Yet Another G5 Roundup

Lawrence Person writes "This article on Low End Mac talks about why the PowerPC 970 is so fast, covering its superiority to Intel chips in Multiply Accumulate, double precision arithmetic, and Fast Fourier Transforms, among other operations. A short, clear article for those who don't have the time to wade through Parts 1 and 2 of Ars Technica's exceptionally detailed dissection of the 970/G5." Trollaxor writes "IBM has a neat two-page history of the PowerPC architecture, detailing its evolution from the first RS/6000 chipsets in 1990, through the POWER ISA, and into the processors that we know and use today. A very interesting read."

Comments

You guys are still at this, yourselves?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, the self-perpetuating circle-jack that is trolling is really getting sad at this point. Let the rest of us know when you have a genuine point to make in a discussion. No-one forces you to read Slashdot.

Apocalypse Now

[Johnny Mnemonic]

Fast Macs, and trollaxor with a story submission. The apocalypse must be near now...

Re:Yea, but does it run Linux?

[squiggleslash]

There are two things (yeah, just two) I'm not 100% happy about on the G5 series:

1. The relative lack of expandability (there are only two drive bays, for example, and both are already in used by default - one HD, one optical media)
2. NINE FANS! Holy crap Apple, what the HELL were you thinking?! I mean, nine fans. That's NINE moving parts. And if any of them fail, presumably that's the end of a $3,000 computer. NINE OF THEM. Geez. Good grief. I've used PCs now for decades, have Amigas and Sinclair QLs and, goddamnit, Dragon 32s still in working order, but I don't have a SINGLE fricking machine that relies upon a fan working that's more than three years old. Why? Because fans fail. And when they fail, woooooooooo the results SUCK more than the fans did.

Sorry, I just needed to get that off my ch... NINE FANS. Holy crap. Holy, holy crap. Jonathan Ives, what in hell's NAME got into you? I mean, NINE...

Here's hoping it's not actually nine for optimal airflow, as claimed, but nine for redundancy...

NINE. Holy crap.

Re:FFT is a good mesure

[switcha]

Fast Fourier Transform is bread and butter for the scientific comunity. This is a good news for sys admins at research centers like me.

And for me! I am soooo gonna kick some ass in 'Data Units Completed'.

Re:I just think it's pointless until

[Anomalous Cowturd]

Let's face it, the most relevant and useful thing we're likely to get from 64-bit desktop applications and systems is going to be the ability to keep time from ending in 2038.

Re:I just think it's pointless until

[dhovis]

Huh? Apple fixed that one years ago. The current Apple time implementation goes to the year 29,940. Apple claims to be hard at work on the Y30K problem, though.