It does do image processing very quickly. Bit array manipulation forms the basis for all image processing techniques. For our purposes, this primarily affects rendering since that is the primary area in the product where we alter large image maps. Apple has accelerated their OpenGL implementation to take advantage of these instructions so the fast, interactive rendering mode in VectorWorks 9 will essentially be tuned for the AltiVec instruction set. Possibly, redraw could be accelerated since the accuracy is not needed there, but that is a fairly large task forcing us to significantly change our imaging architecture.
Multiprocessing is a big shift.
Using 'threads' in an application is a real heavy weight change. It would take a couple of man years of work to get a real benefit. Also, threads slow you down on single processor machines. At some point we will move to multiprocessing because chips will eventually max out in speed and machines will move to multiprocessors. Yes, that's correct.