On Rosetta

Before I return my MacBook Pro to Apple, I wanted to run a couple of quick tests on Rosetta using my G4 Powerbook and the MacBook Pro. My test data is in the extended, but first some broad sweeping generalizations about intel native, PPC native, and intel through Rosetta.

• Running using Rosetta takes an extra thread.
  This makes sense, as the extra thread is the emulation layer.
  
• Even if it is an Universal Binary (can run native on Intel), it will use more memory than a PowerPC running the same version of the same app.
  
  
  My one exception to this was Safari, but I suspect this is due to the number of bookmarks and such that I have loaded on my PowerBook's Safari, whereas my MacBook Pro is clean. This is a rather surprising find, as it means that Intels using Universal Binaries will require more memory than their PowerPC counterparts. With UBs using anywhere from 25% to over 300% of the real memory, it means a 1GB system, on average is roughly equivalent of a 784 MB PPC system (and in some cases, less than 784 MB)
  
• Programs in the iLife suite and iTunes are sort of not running natively.
  
  This is the big shocker. They've been flagged as Universal Binaries, but their activity and resources suggests that they're actually PowerPC applications running through an Rosetta emulation layer. These programs can be identified using "Get Info" and seeing that "Open Using Rosetta" is not an option whereas on true Intel Native Universal Binaries, the option exists.
  
• The amount of virtual memory that these new programs use is enormous.
  
  It's a good thing these new computers come with larger harddrives, because a certain amount is going to be necessary to handle all the virtual memory the system will use. For a heavy memory intensive app such as Maya (the largest memory hog I could find, Photoshop uses less than a quarter of what Maya does). As the Maya file gets larger, the virtual memory usage rises accordingly.