed
  Complexity in processor design
  Limited no. of instructions
  more degree of pipelining
  Uses hard wired control unit which is is implemented using hardware so is rigid also debugging such a circuit is difficult, however since ther is no software it is faster

CISC

• Memory Based instructions
  advanced addressing modes
  lesser degree of pipelining
  large no. of instrucrtions
  Microprogrammed control unit which is more flexible as compared tothe hardwired control unit as changes do not require hardware to be changed and it is more software based

Here is how the 2 differ:

Part 1: The Mac:-

The beauty, well i will admit i was awestruck when i first saw a Mac looooong ago at a showroom and decided im gonna buy it 1 day (that dream still lives on), and the only thing against it was it needed me to buy the mac which means it wudnt work on traditional hardware and also until Boot Camp & Intel on a mac came along was that it used only Mac OS that is indigenously developed and marketed by apple. So whats the technical reason as to why the apple Mac wont natively support the most commonly used OS - windows.

Mac is short for Macintosh and refers to any computer produced by Apple Computer. Macs are traditionally classified separately from PCs because they are based on the PowerPC architecture from Apple/IBM/Motorola

1. Power PC Architecture

PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM alliance, for Apple, IBM, Motorola). Originally intended for personal computers. Now being a RISC Processor it inherits almost all draw backs of a RISC processor (note daily advancement in technology has found ways to counter the problems)

2. The OS

The second main difference between the PC and the MAC is the Operating System used on them, no guesses MAC uses MAC OS* and if u ask any MAC user he will consider u nothing less than a loser for using Windows (they automatically become Apple Salesman the momnet they buy their MACs)

now coming to the MAC OS ...
the leopard which is going to be its latest release is said to be 10 times ahead of vista ... might be the case only time will tell, however:

The Mac OS can be divided into two families of operating systems:

* "Classic" Mac OS, the system which shipped with the first Macintosh in 1984 and its descendants, culminating with Mac OS 9.
* The newer Mac OS X (the "X" refers to the Roman numeral, ten). Mac OS X incorporates elements of OpenStep (thus also BSD Unix and Mach) and Mac OS 9. Its low-level BSD-based foundation, Darwin, is free software/open source software.

BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution):
BSD is one of several branches of Unix operating systems. BSD was widely identified with the versions of Unix available for workstation-class systems.

XNU: The Kernel
The Mac OS X kernel is called XNU. It can be viewed as consisting of the following components:

• Mach:
  Mach is part of the underlying technology of Mac OS X. It is a UNIX technology developed at Carnegie-Mellon University in the late 1980s and 1990s. It is a robust, "open source" operating system, which is used to provide memory and task implementation services. Darwin uses Mach 3.0. Mach provides memory management, memory protection, process scheduling and interprocess communication services.
  
  FreeBSD:
  XNU's BSD component uses FreeBSD as the primary reference codebase (although some code might be traced to other BSDs). Darwin 7.x (Mac OS X 10.3.x) uses FreeBSD 5.x. As mentioned before, BSD runs not as an external (or user-level) server, but is part of the kernel itself. Some aspects that BSD is responsible for include:
  
  * process model
  * user ids, permissions, basic security policies
  * POSIX API, BSD style system calls
  * TCP/IP stack, BSD sockets, firewall
  * VFS and filesystems
  * System V IPC
  * crypto framework
  * various synchronization mechanisms
  
  I/O Kit:
  I/O Kit, the object-oriented device driver framework of the XNU kernel is radically different from that on traditional systems.
  I/O Kit uses a restricted subset of C++ (based on Embedded C++) as its programming language. This system is implemented by the libkern library. Features of C++ that are not allowed in this subset include:
  
  * exceptions
  * multiple inheritance
  * templates
  * RTTI (run-time type information), although I/O Kit has its own run-time typing system
  
  Platform Expert:
  The Platform Expert is an object (one can think of it as a driver) that knows the type of platform that the system is running on. I/O Kit registers a nub for the Platform Expert. This nub then loads the correct platform specific driver, which further discovers the buses present on the system, registering a nub for each bus found. The I/O Kit loads a matching driver for each bus nub, which discovers the devices connected to the bus, and so on. Thus, the Platform Expert is responsible for actions such as:
  
  * Building the device tree
  * Parse certain boot arguments
  * Identify the machine (including processor and bus clock speeds)
  * Initialize a "user interface" to be used in case of kernel panics
  
  libkern and libsa:
  As described earlier, the I/O Kit uses a restricted subset of C++. This system, implemented by libkern, provides features such as:
  
  * Dynamic object allocation, construction, destruction (including data structures such as Arrays, Booleans, Dictionaries, ...)
  * Certain atomic operations, miscellaneous functions (bcmp(), memcmp(), strlen(), ...)
  * Provisions for tracking the number of current instances for each class
  * Ways to avoid the "Fragile Base Class Problem"
  
  libsa provides functions for miscellaneous purposes: binary searching, symbol remangling (used for gcc 2.95 to 3.3, for example), dgraphs, catalogs, kernel extension management, sorting, patching vtables, etc.

For more info: Click Here

--------- End Of Part 1 ---------

Part 2: The PC:-

We all know the humble PC ... first developed by IBM and now by many, the PC is generally based on the CISC processor which mean it is more software oriented and more flexible and that is why so many different hardware designers come up with so many dofferent types of hardwares.

The OS:
Well the PC can run both Windows and Linux without hiccups (the choise is urs)

Most commonly used OS is windows for it was able to come out with a GUI for the normal consumer before its competitors Apple and OS/2 and hence is owns almost the entire PC market ... though some sections of the computer fraternity question its security, but what the hell its numero uno.

Inside the Windows Vista Kernel
At a Glance:

Thread priority and scheduling

File-based symbolic links:
The Windows Vista I/O-related changes include file-based symbolic links, more efficient I/O completion processing, comprehensive support for I/O cancellation, and prioritized I/O.
A file system feature many have considered missing from NTFS, the symbolic file link (or as it's called in UNIX, the soft link) finally arrives in Windows Vista. The Windows 2000 version of NTFS introduced symbolic directory links, called directory junctions, which allow you to create a directory that points at a different directory, but until the Windows Vista version, NTFS has only supported hard links for files.

Canceling I/O operations:
While Windows has always supported prioritization of CPU usage, it hasn't included the concept of I/O priority. Without I/O priority, background activities like search indexing, virus scanning, and disk defragmenting can severely impact the responsiveness of foreground operations. A user launching an app or opening a document while another process is performing disk I/O, for example, experiences delays as the foreground task waits for disk access. The same interference also affects the streaming playback of multimedia content like songs from a hard disk.

and a host of other features which if i typed would be called as promoting Vista so wont do that

--------- End Of Part 2 ---------

Part 4: Boot Camp:-

Well this is a little app from Apple which enables u to run Windows OS on a MAC, but the catch is u can only run it on an Intel MAC ... (remmber RISC,CISC) ... well Apple decided to switch to Intel for its MACs and for good reason, so it means that u can dual boot into MAC OS X and VIsta or XP on a beautiful mac

--------- End Of Part 4 ---------

Part 5: MAC OS X vs Vista:-

Well for this i would request arya and gx as guest editors

--------- End Of Part 5 ---------

Heres another piece of info: wondered why Virtual PC like applications work on windows and not on non-intel macs isbecause PCs are CISC based which use micr-programmed control unit in which 1 processor can be made to execute programs of another processor by simply loading its emulator in the control memory

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Compiled & Edited by: mAV3
Source: www

towards the end i got a liitle lethargic and just abruptly finished it i shall edit it later when i get time

PS: RISC & CISC happen to be in the engg syllabus of extc in the third year and i can gurantee u that the number of techers knowing that RISC & CISC form the core of difference between mac and pc would be next to nill ...

[hemant_mathur]

Real good info. Thanx

[Pathik]

good one mav..

[kalpik]

Hmm.. I thought even the PCs are based on the RISC architecture! Please someone confirm that, i may be wrong

Edit: OK, so the PC is a combination of RISC and CISC, but its RISC at the core. http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/235/4

[Goten]

Gud one.

Peace~~~!

[abhi.eternal]

good...

[sam_1710]

wow... thanks for the info!! ..

if u ask any MAC user he will consider u nothing less than a loser for using Windows (they automatically become Apple Salesman the momnet they buy their MACs)

lets see how arya reacts to this...

[iMav]

Originally Posted by kalpik

Hmm.. I thought even the PCs are based on the RISC architecture! Please someone confirm that, i may be wrong

Edit: OK, so the PC is a combination of RISC and CISC, but its RISC at the core.

well the risc & cisc difference is basically the core difference between the 2 and the reason as to my understanding why the mac has been so rigid and as in technology u always take the best of 2 worlds .... so the goods of risc have been added to the cisc and then u have intel's pentium 6 architecture which forms the heart of the:

* Celeron (Pentium II/III Derivative)
* Celeron M (Banias/Dothan Derivative)
* Pentium Pro
* Pentium II
* Pentium II Xeon
* Pentium III
* Pentium III Xeon
* Pentium M
* Intel Core

The only difference I find is MAC is eye candy and damn easy, but Winows is buggy. Even Vista is buggy.

[iMav]

hello ma'am i would request u to please dont start that here ... a mac vs windows well u will find it in every section ....

@kalpik:

In 1991, the PowerPC was just one facet of a larger alliance between these three companies. On the other side was the growing dominance of Microsoft and Windows in personal computing, and of Intel processors. At the time, most of the personal computer industry was shipping systems based on the Intel 80386 and 80486 chips, which had a CISC architecture, and development of the Pentium processor was well underway. The PowerPC chip was one of several joint ventures involving the three, in their efforts to counter the growing Microsoft-Intel dominance of personal computing.

Courtesy WIkipedia ... so i guess the initial 1s were more CISC based and with time the good of RISC was added to the CISC .... and that was the pentium 6 architecture which i posted above

[gxsaurav]

Nice article mav3, repped u.

Ms. Shalu, I would like to advice you from refraining from such comments. Yup Vista is buggy, but bugs are in all the operating systems.

[s18000rpm]

Originally Posted by gx_saurav

Nice article mav3, repped u.

Ms. Shalu, I would like to advice you from refraining from such comments. Yup Vista is buggy, but bugs are in all the operating systems.

[iMav]

well i consider an appreciative reply as a rep

[Third Eye]

@gxsaurav: How did u rep ?

Btw good article mav3

[s18000rpm]

Originally Posted by Tech Genius

@gxsaurav: How did u rep ?

Btw good article mav3

just as you did, like that^ .

[gxsaurav]

Originally Posted by mav3

well i consider an appreciative reply as a rep

There you go.

[Cool G5]

Very good.Keep up the good work.

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

but Mac's now use Intel processors so both r virtually same now

[iMav]

almost yes ....

and to add to that i will say that now mac's exclusivity lies only its in pricing ... there was a time when the mac was prferred by multimedia developers coz of the fact tht many good appz for multimedia developing were available onnly on the mac but tht has all changed ... and the mac is now slowly becoming nothing more than a PC ...

[nepcker]

Simplicity vs. Complexity: That's the fundamental difference between a Mac and a PC.

(Where the Mac stands for simplicity, of course)

[azaad_shri75]

great info.

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

Originally Posted by nepcker

Simplicity vs. Complexity: That's the fundamental difference between a Mac and a PC.

(Where the Mac stands for simplicity, of course)

can't say that dude , i tried mac n i had to search on da net how to rename a file

there was no rename option in right-click menu , now that's simplicity huh

[iMav]

no wonder y arya in another post said not to try OS X

[gxsaurav]

That thread got closed for no reason. We were not telling anyone how to access MacOS X on PC, what we were telling is how is the user experience.

We will start a new thread in a few days, with only info about the disection of MacOS X.

@ Zeeshan

Welcome to world of Mac, where you have to get used to press strange key shortcuts .

[blueshift]

Nice info mav3.

finally, is mac os based on linux?

[iMav]

yes its based on unix ...

[Pathik]

Free bsd to be more specific.

[anandk]

good info ! nice effort !! great thread !!!
read every word ... well almost every word.

[Tapomay]

Great work friend. Very informative post. Thanks.

[iMav]

@ all those who appreciated my efforts ... this is certainly not the last coming from me ... i have a few more topics in head .... thanx again for ur appreciation