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Apple Is Buyer of New 64-Bit IBM Chips

Posted by Hemos on from the makin'-the-move-with-powerpc dept.

ohmygod2 wrote to us with a story from SF Gate that Apple, unsurprisingly, is going to be one of the purchasers of IBM's PowerPC 970. At this time, though, it's unclear where Apple is going to actually *use* said chip.Update: 10/14 15:53 GMT by H : Follow-up to Tim's story.

3 of 401 comments (clear)

  1. 1.8ghz..... by qurob · · Score: 1, Flamebait


    By the time they get these in the new Macintosh computers....Intel will be at like 5GHz or something.

  2. Go back to GRADE school... by sedawkgrep · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    because you're obviously having trouble with your spelling.

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  3. Re:EETimes article has more details.. by A_Non_Moose · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    IBM has resisted adding Altivec to its version of PPC, and Apple depends on it heavily.

    True and kinda false:
    True, IBM resisted mainly because Altivec has prevented scaling of processor speed {i.e. the 18Months at less than 500Mhz G4's) until better fabrication came around.

    IBM can *design* wonderful chips (hence the Power4) but can't fight the stubborness of Steve Jobs or the incompetant fabrication of Motorola.

    And...

    Apple *markets* Altivec heavily, but does not depend on it that much. There are *less* than a dozen programs with optimizations for Altivec, if that many.

    Heck, the Quake 3 verson got mothballed because it was too damned difficult/buggy to program for. (I don't even want to attempt to mangle G Devine's first/last name).

    "In Theory" Altivec was a Good Thing...In Practice...IT SUCKED ROCKS.

    IMO, IME, YMMV

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