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PowerPC 750GX Begins Sampling Next Month
Trollaxor writes "The June issue of IBM's PowerPC Processor News features an article on the latest G3, Big Blue's PowerPC 750GX. The chip, which begins sampling next month, runs at 1.1 GHz and has 1 megabyte of on-chip L2 cache. Could this be Apple's next speedbump to the iBook?" Or, maybe, they will kill the iBook altogether in favor of the 12" AlBook.
with G5's announced, why would they still produce any G3 machines? G5 for pro, G4 for consumer seems the path to go. An iBook with a G4 and Altivec should run Jaguar and Panther much better than the G3 versions. They could use features and clock speed to differentiate between iBook G4 and Powerbook G4 until the G5 Powerbooks are ready.
"Or, maybe, they will kill the iBook altogether in favor of the 12" AlBook." Apple still needs a sub $1000 laptop for college students that provides e-mail, web browsing, instant messaging and small ventures into the graphical arts. There is no way a PowerBook would ever breach the $1000 barrier... The G3 processor still has legs. My iMac DV Special Edition (purchased in 1999) runs Jaguar quite well with only 256MB of RAM at a 400Mhz clock speed. Throw a 1.1Ghz G3 with 512MB RAM and that would be one kickass machine. It would run quietly, have a more compact design and offer speeds that would, if not by benchmark than by real-world usage, equal that of a much-higher clocked Pentium 3.
I'm not popular enough to be different.
Homer Simpson, The Simpsons
Until the G3 has an AltiVec unit, Apple will not be ditching Motorola completely.
The next PB will probably use moto's G4+. Apple's reluctance to put the same chip in both its "consumer" and "pro" laptops will mean that the iBook wont get Altivec for a while.
Pixlet is designed for HD quality video with good compression. How many FinalCut Pro users are working on iBooks?
QuartzExtreme is not dependent on the CPU but on the GPU. There is no reason why Apple couldn't continue to use G3 processors and upgrade the video hardware to support QuartzExtreme.
Rumor has it that the next generation of G3 processors will also have AltiVec. This will extend the lifespan of teh G3 line of processors.
The G3 has 2 major factors going for it low cost and low power. The G3 will continue to find a niche in Apple's product line. Perhaps we will see it in future iPads or other consumer lifestyle devices.
I can't imagine them phasing out the iBooks right now. This being the "year of the laptop" and all, the price point on the iBooks is just right for competing with low-end PC offerings.
The iBook is also a more durable machine, designed to better hold up to the kind of abuse you'd expect from students and whatnot.
Chris -- http://www.bitter.net/
If IBM can continue to improve the G3 like this, why not drop Motorola's dead-in-the-water G4 and sell the G5 as the high end chip and continue to sell the G3 as the low end chip? If IBM can keep this up, the G3 will surpass the G4, performance-wise, fairly soon. Especially if the rumors about AltiVec support and 1.5 GHz are true.
Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
Well, since the hard drive, the CPU, and the graphics chipset use a single heatspreader, it is all three of them.
And Apple's OS X will continue to get faster and faster on all CPUs because they're stilll getting it more and more optimized. They use GCC, which has a LOT of room to grow on the PPC arch (not to say that it's bad now). I think Panther uses GCC-3.3, which has a new processor pipeline description model (DFA) that makes scheduling for a particular CPU easier to describe and produces code that takes better advantage of the CPU.
Also, (AFAIK) Mac OS X has the ability to put multiple compiled versions of code into any binary, meaning that the application you run (or the OS itself) could have seperate binaries for the 970, 74xx, and 7xx CPUs all rolled into one file, your machine picks the best one to use at runtime. The same feature works for seperate archs too, so you could have one app file and INSIDE it you have the PPC binaries and x86 binaries. Resource forks are kewl!
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
It has more to do with the fact that Apples G4 implementations have been more brute force than their G3 implementations
G3 900Mhz w/512KB L2 on a 100Mhz bus, no L3
G4 1000Mhz w/256KB L2 on a 167Mhz bus, 1MB L3
If they were to go balls out with the G3 and run the FSB at 200Mhz (which the IBM spec sheets say they'll do.) paired up with some appropriate ram.. I don't think it would _outrun_ the G4, but it would close the gap one hell of a lot.