New G5 Power Macs "Fastest Desktop In The World"

In the hardware part of his keynote address at WWDC, Jobs officially introduced the G5-based computers previously leaked on the Apple store. The new G5 machines, with the IBM 970 processor, use the "world's first 64-bit desktop processor" (and the "fastest 64-bit processor ever") but run both 64-bit and 32-bit apps natively, and run up to 2GHz. The bus is 1GHz ("fastest ever") and it is designed for dual processing and full symmetric processing.

Beyond the many numbers, the bottom line is that the new machines have a new architecture, and that the memory speed is now the bottleneck, not the processor or bandwidth speeds. So they can have up to 8GB of 128-bit DDR RAM, as it is efficient to keep data in memory. The memory bandwidth is one of the most talked-about features of the new architecture.

USB 2.0 is now included, as are FireWire 400 and 800, Bluetooth, AirPort Extreme, and digital audio in and out. The 4x SuperDrive is now standard, and it can house up to 500GB of internal storage.

For video, the GeForce FX5200 is standard on low-end models, Radeon 9600 Pro on high-end models.

The case of the new machines is redesigned too, from the ground up, focusing on decreasing noise and heat. It is an aluminum enclosure, with ports for FireWire and USB on the front, and a door on the side to get into the box. It has four distinct "thermal zones" with computer-controlled cooling with its nine (yes, nine) independent fans. And it is much quieter than its predecessor.

The G5 is 10 percent slower than the P4 and Xeon in SPEC int scores in single-proc units, but 20 percent faster in FPU scores, and the dual-proc G5 beats the dual-proc Xeon in all SPEC scores.

The models are a single 1.6 GHz ($1999), single 1.8GHz ($2399), and dual 2GHz ($2999). They will ship in August. A 3GHz processor will be available from IBM in 12 months.

Apple notes that recompiling apps for the 64-bit architecture is easy, and in some cases can be done in minutes.

There was no word about the heavily anticipated redesign of the 15" PowerBooks.

Comments

Thanks

[pudge]

Thanks to iPalindrome on irc.arstechnica.com for his running transcript of the keynote address.

Re:Thanks

[jpkunst]

IMHO, the best (fastest, most 'real-time') running transcripts of keynotes are those at MacMinute. Today's transcript is at http://www.macminute.com/wwdc2003.html.

JP

Knock yourself out!

[Anonymous Coward]

Power Mac page
Apple store

Image Mirror.

[technix4beos]

Head over to:

http://www.beosjournal.org/wwdc/

for some pictures of the new case.

Re:Image Mirror.

[Drakonian]

Here are some pics from Apple's site. I don't know what to think of it... Hmmmm.

Apple G5 Gallery

Re:DDR?

[Rasta Prefect]

Why does Apple use DDR as opposed to say RDRAM or some other higher-speed technology? I mean, it might not be 64-bit compatible, I don't know, but they don't put it in their 32-bit machines either.

RDRAM last time I checked had higher total bandwidth than DDR, but fails to be faster where it counts - latency. Latency on non-sequential read/write is where the memory bottle neck is.

Re:Oh come on!

[niola]

I hate to bust your bubble, but there is no such thing as SMP P4. Intel designed the P4 to be only single processor. Xeon is for SMP applications.

Also, with SMP you can't just double the speed of one chip to come up with a benchmark. You double it, and take 10-15% off the top. You see, there is overhead in SMP because the two processors need to communicate to make sure they are on the same page, so to speak.

Re:SPEC scores.. Xeon?

[aftk2]

According to Apple's website, they're specing against a dual 3.06Ghz Xeon.

See for yourself.

Re:"Cyclops", now "Cheese Grater"

[Golias]

Is it just me, or does the new G5 look like a massive cheese grater from the front?

It looks more like an electic razor to me.

Unfortunately, it looks like they've abandoned the easy-access pull-down door that let you add ram and add-on cards with ease.

From the Apple web site:

Access is everything
Thatâ(TM)s why the Power Mac G5â(TM)s easy-to-open side panel unlatches in a snap, giving you fast access to the slots and bays inside. Designed for no-hassle expansion, the Power Mac G5 lets you add things like memory or an AirPort Extreme card without tools. And easy-to-use drive guides let you mount high-capacity hard drives as soon as your requirements grow. Additionally, a locking mechanism on the side door prevents unauthorized access, keeping the inside of your computer safe from tampering.

In other words, they didn't just keep it, they improved it.

Re:Speed is good... but price?

[cheshiremackat]

Because the Mac is cheaper... go to dell.com and configure a dual Xeon 3.06 with a DVD burner and the same vidcard/RAM...

Guess what, the Mac is over 1k cheaper! That's why... better performance, and a cheaper price...

_CMK

Academic prices for G5 Powermacs...

[thx2001r]

For students and/or educators (personal purchases), the Powermac G5 line goes like so in prices:

1.6GHz - $1,899
1.8GHz - $2,299
Dual 2GHz - $2,849

The discounts are consistent with previous Apple academic discounts. These are the same configurations as the corresponding non-educational priced retail systems:

1.6GHz - $1,999
1.8GHz - $2,399
Dual 2GHz - $2,999

G5 System architecture lesson

[TheEnigma]

Quote: Except that the Octane's bus is theoretically much, much faster. It has an end-to-end point speed of only about 3 and half GB/sec, but it can connect any of the individual systems to each other simultaneously at full speed Uh, for those of you on the short bus, Apple's new memory chip is also point-to-point. From the G5 (system, not chip) white paper: Advanced System Controller A new system controller is central to the overall performance of the Power Mac G5. This revolutionary application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)â"one of the industryâ(TM)s fastestâ"is built using the same state-of-the-art IBM 130-nanometer process technology as the PowerPC G5 processor. A superefficient point-to-point architecture rovides each primary subsystem with dedicated throughput to main memory, so massive amounts of data can traverse the system without contention for bandwidth. In contrast, subsystems that share a bus, as on other PCs, must deal with time-consuming arbitration while they negotiate for access and bandwidth across a common data path.