anyone else notice how the press release uses the trademark symbol and words like 'new technology' so repeatedly? sounds like some wacky real-world business/advertising folks got their hands on the Stanford alum's newest creation... let's hope it can stay virginal and pure...
OS 8.X get into some VERY funky issues with G4 boards
OS 9 is fine (that's what the G4's ship with, AFAIK)...
with the new ROM, you can boot into a G4 with OS 9.X, but not with OS 8.X
simple, not malicious, and from apple's point of view, no one should be playing with either OS 9 or G4 upgrades, as they are not out! (and all the manufacturers are on NDA)...
good read, but it's a little bit on the side of repeating what the 'buzz' in the real world has been for a while - the iMac and Steve got on the cover of time, now with the iBook and the G4 full spreads in other glossies are appearing - that's not the kind of stuff you see when a new pentium is introduced... why? because, IMHO, apple has always build COMPUTERS, not COMPUTER PATRS - they could design the ibook from the beginning to have a low-power chip, a built-in handle, and an antenna - why? because they designed the whole thing and had to rely on no one else for critical components (they still relied on the engineers and manufacturers, obviously)... the mainstream consumer wintel world is stuck with, well. windows, and intel... kinda limiting, huh? (go powerpc, go linux...)
anyway, how do we REALLY see the resurgence? the sales! people LOVE the iMac, and perhaps more importantly, EVERYONE recognizes it, and EVERYONE knows who built it... i have one on my desk in the office here at Rutgers, in a residence hall, and it never ceases to get compliments
so, why the sudden spurt of belief in apple now that the G4 is out? probably because it signals all the technological merit that the PowerPC really represents... When Tom's Hardware is comparing 10% different rendering times between an Athlon and Dual Celeron, here comes a piece of APPLE hardware that whups them both - exotic, fresh, and it has a cool case - who wouldnt want one on their desk?
and one issue not mentioned: soon, the G4 will run a full BSD unix - so even Unix heads and/. fans will be able to run the coolest hardware with the coolest OS (be it WHATEVER flavor of unix or linux you want, that's not what this post is about)
also, one issue: individual creativity? it took more than a few people to design the 7400 (G4 chip), and a LARGE crew to do the system - you can't hack together a complex beast like that in the same way Steve and Steve did the Apple 1... and AFAIK, Apple has a board, with plenty of hot-shots from much less flexible computer firms sitting on it... so what is apple's resurgence due to, in my opinion? they got back to their original goals: produce powerful, affordable, easy to use computers that REDEFINE how we can use them... With their last few products, they have done excellently, and the world has taken notice... may they continue to do so for a long time, as JonKatz says, i want the cool toys:>
any idea what bulk manufacturing costs of this stuff are? if it needs to be so pure, will these batteries end up being megabucks? what about comparisons to lithium ion... i wonder... either way, sounds cool, all of our gadgetry could use more juice...
Look closely - they are possibly using DNA to bind the chemicals in the right places... another great use for what nature has given us... and great potential for a few things, like fingerprinting each chip, allwing for built in neural circuits, and easy integration into one of us...
It's been 3 hours since this article has been posted, and already you have 9 replies going! a little much perhaps? i like your comments, in fact, i often single them out to read what you have to say, but this is overkill... the bruce to everyone else ratio is a little high... just relax... thanks...
my boss here at rutgers wrote his own stuff to count our ip's on the network, it goes by MAC addresses... we use MRTG and SNMP to do quite a bit... read to get more info at http://dorm.rutgers.edu/ipcount.shtml
if they cannot be at least as fast as intel, at the same price, I cannot see big numbers of people moving in there direction...
Why?
First, there is the cost of proprietary hardware, which people are willing to swallow if there is a DISTINCT and LARGE advantage... What is the advantage here? Low power (you can buy a cheap Powerbook, they run in the less than 10 watts range), and emulating a few instruction sets. Now, that is not an easy thing to do from our point of view, but for Joe Public: who cares?
It is fairly clear that x86 is going to dominate for at least several more years (in the celeron and K7 forms, etc), and so that is what people and business will continue to buy for their desktops. Of course, there will be the imacs, the SGI boxes (no longer MIPS anyway), and all the niche chips...
So they can buy a proprietary, more expensive (or just as expensive), and slower chip from transmeta, or go with Intel brand stuff... Now as (non)reliable as intel or AMD might be, it's what people have now, and it works... i cannot think of a reason to go slower, and more expensive when you will be running the same software?
now, as for the emulation, its a good idea, and most of the folks buying high-end equipment don't care much about price, but the one thing they do care about must be there: performance. where is the market for people who want to run 2 or 3 archetectures SLOWER than what is on the market? it isnt there!
However, if this chip can run its own instuction set, with some OS, faster than what is currently out there, people will buy it because its faster. Simply that.
that OS? if the master himelf does the porting, and this really flies by intel/sparc/PA-RISC, then it has a chance, a big chance, but IMHO, more niche than anything else...
think about this for a second - how many of your senators and reps know what a T1 is? how many understand the concepts of bandwidth and what it would take to get everyone connected, to reach TV levels of saturation?
They might all have the money to buy a new fancy machine, but do you seriously think strom thurmond goes home at night and says "man, downloading over a 56K sucks... we should all have T1's"
Although Newt and I disagree on a lot, i will say that it is refreshing to see him have an opinion on this technology, rather than just show ignorance, which in the political world, all too often leads to denial...
CT, they have ya fooled - these are NOT linux buddies... have you ever considered removing a post of your own? there are some sites that do not deserve the popularity of the/. effect...
Slashdot Mirror
anyone else notice how the press release uses the trademark symbol and words like 'new technology' so repeatedly? sounds like some wacky real-world business/advertising folks got their hands on the Stanford alum's newest creation... let's hope it can stay virginal and pure...
this is what i heard from a friend who tried:
OS 8.X get into some VERY funky issues with G4 boards
OS 9 is fine (that's what the G4's ship with, AFAIK)...
with the new ROM, you can boot into a G4 with OS 9.X, but not with OS 8.X
simple, not malicious, and from apple's point of view, no one should be playing with either OS 9 or G4 upgrades, as they are not out! (and all the manufacturers are on NDA)...
good read, but it's a little bit on the side of repeating what the 'buzz' in the real world has been for a while - the iMac and Steve got on the cover of time, now with the iBook and the G4 full spreads in other glossies are appearing - that's not the kind of stuff you see when a new pentium is introduced... why? because, IMHO, apple has always build COMPUTERS, not COMPUTER PATRS - they could design the ibook from the beginning to have a low-power chip, a built-in handle, and an antenna - why? because they designed the whole thing and had to rely on no one else for critical components (they still relied on the engineers and manufacturers, obviously)... the mainstream consumer wintel world is stuck with, well. windows, and intel... kinda limiting, huh? (go powerpc, go linux...)
/. fans will be able to run the coolest hardware with the coolest OS (be it WHATEVER flavor of unix or linux you want, that's not what this post is about)
:>
anyway, how do we REALLY see the resurgence? the sales! people LOVE the iMac, and perhaps more importantly, EVERYONE recognizes it, and EVERYONE knows who built it... i have one on my desk in the office here at Rutgers, in a residence hall, and it never ceases to get compliments
so, why the sudden spurt of belief in apple now that the G4 is out? probably because it signals all the technological merit that the PowerPC really represents... When Tom's Hardware is comparing 10% different rendering times between an Athlon and Dual Celeron, here comes a piece of APPLE hardware that whups them both - exotic, fresh, and it has a cool case - who wouldnt want one on their desk?
and one issue not mentioned: soon, the G4 will run a full BSD unix - so even Unix heads and
also, one issue: individual creativity? it took more than a few people to design the 7400 (G4 chip), and a LARGE crew to do the system - you can't hack together a complex beast like that in the same way Steve and Steve did the Apple 1... and AFAIK, Apple has a board, with plenty of hot-shots from much less flexible computer firms sitting on it... so what is apple's resurgence due to, in my opinion? they got back to their original goals: produce powerful, affordable, easy to use computers that REDEFINE how we can use them... With their last few products, they have done excellently, and the world has taken notice... may they continue to do so for a long time, as JonKatz says, i want the cool toys
any idea what bulk manufacturing costs of this stuff are? if it needs to be so pure, will these batteries end up being megabucks? what about comparisons to lithium ion... i wonder... either way, sounds cool, all of our gadgetry could use more juice...
Look closely - they are possibly using DNA to bind the chemicals in the right places... another great use for what nature has given us... and great potential for a few things, like fingerprinting each chip, allwing for built in neural circuits, and easy integration into one of us...
wow, i say...
It's been 3 hours since this article has been posted, and already you have 9 replies going! a little much perhaps? i like your comments, in fact, i often single them out to read what you have to say, but this is overkill... the bruce to everyone else ratio is a little high... just relax... thanks...
my boss here at rutgers wrote his own stuff to count our ip's on the network, it goes by MAC addresses... we use MRTG and SNMP to do quite a bit... read to get more info at http://dorm.rutgers.edu/ipcount.shtml
Anyone else notice that they are running WebObjects, on Apache, on Solaris?
I like these guys...
if they cannot be at least as fast as intel, at the same price, I cannot see big numbers of people moving in there direction...
Why?
First, there is the cost of proprietary hardware, which people are willing to swallow if there is a DISTINCT and LARGE advantage... What is the advantage here? Low power (you can buy a cheap Powerbook, they run in the less than 10 watts range), and emulating a few instruction sets. Now, that is not an easy thing to do from our point of view, but for Joe Public: who cares?
It is fairly clear that x86 is going to dominate for at least several more years (in the celeron and K7 forms, etc), and so that is what people and business will continue to buy for their desktops. Of course, there will be the imacs, the SGI boxes (no longer MIPS anyway), and all the niche chips...
So they can buy a proprietary, more expensive (or just as expensive), and slower chip from transmeta, or go with Intel brand stuff... Now as (non)reliable as intel or AMD might be, it's what people have now, and it works... i cannot think of a reason to go slower, and more expensive when you will be running the same software?
now, as for the emulation, its a good idea, and most of the folks buying high-end equipment don't care much about price, but the one thing they do care about must be there: performance.
where is the market for people who want to run 2 or 3 archetectures SLOWER than what is on the market? it isnt there!
However, if this chip can run its own instuction set, with some OS, faster than what is currently out there, people will buy it because its faster. Simply that.
that OS? if the master himelf does the porting, and this really flies by intel/sparc/PA-RISC, then it has a chance, a big chance, but IMHO, more niche than anything else...
so ends the rant...
noy [another random lurker]
think about this for a second - how many of your senators and reps know what a T1 is? how many understand the concepts of bandwidth and what it would take to get everyone connected, to reach TV levels of saturation?
They might all have the money to buy a new fancy machine, but do you seriously think strom thurmond goes home at night and says "man, downloading over a 56K sucks... we should all have T1's"
Although Newt and I disagree on a lot, i will say that it is refreshing to see him have an opinion on this technology, rather than just show ignorance, which in the political world, all too often leads to denial...
dont miss em, they kick ass
CT, they have ya fooled - these are NOT linux buddies... have you ever considered removing a post of your own? there are some sites that do not deserve the popularity of the /. effect...
s t=www.dafirm.com
http://www.netcraft.com/cgi-bin/Survey/whats?ho
and crappy page, too, it kills netscape on my system...
good job, dOOd!
http://www.research.digital.com/wrl/itsy/talk-iswc 98/sld012.htm