True, the actual components are often the same now, part of that is so that Apple can keep the costs down, but looking at the individual components misses the point. It's the integration of the components, both with each other, and the OS. The design of the motherboard, and associated components make it worth more than the sum of it's parts. In terms of the software/OS, it's the lack of things such as IRQs which show the integration and good design.
Plus the design of the hardware itself - I have a G4 Mac and it's worth it just for the case, which is superbly designed and put together.
The current G4 Macs are only the start, they are currently running using the old bus (60x), and not using the full power of the G4 chip (MaxBus). 50% speed increases, at the same clock speed, by summer are possible, plus of course the increase in clock speed to 600Mhz and beyond.
What will happen when the IA-64 comes out? Well by then the rumoured multi-core G4 (aka G5, or G2k) will have appeared, and so on. The G4 is by no means the end of the road for Apple.
Slashdot Mirror
The article says:
"The plan is to place 30 of these devices five kilometres out to sea"
"Each Pelamis has three power conversion modules that together generate 750kW"
So that would give 22.5MW.
True, the actual components are often the same now, part of that is so that Apple can keep the costs down, but looking at the individual components misses the point. It's the integration of the components, both with each other, and the OS. The design of the motherboard, and associated components make it worth more than the sum of it's parts. In terms of the software/OS, it's the lack of things such as IRQs which show the integration and good design.
Plus the design of the hardware itself - I have a G4 Mac and it's worth it just for the case, which is superbly designed and put together.
The current G4 Macs are only the start, they are currently running using the old bus (60x), and not using the full power of the G4 chip (MaxBus). 50% speed increases, at the same clock speed, by summer are possible, plus of course the increase in clock speed to 600Mhz and beyond.
What will happen when the IA-64 comes out? Well by then the rumoured multi-core G4 (aka G5, or G2k) will have appeared, and so on. The G4 is by no means the end of the road for Apple.