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Upgrade Your G4 Cube to a Pentium M Processor

Posted by timothy on from the if-you-so-desire dept.

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."

11 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. why bother? by Loconut1389 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:why bother? by gl4ss · · Score: 5, Insightful

      not upgrading? it's a speed upgrade. whatever you think g4's in cubes are not faster than pentium-m's available now, as such, if you intend to run linux or even winxp it is an upgrade.

      and the case of g4 cube is cool - which is why you would do this upgrade(when you've deemed that it's too slow to act as your desktop anyways and would like a linux/windows box with some beef)..

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  2. What a waste of $$$ by ankhcraft · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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  3. Upgrade.... by MosesJones · · Score: 5, Insightful


    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.

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    1. Re:Upgrade.... by mcc · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So basically it's not an upgrade, it's a casemod in reverse.

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  4. So ****ing what? by onlyjoking · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  5. I, for one, call bullshit on that one... by fifirebel · · Score: 5, Insightful
    An unknown korean company does a board plus an OF to BIOS translation layer for the huuuge untapped market of PC users who admire the G4 Cube's design but don't want to run PowerPC software.

    And that's old news, look at the post date: Monday, February 28 2005 @ 10:27 AM EST.

    Bullshit...

  6. But does it run OS X? by alan_dershowitz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just asking.

  7. Uhhh... by mdxi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...the G4 Cube is already capable of running Linux.

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    Posted with Mozilla
  8. What I don't understand is... by nmb3000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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)

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    1. Re:What I don't understand is... by Com2Kid · · Score: 4, Insightful
      • 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)


      This actually is not TOO huge of a problem.

      Since Apple switched over to PCI and AGP ports quite some time ago, there already exists a large hardware base designed around those two industry standards.

      Next, since the actual OSX kernel compiles against both the PowerPC and x86 platforms, any kernel calls in the drivers will not have to be rewritten.

      Indeed depending on how Apple handles their BIOS calls, very little may need to be rewritten at all. Many hardware devices now days are CPU assisted, (sound cards, network cards, modems, and so on) which may help Apple a great deal as the heart of these types of devices drivers essentially boils down to Kernel calls and a basic software app, both of which should port over easily.

      Basically anything that already has an OSX driver on the PowerPC platform should, with not too much work, and often times maybe with no work at all, have an equivilent driver on an OSX release on x86.

      A dream goal for Apple of course would be drivers needing no porting at all, since it is very unlikely that venders will put even the slightest effort in porting over drivers for older hardware. Heck even in the world of Windows, hardware support often times falls to the wayside after only 3 or 4 years! (In other words a lot of hardware that was released for 98, ME, and Windows 2000 ended up without Windows XP support! Ouch!)
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