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Apple Moving To G5s Next Year?
Rand Race writes: "Lowend Mac is reporting here that Apple is considering dropping the G4 on most of its line in favor of IBM's Altivec-less G5. The G5 would appear in early 2001 at speeds from 700Mhz to 1Ghz in single, dual, and quad setups. Speeds up to 2Ghz should be reached by 2002. Updated G3s (750Cx/G3e) at 533-666Mhz will be used in iMacs and iBooks (maybe a 666Mhz G5 iMac SE), Dual and Quad G4-500s in midrange machines, and G5s in high end machines (733,866, & 1Ghz), Powerbooks (733 & 850), and Cubes (866 & 1Ghz). Disclaimer; this is a rumour and we all know about Apple rumors..."
Update: 08/18 09:04 PM by CT : Several people noted that this is more then a rumor, its a blatant lie... they got very worked up about it too ;)
have a look at http://lowendmac.com/rumormill/about.shtml:
i hate it when i see something like this, but there's already a hundred posts going on about where are the numbers? and who is the source?
- Entertaining Bits from the Ancient Kernel Tree
Good afternoon, Slashdot, and thanks for liking to my delightful PowerPC G5 rumor hoax. If you'd read the whole article, seen my other articles, and read the Rumor Mill about page, maybe you wouldn't have linked. OTOH, as my publisher notes, it's remarkably easy to create a plausible rumor with absolutely no basis in reality. I've loved your discussion, though, especially the 666 observations. I'll have to put in for a bonus after getting Slashdotted. ;-)
What are you talking about?? The G4's (other than the cube) all come with PCI slots, a 2x AGP slot and firewire.... plus room to add new internal components...
and speed is their biggest problem... they've been held at 500 MHz for almost a year now.
sin(6cos(r)+5A)
Technically, you're saying "Slashdot equals not Mac Rumor site"
Considering that this was not actually a mac rumor, but was instead a made up story, your subject fits quite well!
Kevin Fox
Kevin Fox
For info on the G3/G4/G5 roadmap look here:
m ap.pdf
:) )
http://www.maccentral.com/news/9909/24.g5.shtml
http://www.mot.com/SPS/PowerPC/overview/newroad
As you'll notice, NOWHERE does it say that Motorola is removing Altivec in future chips.
The lag in processor speed is due to several factors. First, the G4 chip is not very scalable mhz-wise due to its shallow pipeline. IBM seems to have overcome this, however legal agreements are preventing IBM from producing the chip without Motorola's blessing. Future PPC designs include deeper pipelines to make scaling to higher mhz easier.
At first, IBM was refusing to add altivec, wanting to focus on mhz instead with the ppc line. What has resulted is that IBM is simply more prepared to produce faster chips that Motorola right now.
In all, its really a shame that this fiasco has occured. The PPC has a much cleaner design than the x86 based chips. Its a marketing miracle that Apple hasn't been held back by this. (What looks faster? Bodini blue or beige?
Know what I like about atheists? I've yet to meet one that believes God is on their side.
A: See if Apple sues.
Mr. Ska
Borg Sue Apple Over Cube
The fascinating thing about the 666Mhz G5 iMac SEvil, is that it actually runs infinitely faster than computers running at much higher clock speeds, but also infinitely hotter (Optimal operating temperature is 3 million Degrees F). The downside is that "Eternal Damnation" clause in the EULA, and when running Linux the Daemons can occasionally get a little out of control, spawning evil child processes, and attempting to take over the world.
But hey, its Insanely Different(tm)..
air and light and time and space
IBM's G5 processor is not a PowerPC microprocessor. It is the silicon used to drive the S/390 mainframes: a serious hunk of electronics to complex for a single chip. It's more along the lines of a super-CISC design, optimized for speed and throughput above portability.
IBM -does- have some sexy successors to the 750 processor (the "G3" in Apple marketing speak) and these will probably make it into future iMacs and Powerbooks. I'm more interested in their upcoming "7500+" line, which is a G4 that can be produced with a clock of 750mhz and 1ghz...we'll still have to wait until MacWorld San Francisco to see them tho.
SoupIsGood Food
This rumor was posted on LEM by "Anne Onymus". If you bothered to check the other "rumors" from the same writer, you would have noticed that Low End Mac's "Rumor Mill" is a PARODY SITE!!!
Dan Knight, publisher of LEM, does not take Apple rumors seriously, and under the name Anne Onymous he pokes fun at the rumor sites on a fairly regular basis.
In other words, YHBT YHL HAND.
In yer face, Slashdot editors! (Hehehe)
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Whilst we know that Apple rumour sites are usually pretty lame, this does have a string of credibility to it.
Apple have been unable to keep up in the MHz race. Whilst those of us in the know can preach that it's not a real comparison to go on about MHz, the lay-person sees these numbers and really does equate these with speed - meaning that Apple starts to lose out in the consumer market because Joe Consumer thinks that a 500Mhz G4 is slower than say, a 600Mhz Pentium (which isn't the case).
Sales of iMacs (apparently) have started to flag, and Apple has received criticism that it isn't updating the processors in the range quick enough, which is indeed true. Some haven't been updated for about nine months. The production problems behind Motorolas G4, and the fact they can't seem to increase the speed that quickly have really been problematic - no doubt spurring on the decision by Apple to plump for IBM, who seem to have much better processor fabrication techniques.
So - what we'll probably see is a bit of spin from an Apple show about how they've put a funky newer processor in the iMacs and that they've nearly doubled the clock speed. Those in the know again will realise that this doesn't mean the machine is running twice as quick, but the consumer will be bought over... and iMac sales will probably pick up again. Apple has to do it to stop it's flagship machine (i.e. the machine that picked it up out of the gutter) from falling off it's mast.
M.