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Excerpt from the Powerbook technology overview PDF file(apple.com):
Apple provides powerful computing performance with the PowerPC G4 processor with Velocity Engine, which is a specialized vector processing unit that uses SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) technology to accelerate data processing. Software programs that use vector processing typically transform large sets of data as they edit an image or render a video e∂ect. For example, when a filter is used to apply a motion blur to an image, each pixel of the image must be changed according to the same set of instructions. This is a highly repetitive processing task, which the Velocity Engine accelerates by modifying the image in large, 128-bit sections. Since the Velocity Engine is a separate processing unit, it can work on one processor-intensive task while the other functional units in the processor are crunching other data.
Bluntly, this means that a larger proportion of CPU power is redirected towards your programs that require more juice, compared to that of other programs running. But that's for the Powerbook. The new line of Mac laptops use Intel Core Duo processors, which are supposed to be up to 4 times faster than the PowerPC processors.The thing about the Core Duo is that some programs are not compaitable with the Core Duo architecture. I don't know any others, but I'm sure FS2 isn't the only program that is not compaitable with them...a buddy of mine recently purchased FS2 only to find out it doesn't work, due to an error that prevents completion of installation. Might wanna read up more on that before you shell out 2 g's for a shiny new MacBook Pro...
Hope that helps.
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