YAY! Apple to annouce PPC970 G5's

[dakels]

According to the apple insider Apple will annouce its IBM-based PPC970 G5 systems at WWDC in a few weeks.

FINALLY Apple starts getting back on track with the hardware and ditching crappy motorola to use IBM and AMD technologies. Its about time we mac users can rave about our hardware again and not just a few killer apps like OS X and Itunes. The new rigs are using the IBM PPC 970 that is based on the awesome Power4 multiprocessor architecture. It also boasts a stock 900fsb bus. Dual 64-bit processors, 900fsb, AMD's HyperTransport, Dual channel 400mhz DDR, and the new Panther OS X streamlined for this hardware should make for one freakishly fast mac!

I can't wait to see benchmarks! Time to save the pennies.... lots of pennies

 

[Tsaico]

I agree... It is about time that mac moved on from the older chips... But then again, I have always liked macs... I am eager to see what the nwes ones can do too...

 

[ElFenix]

6.4GBps FSB and 1.8GHz i bet it pwns damn near every other chip on the market

wonder if amd can rent out fab space to them... about the only asset amd has anymore

 

[gramboh]

Looks very nice, I wonder if they will update it often enough so they don't end up way behind Intel/AMD in 18 months again.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: gramboh
Looks very nice, I wonder if they will update it often enough so they don't end up way behind Intel/AMD in 18 months again.

part of the problem was the G4 was motorola's project... IBM was continually updating their PPC products, while motorola is pretty much getting out of the microprocessor business.

 

[IamDavid]

I can't even imagine how much this is gonna cost..

 

[Schadenfroh]

i love macs, its just i cant afford them

 

[dakels]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: gramboh
Looks very nice, I wonder if they will update it often enough so they don't end up way behind Intel/AMD in 18 months again.

part of the problem was the G4 was motorola's project... IBM was continually updating their PPC products, while motorola is pretty much getting out of the microprocessor business.

I totally agree with ElFenix. Motorola really hindered Apple's progress. Apple's new ventures with IBM and possibly AMD, should prove really interesting and a likely boon to the mac community. They seemed to have merged the best of both worlds on this one. The great step forward in processor technology with IBM's 64 bit PPC 970 and AMD's attractive HyperTransport which will be a main feature to their Opterons and 64 bit systems.

 

[brunswickite]

Originally posted by: IamDavid
I can't even imagine how much this is gonna cost..

prolly your first born son.

 

[dakels]

Originally posted by: IamDavid
I can't even imagine how much this is gonna cost..

APple hasn't changed it's pricing structure in a long time for their towers. I'm sure the new systems will be in line with the old ones.
$1600 base models
$2500 medium range
$3500 top end (1.8ghz DP probably)

You all interested in apple should note they used to give great education discounts and Developer discounts. To be a developer is quite easy. About $100 and some verification that you are at least a part time student at a school or college. My friend is taking adult classes at a local county college and he qualifies for developer status. The amount of savings he gets on apple products and software and 3rd party software is unbelievable. Software is like 50-75% off retail, sometimes even free. Hardware is usually 20-30% off. Don't know what the status of education discounts is anymore.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: dakels

Originally posted by: IamDavid
I can't even imagine how much this is gonna cost..

APple hasn't changed it's pricing structure in a long time for their towers. I'm sure the new systems will be in line with the old ones.

So in other words, twice the price of a PC?

I'd love to own a Mac. Really. I would. They're pretty bulletproof if properly cared for, and iTunes4 = teh pwnx0r. I just can't afford to quadruple my budget.

- M4H

 

[Eug]

According to the apple insider Apple will annouce its IBM-based PPC970 G5 systems at WWDC in a few weeks.

This is a "report" from a rumour site, and not a very reliable one either.

While I agree that likely the PPC 970 will be released in 2003, I don't believe it will be at WWDC.

See my reasons why in this thread.

6.4GBps FSB and 1.8GHz i bet it pwns damn near every other chip on the market

Actually no. While it will be competitive with the P4s, it won't "own" it. My guess is that the 1.8 GHz PPC 970 will be comparable to something like a 2.5-2.8 GHz P4, at least if SPEC is to be believed.

OTOH, the PPC 970 is SMP-able. The P4 is not. A dual processor PPC 970 is gonna be awesome.

part of the problem was the G4 was motorola's project... IBM was continually updating their PPC products, while motorola is pretty much getting out of the microprocessor business.

Motorola has a huge microprocessor business. However, they don't consider themselves a chip maker for desktops. Their market is embedded systems. Hence the G4 is is tailored to that. Indeed, for that purpose it's great, because it uses so little power and dissipates so little heat. AMD/Intel couldn't even compare until recently, when Centrino came out. IBM's chips will use significantly more power than the Motorola G4, but fortunately, it's still a lot less than the P4 line.

 

[dakels]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: dakels

Originally posted by: IamDavid
I can't even imagine how much this is gonna cost..

APple hasn't changed it's pricing structure in a long time for their towers. I'm sure the new systems will be in line with the old ones.

So in other words, twice the price of a PC?

I'd love to own a Mac. Really. I would. They're pretty bulletproof if properly cared for, and iTunes4 = teh pwnx0r. I just can't afford to quadruple my budget.

- M4H

I know it's really depressing. But I will bash Apple in that they havent put out a premium hardware product that spanked the competition for a long time, till now. The G4's got outpaced fast. If you're going to pay premium prices (premium prebuilt like alienware is just as much), then at least make a product people can rave about (re: hardware). When I pay $3500 for a computer, my benchmarks better SPANK the competition! not some marketing crap about how the G4 outpaces the P4 in like 1 test out of 1000. I WANT DOMINANCE over what I can build for $1000.

finally, looks like we'll get it.

 

[dakels]

Eug, thanks for the great thread

btw you sure know alot about this. One wonders if you are a developer. My friend is a developer going to the WWDC and he is under the impresion of the above stated in thne rumourville. I'll forwad him your thread and see what he thinks.

and of course you are correct, none of this has been validated by apple yet so who knows, they may announce a new soda dispenser, but alot of people seem to think the PPC 970 is shortly on it's way with Panther. It would make sense to reveal it at WWDC to help all the developers get on board for a late year launch wouldn't it?

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Eug

6.4GBps FSB and 1.8GHz i bet it pwns damn near every other chip on the market

Actually no. While it will be competitive with the P4s, it won't "own" it. My guess is that the 1.8 GHz PPC 970 will be comparable to something like a 2.5-2.8 GHz P4, at least if SPEC is to be believed.

OTOH, the PPC 970 is SMP-able. The P4 is not. A dual processor PPC 970 is gonna be awesome.

well, by pwn i mean the classic counterstrike definition which is to get in 1 last lucky shot, killing your opponent, before they kill you. and i did say "near every chip" not all. the 3.0 HT will most likely beat it.

part of the problem was the G4 was motorola's project... IBM was continually updating their PPC products, while motorola is pretty much getting out of the microprocessor business.

Motorola has a huge microprocessor business. However, they don't consider themselves a chip maker for desktops. Their market is embedded systems. Hence the G4 is is tailored to that. Indeed, for that purpose it's great, because it uses so little power and dissipates so little heat. AMD/Intel couldn't even compare until recently, when Centrino came out. IBM's chips will use significantly more power than the Motorola G4, but fortunately, it's still a lot less than the P4 line.

yeah i should have put desktop microprocessor, as the G4 is little more than a glorified embedded processsor, anyway.

 

[dakels]

"the 3.0 HT will most likely beat it."

don't count your chicken ElFenix
Dual 1.8ghz on this core with an optimized OS X panther could show some remarkable numbers. We'll see. I'm sure single processor type functions will still be faster on something as high as 3.0ghz but multitasked/multithreaded functions could shows some maj0r pwnage OS X already handles some nice multitasking on my single procesor G4. Can't wait for true 64 bit DP!

even if we take a minute and not compare it to PC's, I'm sure this new architecture smokes current G4's. The motherboard upgrades alone will be a major leap.

 

[Remedy]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
i love macs, its just i can afford them

If you could afford it, why have the sad face as a limitation?

 

[Tab]

I'd rather build my own system than touch any propreiteray crap!

 

[Remedy]

Originally posted by: Tabb
I'd rather build my own system than touch any propreiteray crap!

GG

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

YAY! Apple to annouce PPC970 G5's

Woohoo...Hopefully now it will take less than 5 minutes to open a simple PDF file.

 

[Eug]

One wonders if you are a developer.

Nope. Just an interested user. (I have a TiBook 1 GHz.)

and of course you are correct, none of this has been validated by apple yet so who knows, they may announce a new soda dispenser, but alot of people seem to think the PPC 970 is shortly on it's way with Panther. It would make sense to reveal it at WWDC to help all the developers get on board for a late year launch wouldn't it?

There have been exceptions, but WWDC is usually not a place where Apple releases new hardware.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: GonzoDaGr8

YAY! Apple to annouce PPC970 G5's

Woohoo...Hopefully now it will take less than 5 minutes to open a simple PDF file.

While the CPU isn't helping the situation, a lot of that has to do with Adobe's crap coding. Even on my Dual 800, Acrobat Reader 6.0 takes a year and a half to open, and then eats 50MB of RAM. It works, but it feels like Adobe isn't going for any sort of optimization here.

 

[dakels]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

Originally posted by: GonzoDaGr8

YAY! Apple to annouce PPC970 G5's

Woohoo...Hopefully now it will take less than 5 minutes to open a simple PDF file.

While the CPU isn't helping the situation, a lot of that has to do with Adobe's crap coding. Even on my Dual 800, Acrobat Reader 6.0 takes a year and a half to open, and then eats 50MB of RAM. It works, but it feels like Adobe isn't going for any sort of optimization here.

Hell acrobat runs like crap on my P4 2.66 too so it's not a mac thing. Granted PDF's still are invaulable especially for the design/print world, but acrobat sure is slower then hell. Acrobat reader within explorer also SUCKS MAJORLY. If ever I make the mistake of letting acrobat load within explorer, I almost always crash out of IE. Not that IE is not great mark of stability tho.

Eug:
There have been exceptions, but WWDC is usually not a place where Apple releases new hardware.

Yea but Apple backed out of doing macworld so this would be a very feasible venue to make that annoucement, especially when it has such major impact on the software, and I dont mean speedwise, I mean the new foundation for the 64 bit architecture. It would make sense for apple to annouce the 64 bit architecture in a developers convention like WWDC.

 

[zephyrprime]

Try acrobat 6. It's a lot faster (although it starts slower).

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: dakels

Eug:
There have been exceptions, but WWDC is usually not a place where Apple releases new hardware.

Yea but Apple backed out of doing macworld so this would be a very feasible venue to make that annoucement, especially when it has such major impact on the software, and I dont mean speedwise, I mean the new foundation for the 64 bit architecture. It would make sense for apple to annouce the 64 bit architecture in a developers convention like WWDC.

Apple is scheduled for a presentation on July 16 at MWNY actually.