This article gives you the basics on what AltiVec is, what it does — and how it stacks up against its competition.

Apple has been very aggressive about getting AltiVec optimizations into core components of its operating system, to make sure that users feel they’re getting some benefit from it. Graphics applications on the Mac are very likely to be AltiVec enhanced. The consistent architecture has made the return on investment of AltiVec optimization quite good. Now that every Mac shipped comes with an AltiVec processor, every user will benefit if a program is able to make effective use of AltiVec for processing. This article gives you the basics on what AltiVec is, what it does — and how it stacks up against its competition.