Slashdot Mirror
Upgrade Your G4 Cube to a Pentium M Processor
reklusband writes "This report tells of a company that has released a processor upgrade for G4 cubes; this upgrade is in the form of a Pentium M. The cube becomes Windows + Linux, x86-blah compatible."
"and we've put the hard work in to ensure Windows compatibility."
Faster Linux?
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
I'm holding out for x86-yaddayadda compatibility. You early adopters can go nuts.
why bother, i mean really.. You're not really upgrading so much as shoving a bunch of pc parts in a g4 box, in the end you've still just got a pc, and ultimately one without openprom so you wont be able to run os x.
See here.
I don't want to read
For the bottom-end of the same price ($399), you would have more than enough to buy a similarly equipped PC133 bus computer, used. And since your G4 is probably used as well, why have one machine when you can have two? Honestly, old PC-compatible machines running w/ a 133 Mhz FSB (*no* DDR, etc.) are fairly cheap these days.
...
So in other words you take your Mac, that in G4 form probably still works fine with OSX, put in a new motherboard and processor. And now you can use the same BOX as a PC and run Linux.
Not so much an upgrade as using a G4 case, and in terms of an upgrade... So sort of like taking a PDP-11 box, keeping the disc controller and network controller, putting in a Pentium processor, rolling your own Linux and saying "I've upgraded a PDP-11".
NO YOU HAVEN'T because it DOESN'T WORK with the old software.
I would dare try and get my Wife to switch from a Mac onto Linux, that would hugely downgrade my quality of life.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
What the **** is all the noise about? So I start with a G4 running the wonderful OS X and I'm given the option of spending money to destroy it and put an Intel chip in the box so that I can ...... run Windoze or Linux? Someone hit me on the head, please, and let me in on this one coz I just don't get it.
stop it!! stop it!!!! my server canna hold it much longer capitan!
Faster, faster I must work. coming soon, how to put a Athlon in the Cube.
Did they give it a fruit name?
Guess they dont teach you fancy pants marketing people like they used to.
There is truth in humor.
And that's old news, look at the post date: Monday, February 28 2005 @ 10:27 AM EST.
Bullshit...
The Pentium M processor is an excellent choice for a desktop system, because having been designed for laptop computers, the power consumption is astonishingly low (around 20W), and it performs at low frequences (~2 Ghz) better than a Pentium 4 clocked much higher (I believe at 3.4 Ghz). As a plus, it operates at a low temperature and with the Asus Pentium M motherboard, the heat automatically kicks in at a user-defined threshold so the computer is silent for most of its operation.
On the downside though, the price of the processor is quite high and so is the price of a motherboard to support it. Pentium M motherboards also often have, in addition to the disadvantage of costing double the price of a Pentium 4 motherboard, decreased connectivity. A Socket 478 Pentium M adapter does exist though.
Just asking.
...the G4 Cube is already capable of running Linux.
Posted with Mozilla
Will it run OSX?
Pentium M + FreeBSD + WindowMaker + GNUStep + GCC 4.0 + Beagle = poor man's Mac?
Does anybody has a mirror, the site seems dead, and it hasnt pass it 50th comment. Seems they were running their server in a old cube workstation.
Yo no le temo a las personas: a lo que le temo, es a su maldita ignorancia... I'm not scare of people, what i'm really
Two words: device drivers.
We've seen lots in the last few days about Apple and Intel and some blurring of the lines, but in all this I haven't seen much related to drivers. Think about it for a second. Whether you install Windows on a Mac or OS X on an x86 system, is anything (besides the very basics maybe) going to work?
In order to get OS X as popular on x86 as Windows or Linux it's going to require a LOT of driver writing by both Apple and other vendors. Unless Apple comes up with a way to get Windows-native drivers to work (or Linux I suppose, but Windows has a better full-support native driver base) OS X is going to suffer many of the same problems Linux does with hardware support, specifically products that are not mainstream.
Or am I wrong and is there a quick and easy way to build a native "plug-'n-pray" driver base such as Windows XP has? Love it or hate it, you have to admit that XP really does have great native support for tons of stuff, a feature which is a huge plus for a lot of people. Usually, it really does Just Work (TM)
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
Why can't you just keep using Os X and a PPC version of Linux on the G4? I see no added benefit in running Windows on my mac...
"Words of wisdom: drop that zero and get with the hero" -- Vanilla Ice
he needs to change his nick to milton
But will it run the so far elusive hoax Intel Mac OS X Tiger unprotected developers pack that may or may not die after 2006 in which may or may not be already cracked if it may or may not exist?
it was in the blurb... But the blurb wasn't detailed enough, and now the site is slashed.
...so more people will read and more business partners will allow slashdot to link to their news that might require a registration. I think it has been like this for 2 or 3 years now and probably the reason why many people refuse to RTFA.
End of story.
The quote currently at the bottom of this page says it all:
Some people will call this a downgrade.
-- Cheers!
For example, this would be handy if you want to export that warehouse full of G4 cubes nobody wants to take off of your hands to a country that's on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
x86 upgrade cards are nothing new for Macs. Back when I was still using one (Performa 5200 and later the early grey G3 desktop) there were several cards with Intel chips you could use to dual-boot your Mac into MacOS and Windows. Of course, in the end you paid more than for two separate PCs and performance propably wasn't as good but why not, wif you've got the money?
I don't know if you can still buy such cards for the current Macs or if they disappeared. And I'm not sure if this is a CPU replacement or separate upgrade as described above...
...here
What is the point of the internet?
1. Post an article about turning a Mac into a PC.
2. Watch the Mac zealots go apeshit.
3. Profit from ad revenue!
If I buy I PPC machine is because I'm sick with x86 based ones (or I have a different religion).
If I buy such an upgrade it'd be because I'm sick with PPCs.
Buying that upgrade instead of a full x86 machine means I'm still sticked to the PPC world.
I don't think those upgrades would sell a lot.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
I had two G4 cubes at one time (one for home, one for work). If somebody can make one of these near-obsolete machines be useful for them, who am I to complain? Better that than the landfill or sitting on a shelf.
Write Only Memory: Another pointless blog.
this is a fake, other than the fact that the pentium M is COMPLETElY incompatible with the cubes motherboard, i know someone who knows the person that runs this site and it's fake u-power probably dose not even exist (impossible to find on google) i'll probably hack a P-M motherboard with a yonah in my cube when the x86 version of OS X comes out and hack that into running on it.
cube owners did get their cubes in the first place just to save money :)
Sure, there's no problem with the kit that Apple ships, but what about all the 3rd party peripherals?
Things like external audio interfaces wont "just work"
"....in the form of a Pentium M......." Ok off topic, but when I read that I had a 70s flash back of a cartoon of the "Wonder twins". I would run around ad a kid yelling their signature "Super Wonder Twins....in the form of a (insert counter threat)!"........These days I mostly run around mumbling "....Super Wonder Twins.....in the form of a ...... Budwiser!"
Julius Caesar - Act I, Scene i: "What mean'st thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow!"
And I distinctly remember no less than two years ago, an independent author of a GUI theme was sued by Apple to remove circulation of a certain WindowMaker theme (not KDE, not Gnome, not IceWM) because it completely aroused the end-users perspective to the GUI that it justified not buying a Apple Mac OSX machine. Seriously, if that is all the division between an OS can be, I welcome free software allowing people to move to any architecture they see capable to their needs.
Many people do not realize that Apple is actually a worse corporate proprietor than Microsoft. Considering all these years that Microsoft has been unable to migrate x86 hardware design away from its legacy XT closet, Apple is jumping into the world with a completely new and recent re-implementation with Intel -- perhaps a feat Microsoft couldn't attempt without someone waving monopoly flames. Remember when Microsoft donated USD 160 million to Apple? Was that to keep the smallest competitor out of bankrupty and far from the predatory grips of anti-monopoly laws?
The trend to migrate from the legacy XT PC design has been as recent as when Intel started marketing the beleagured "Plug 'N' Play" API. 3DLabs, no more than three years ago when disclosing its VP graphics chipset to compete with nVidia's GeForce vertex and pixel technology we see today, exclaimed to be migrating away from the VGA BIOS compatibility; none else would be compatible to post in VGA text modes! Of'course, the plan is postponed because freedom can be a stubborn mule... It's all just one big software ploy shadowed by the tempting of advertisers to push new trends and remove competition to a select few supra-corporations with closed intelect -- all to compete with the theory "progress." This is all real! Old, but open standards, are being replaced with proprietary solutions that are clearly not in the interests of the people and companies buying the property.
Yeah, I've looked at computer software the same way as the parent poster had summarized. It's just a struggle between gifted people to press their ideas in codified form onto various competing subdomains of software; criticized by the most calculated, unethical, inconsistent, and undeserving interpretations of data known as the GUI: this + that + this theme + this scheme >= closed_proprietary_solution(TM).
Hello TCPA, you're in the BIOS as an option that can be disabled! When will that option become an unconditional statement or command that serves none but quash the living trust and will? I see Apple and Intel positioning with a hidden Microsoft to perform a corporate sneek.
without prejudice
Actually, I experience is that Windows XP does not have very good plug-and-play support. Too many devices require a driver from the cd instead of having the driver built-in to the OS, as is most often the case with Mac OS X or Linux.
I personally think the cubequarium is a much better use of the little box...
http://home.comcast.net/~jleblanc77/cube/
Anyone who owns a cube-->just stick a Sonnet card into it and feel better knowing that it is something useful!
Go to the w3.org and put Slashdot.org through the validator.
other hardware but what they produce.
That it will get there is a given. Hackers are inventive and resourceful.
But Apple is once bitten and twice shy about the entire cloning thing. Been there, done the slow bleed, thank you.
With weekly software updates, your box 'phones home' to the mothership and can download stuff that can 'investigate' the downlolader's geshtalt and report any non-standard chipset usage.
Apple has realized what Microsoft never knew because of how Microsoft acquired their market, and why.
Microsoft was trying to 'commoditize' PC hardware so it wanted to cast its net wide. Apple is trying to prevent the commoditization. And can keep a database of every owner's configuration. You don't think the CPU ID is actually gone, do you?
You didn't pay, Apple doesn't play with you. (But as to letting OS X 'escape' in unsupported installs, I don't expect there'll be too much trouble about that. Its viral varketing. Apple is a hardware company.)
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Yeh, I know, DEC put an x86 emulator on the BIOS of the Alpha so it could run intel card firmware during boot, so it's almost beleivable...
But it would be a lot easier to replace the whole cube motherboard, not just the ZIF.
... lets see if it gets marked as such :)
/. You want to go home and re-think your life?
/.
Wouldn't your sig make more since if it said:
You don't want to read
Because obviously you're continuing to read and post to
so you can now run more worms out there. OS and CPU are seperate issues personaly i'd like a customisable instruction set and all my code/data morphed just for that, then only programs i convert to my morphed instruction set would run. Realy a new type of OS is needed, one that sits on top of the kernal in the way a BIOS does on a PC and offers basic functionality to the gui OS.
:).
If you have a G4 and given cost of most of these cards I'd say buy a 2nd hand PC for less and use your trusty G4 with a flavour of linux of BSD and setup a firewall to protect you and offer a solid network for your new x86 windows PC. Even if an expliot is found for your firewall the odd's of being explioted are reduced due to your CPU being non X86 and as most expliots are buffer overrun types and x86 machine code injected will mean nothing to your humber non x86 CPU, though NOP (00) may be a universal but harmell bit of byte code
Funny as this reminds me of the Amiga days were you could get a X86 (prolly NEV V.30 at the time) addon card. Was like why when you have a perfectly good looking and working porche would you put a roof-rack and disco lights.
i know someone who knows the person that runs this site
Oh right, like we should believe these "friend of a friend" anecdotes?
if you need raw speed, I have a mini and a centrino notebook, and both being almost equally clocked the centrino P-M runs circles around the g4.
I recently downloaded SWIM3 to enable floppy use on my Beige G3 in 10.2... Does this count as an UPGRADE too? P.S. (I can't find any floppies to test if it werks, so could someone email me one?)
I recently bought a G4 Cube because I wanted a fanless machine for my desktop. It was cheaper than buying a Hush or the like, and simpler than figuring out what case + VIA combination which would make me happy.
I was unhappy to find, however, that a 500 MHz G4 isn't fast enough to play MPEG-4 video (specifically Xvid). I'm running Linux on the Cube anyway (largely because I can't find software which will let me remap my keybard to have control, command, and option keys) so I'd be interested in the Pentium-M replacment if it has no fan.
This is a hoax.. and not even a very good one. They didn't even include photoshopped pictures of the CPU board with the Pentium-M.
Basically, they are claiming to make a CPU board that plugs into the Cube's main board. With a few BIOS tweaks they can run x86 software.
This is, of course, bullshit. It will take much more than plugging a board in, and some BIOS mods, to get a Mac/PowerPC system to be able to use an x86 processor.
It'll be just about the only computer other than a brand-new Mac that'll be able to run Tiger/x86 legally... ; )
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
This strangely violent opposition is why most people are turned off by mac users. "PENTIUM IN MAC IS EVIL!!!11" Get over yourselves. I love OS X just as much, if not more, than the next person -- but I am still more interested in functionality than some religious adherence to any OS. Hardware that works well and the OS that is the best tool for the job / best fit for the hardware is what is important.
Then, I'm sorry, but an upgrade it aint.
This just in: Microsoft releases Windows XP Mac Edition. Requires G4 Cube with Intel Upgrade. $399USD!
The easy part was getting the brain out, but the hard part was getting the brain out.
Please refer to the other posting today about how full-up, name-brand PC's can be had for less than $300.
I'm still holding out for someone to flog a PC built into a toilet tank.
Err, um, didn't I read this articlee last week? I know I have Mac-Beige and OS X Tigerdows on the brain lately, but I swear I read (on here by the way) about some boneheads modding a G4 (or G5 I forget) tower, but dumping the macintrash parts and putting a pentium 4 in it?
...the guts of a washing machine into a refrigerator, do I get my press release on slashdot too?
"Upgrade" a G4 to a Pentoum M? More like a downgrade to me...
That would be awesome
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
I didn't see a single post about the evils of Pentiums. Violent?
Huh?
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
if you back up to the homepage, it has a bunch of what appear to be hoax news stories, and the page itself is entitled "don't believe anything you read on the Internet." enough said.
sucker born every minute. Can build a whole PC for that price.
It's all about looks. Wasn't a recent Slashdot article about IT employees being disliked when they have tattoos (skins/kernel patches) and multiple bodily peircings (kernel holes/virus infection sights/security gaps)? People want software that appeals to their eyes, not the truth of the matter. Most people creating themes for a window manager are not capable of defending themselves in such a intellectual battle. No less, many people produce themes because such a battle occuring will not be targeted at the actual software; a theme can be deleted, rather than a custom-tailored window managing subsystem mimic removed. How did you know I was posting through Windows98+Firefox because this combination is faster than WindowsXP+Firefox on this energy-efficient architecture.
Do you actually think a overly successful corporation could be so desperate and lacking "innovative ideas" that it would sneak a competitor's software into its own without asking "When and who gave us this brilliant thing"? Look at these companies! They have a base of lawyers payed more than their actual software programmers! I could see a way for corporations to gift eachother funds just by "sneaking" copyright code into eachothers products, acting as though it's stolen, and then re-imbursing (read gift for "lost profits." With todays corporate ladder, working under-the-counter in corporate persona is just as easy as giving someone a day in court to settle on a price. Are you expecting to need some money in the future? Hey, let us graft some code on our software branch and you can sue us for it when you need the money. Didn't you ever wonder why such statutory (read fake) "law" needs to be activated as though it is dormant until otherwise? Physics laws, Chemistry laws; they're all around us, interpreted that we can comprehend the nature, and always contributing to the effect of our actions. Corporations however; they can re-adjust gravity. With such large corporations, being self-funding, and all-aware as a thousand-eyed ten-horned monster, would use every bit of assurance to its survival and such beasts in commerce know that deception works just as much in war as it does in the appearance of peace.
Woo woo woo woo woo! Bannana! Give Bannana! Did you look at the beautiful woman in the red dress? Look again! Stupidity is just as much a distraction as lust. Steve Ballmer could accomplish his goals no less in a red dress if not!
without prejudice
If it was real (or even possible), it would't be marketed as a Cube upgrade, it'd be marketed as an upgrade for G4's, not just the Cube. That's because the Cube uses the same CPU module as the first few Powermac G4's, and there are a lot more of those than there are Cubes.
It's interesting to speculate whether such a thing could be done; I suppose if you throw enough money and work at it, but it would probably cost so much to develop that there'd be no hope of breaking even, at least until OSX for Intel is released.
Also, if anyone did develop an Intel module, it'd have to have it's own DDR SODIMM slot, or at least an L3 cache to have its performance not be totally memory-starved; it'd be a pretty expensive upgrade.
It'd be cool if someone made a replacement Cube motherboard based on the Pentium M, and with all of the components and ports in the same locations as the original board so it'd be a drop-in replacement, but I doubt that there are enough Cubes to justify the cost.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
"You're not paranoid if they're really out to get you." -- Paranoid AC
IMO Redundant means something already said, quoting the whole article for karma would be a very valid use of redundant, joining into a choir of "me too" is redundant, if I replied as AC to say "By the way, you are not fooling anybody by anonymously complaining about how lame your previous post was." that might even be redundant.
Usually I reply to my modded down posts to complain as non AC, or I shut up and take it from the deranged mods. It would be nice if they picked a more appropriate mod description though, overrated or something. I wouldn't mind having a "post at score 0" box to hit either, hear me TacoNeil?
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
There is a difference.
A hoax is "a humorous or malicious deception." (Definition by Oxford, emphasis mine.) This was not meant to deceive. The website is an obvious farce. It is in the same jesting manner of operation as The Onion. Yet nobody would call an Onion story a 'hoax', they'd call it a parody.
A parody is "an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect." (Again, definition by Oxford.) That is what danamania.com is. It imitates (and exaggerates) computer news/rumor websites for comic effect.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
Geez, somebody must be in a bad mood today.
the fact that many devices offload work to drivers and the CPU makes it ***HARDER*** to port drivers, compare modem v. winmodem for which is easier to get working under linux assuming the vendor hasn't released info and both need to be figured out. when the hardware does most of the work the driver is small and could be decompiled into at least a semi-readable blob of c, OTOH if the drivewr is large and complex it can take *years* to reverse engineer and by then the hardware is obsolete and the software is no longer needed.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.