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.

Comments

g3s are cool

[zojas]

literally! much less heat than a g4, which is great for a laptop.

also, a g3 is faster than a g4 for non-altivec operations. I even have toy benchmarks to prove it!

maybe not for new macs; upgrades would be nice

[alien666]

I'm not going to shell out $600 bucks for a 1 gigahertz G4 upgrade for my trusty 400mhz G3 server, but I might consider a 1 gigahertz G3 if the price was under $300.

This is hardly an Apple story. The G3 (aka PPC 750) has many applications other than Macs.

P.S. It's only a G3, G4, or G5 when it is used in a Mac, otherwise it's just a plain old PowerPC.

What about Panther?

[TechnoPope]

A lot of this stuff will really hinge on Panther. It will be tough for apple to sell G3's if Panther doesn't run well on the processor. I know Jaguar runs fine for what it does, but it still misses having Quartz. How much of Panther will require more than what the G3 can handle.

What's worse is that there is no guarantee from Apple that they will even continue to really care about the G3. They are already trying to steer people away from the sub 1ghz G4's with the creation of Pixlet. So it definitely leaves a hole with concern to the G3.

I hate to say it, but the G3's time may be almost up.

Re:Eliminating the iBook

[webguru4god]

I second that Apple would never eliminate the iBook, as it is a great option for budget-conscious students! I have a Sony VAIO right now with a 15.2" screen, and all I want to do is get rid of it! It is a pain in the butt to lug around my campus all the time! I'm working all summer long so that I can afford a nice iBook, or maybe a 12" AlBook, but the iBook is much more likely because of price reasons. If Apple were to EOL the iBook line they would be eliminating a huge intro market, and with the Switch campaign and everything else, I can't see them doing that!

Ibook may need a little more than the 1.1 ghz g3

[Enrique1218]

If apple keeps the G3 in the iBook for another year, it may not be able to compete against other sub 1000 notebooks with desktop 2.2 Ghz P4, 15 inch displays, and combo drives. You can argue small size and battery life (I would agree), but that would still be a tough sell to those on a slim budget and don't look that far down the spec sheet. Unless Apple leverages the low power capabilities of the G3 and built a sub 5 pound notebook with a 14 inch display to replace 12 inch, I wont be able to recommend it.