Ghz Power Macs Next Week?

[arn]

Rob Picton writes in with the following link from MacUser (http://www.macuser.co.uk/guest/php3/openframe.php3?page=newnews/newsarticle.php3?id=1695):

Owing to the last-minute date change, Apple is still sitting on the
new models, and sources indicate an announcement will now not
come until next week at the earliest.Apple has delayed the release
of new Power Macs, for reasons best known to itself.

[brondee73]

The new PowerMac is due January 22 ...
no I mean next week ... um well maybe ...
I guess for all of you out there who are waiting in anticipation of the new PowerMacs ... you'll see them when they ship them and the rumor sites will continue to bait us with purported facts. Take it all with a grain of salt.

[MaxRool]

This article is probably the most sensible that I have read on the subject
Thanx arn. :)

[Unregistered]

ahaha well hey if you keep saying this to yourself each week eventually you'll be right...

[unclepain]

I mean really.... After all this time of screaming MHZ DOESN'T MATTER, now everyone is getting their panties in a wad over a possible increase of 133 MHZ? Come on. Things to really be excited over would be DDR RAM, Gigawire, USB2, Hypertransport, Faster system Bus, Superdrive standard in all PowerMacs, a true G5.... I don't expect even half of these things to come out next weeks or for months for that matter. I'm saving my pennies though, cause I do expect most of these things by MWNY. I'll save my anticipation until then.

[OSeXy!]

But also just sounds like MacUser 'covering its ***'. I can't see Apple sitting on new equipment while 2.2GHz P4s are getting all the headlines. If the kit isn't ready, it isn't ready...

[MikeH]

In fairness to MacUser, they did say "most likely" - it was everyone else, including myself, that took it as fact.

Anyway, it's not as if there is going to be much of a change - if there were Apple would wait until a major show to release them with maximum impact.

It'll be nothing more than a 15% speed bump and bit more RAM I reckon.

[Abulafia]

I wonder whether Apple had done this on purpose to find the leaks on the information front??!

Carsten

[badtzmat]

architosh.com has a good understanding... mmm better understanding of apple and its releasing of product. they are saying g5s at mw tokyo. check out their site. infact they almost spot on in their prediction of releases at mwsf. i am going to look to them for info.

[gelbin]

just to clarify: i don't think anyone - apple or amd or whomever (for sure not me) - is saying that mhz do not matter - they are saying that when comparing two different chips, mhz can not be used to make a direct comparison. some chips are more efficient at certain tasks and/or have different pipeline sizes etc - so comparing a 180 mhz 603 to a 180 mhz 604 is not comparing apples to apples. AND, both apple and amd want to make this claim to open the door to the fact that their chip, cycle per cycle (a la mhz per mhz) is a faster chip (than the P4), thus even though it lags in cycles, it gets a whole lot more done in each of those cycles --> meaning it gets more done period.

[buffsldr]

Poor Rob Picton. i guess he drew the short straw.

I stand corrected. I mistook Rob Picton for the author of the macuser uk article. I should have wrote:

Poor Simon Aughton & Mike Hirschkorn i guess they drew the short straw(s).

My apologies, Robl.

[Unregistered]

this is all a crock.... the new iMacs are not due until next week so the idea of new PowerMacs being introduceed with no mention of them at macworld is odd don't you think? the only explaniation is that the case is going to stay quicksilver and the only changes are to the G4 speeds.

[grrr223]

Why would anyone using a Mac get excited over USB 2.0? Isn't that designed by Intel? I'm just curious because Firewire will kick USB's ass any day, despite the speed claims of USB 2.0. There are a lot more factors than just the speed, I read an article on it somewhere. For example, USB splits it's bandwith among devices, so your keyboard and mouse are each receiving the same amount of bandwith as say your printer or digital camera when they need about a 10th of it. USB was not designed for high speed data transfer like Firewire and now Gigawire were.

I have not bought into any of these release date rumors, but i do agree with someone else who said that Apple is going to have to make some big changes to its pro line now that they put an 800 mhz g4 in the iMac, I think we'll be seeing chips faster than 1 Ghz, and soon.

[Unregistered]

The new G4's are on the way, and in a newly designed case. Remember that the Powermac G4 is built in Sacramento, not Taiwan. Nothing has changed on the production floor in Sac as of today, although management at the facility says there is a new design on the way this week. Of course, they're not going to start building the new model until it is revealed to the public just to keep the factory workers from stealing Jobs' thunder by sneaking a pic on the 'net.

As far as the new iMac goes, Apple already has a backlog of over 50,000 units. Orders for 50,000 units in just a few weeks since Macworld Expo is not too shabby. If they keep this up, they'll sell close to a million this year alone if demand stays high. Of course, that figure might go up once the market catches on. I've already ordered one, although I may have to reconsider if the new Powermac G4 is as awesome as I have been told.

[GPTurismo]

USB 1.0 is designed by intel also.

[unclepain]

The reason to get excited over USB2 is because it's something NEW. (Not that I'm THAT excited over USB2. In fact, I would put that at the bottom of the list of new technologies) What have we gotten in the powermacs recently that was new? The superdrive and different flavors of video cards. That's it. Everything else has just been evolutions of the same old stuff. If all we see is a bump to 1GHZ, little more HD size and more Ram then what's the big deal? The GHZ barrier is nothing more that marketing fluff at this point.

[eyelikeart]

maybe this article will can explain it better than I would...

http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0004/26.usb.shtml

[evanmarx]

Originally posted by Unregistered
If they keep this up, they'll sell close to a million this year alone if demand stays high. Of course, that figure might go up once the market catches on. I've already ordered one, although I may have to reconsider if the new Powermac G4 is as awesome as I have been told.

that's exactly why apple is NOT presenting any new imac-competing new powermac 41/2before the imac is shipping and delivering its orders ... doh

people would jump off the wagon and cancel the imac ... that's why i presume that the powermacs must be faster than expected ... because a small change to 933/1000 wouldn't make most people change their minds over an imac-order

[mischief]

Thanx for the data.

I have an Apple in-house rumor that Motorola may suspend it's chip fabrication and outsource production of it's chip designs due to lack of proffitability. It may mean that IBM may take over under liscence from Moto as Apple's chip vendor. This would make for an easier time for Apple, not having to wait on Moto all the time.

[Scab Cake]

If you pop over to www.railheaddesign.com, Maury says that he called MicroCenter in California and they said that they are receiving new Power Macs on Thursday. So, who knows?

[pimentoLoaf]

I was figuring they (Apple) had a "ramping up" problem: not enough product in sufficient quantities for all the stores.

After all, the new iMac isn't available yet. :mad:

[edenwaith]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
maybe this article will can explain it better than I would...

http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0004/26.usb.shtml

I thought it was kind of interesting that this article was written about a year and a half ago. If USB 2 comes out on the Macs later this year, that would be good, but I've also read about an improved Firewire that will stomp all over USB 2.

Does anyone know how fast the current FW port on current Macs are right now?

[Ifeelbloated]

Yeah, maybe it's just as simple as a supply problem. Not enough units yet to meet expected demand.

[stagemic]

Originally posted by edenwaith


I thought it was kind of interesting that this article was written about a year and a half ago. If USB 2 comes out on the Macs later this year, that would be good, but I've also read about an improved Firewire that will stomp all over USB 2.

Does anyone know how fast the current FW port on current Macs are right now?

Currently Firewire is at 400 Mbps...

[obeygiant]

Hey, Macuser just announced that the new power mac will be out....



...sometime in the future.


Well, when...exactly....


In the future, when apple releases them.



oh.

[grouse]

...a new PowerMac tower....

Wait. Calm yourselves. There is enough evidence now from all over, not like the MWSF pre-hype, to make it an odds-on certainty that speed-bumped powermacs are coming. If you are looking to buy in the next month or so, then you can wait a month! If you are looking to buy "this year" then wait for the G5's, more like 3-4 months, Apple doesn't even know yet, they have their targets, but they don't know for certain whether all the testing will have been done.

The short supply of iMacs is a good case in point. They HAD to release these machines as soon as they had SOME ready. Their current iMac sales were plummeting. And it was too big a thing to wait for Quicktime or even Tokyo, so if they missed SF it would have had to wait until NY.

If you need a machine now, try and buy a dual 800, they're great machines, if you can wait, as I say, upto a month, do that. And come back to Apple's site in a month and see what they've got. I really can't believe so many people are on tentahooks waiting for a new chip!

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by unclepain
I mean really.... After all this time of screaming MHZ DOESN'T MATTER, now everyone is getting their panties in a wad over a possible increase of 133 MHZ? Come on. Things to really be excited over would be DDR RAM, Gigawire, USB2, Hypertransport, Faster system Bus, Superdrive standard in all PowerMacs, a true G5.... I don't expect even half of these things to come out next weeks or for months for that matter. I'm saving my pennies though, cause I do expect most of these things by MWNY. I'll save my anticipation until then.

Ok the 133Mhz increase to 1Ghz (when it happens) will be a marketing thing. Just look at the G4, went up 50Mhz from the G3 (300 G3 to 350 G4). The iMac is 100Mhz faster too. The important thing is going to be DDR (maybe QDR is Apple pretends to be Intel). Now for the ranting....
WHY the heck does anyone think Apple would EVER put USB2 in their computers!? HELLO!!! Firewire competes against USB2, ADB was Apples answer for parallel (sorta, maybe more PS/2), when they saw the USB specs they saw it as a chance to get new perifs for mac users. Now I know a LOT of ppl complain about the lack of serial STILL, you think adding USB2 (not compatable with USB1) will help? No freakin' way. Apple uses USB because it's cheeper and faster than trying to use SCSI, ADB, and Serial, plus it's more modern. Apple is pushing Firewire because it's their answer to SCSI (except for HDDs which they support SCSI160). When Apple releases the consumer version of Firewire (800 or 1,000 Mbps) guaranteed it'll work with FW1 stuff. In conclusion Apple just wanted easy access to scanners, printers, and mice, and WTF is "Hypertransport"?

-THE END-

[MasterX (OSiX)]

Originally posted by Unregistered

Now I know a LOT of ppl complain about the lack of serial STILL, you think adding USB2 (not compatable with USB1) will help?

USB2 is backwards compatible, USB1 isn't FORWARDS compatible. You can plus USB1 stuff in a USB2 hub, but not USB2 stuff in a USB1 hub. Get it right you freakin' moron.

[zaustin]

Originally posted by Unregistered


WHY the heck does anyone think Apple would EVER put USB2 in their computers!? HELLO!!! Firewire competes against USB2, ADB was Apples answer for parallel (sorta, maybe more PS/2), when they saw the USB specs they saw it as a chance to get new perifs for mac users.
-THE END-

Firewire and USB2 are not direct competitors. In fact, there is no real competition for firewire. When you want guaranteed high-speed bandwidth with easy configuration and plug 'n' play compatibility, you choose firewire. The only thing that firewire is competing against is widespread acceptance. Firewire and USB2 can coexist just like firewire and USB1 do now.

[MasterX (OSiX)]

Well we all know USB2 is crap, it's just a matter of Intel putting out a product in the same category. That being high speed device connection, but with Firewire's duplication as iLink and such, nearly all devices worth buying now come with Firewire as their connector of choice. Most devices not worth firewire (slower printers, scanners, ect) use USB1 so apple is right where they want to be, all computers ship with nearly all the connectors they need (less converters for serial, parallel, SCSI, ect)

[Unregistered]

From the Hypertransport FAQ (http://www.hypertransport.org/documentation):

HyperTransport™ technology is a new high speed, high performance point-to-point link for interconnecting integrated circuits on a motherboard. It can be significantly faster than a PCI bus for an equivalent number of pins. HyperTransport was previously codenamed Lightning Data Transport, or LDT. HyperTransport was invented by AMD and perfected with the help of several partners throughout the industry. The technology targets networking, telecommunications, computers and embedded systems and any application where high speed, low latency and scalability are necessary.

Traditional PCI transfers data at 133 MB/sec, PCI-X at 1 GB/sec, InfiniBand (IB) at about 4GB/sec in the 12 channels implementation and 1.25GB/sec in the more popular 4 channels. HyperTransport is designed to transfer data at 12.8 GB/sec. It is designed to be about 50 times faster than PCI 64/66 MHz, 12 times faster than PCI-X and 10 times faster than a 4-channel Infiniband solution. It is important to remember that the HyperTransport I/O Link is a complementary technology for Infiniband and 1Gb/10Gb Ethernet solutions. It is the in-the-box solution for bridging these high bandwidth devices within a system.

[samy85114]

powerMac due on next week??? that's funny!
This is porbably another joke!


hey guys, i,ve got a rumors for you,
We,ll finnaly see this so called G5 by February... well I could say... by february 12 ( at random ) .. but guys you have to trust me...
( you don't have to :) )

No but i just want to say that I have some difficulties to trust these rumors...
You know why for sure!

[Buggy]

samy,

Feb 12, what year????

[ssh33]

I will stick with my theory: Steve needs something to brag about at the Macworld in Tokyo (March 21).

[Gianrico]

I don't understand why only PowerPc supplier doesn't make information about microprocessor.
If you see the intel or amd website you can always see the news about clock speed and performance of their in production and future release products.

[anshelm]

If Motorola told what chips they had in what speeds and the like, Apple couldn't very well be secretive about what the next PowerMac will be since everyone could pop over to Motorola's site and find out.

[samy85114]

Originally posted by Buggy
samy,

Feb 12, what year????


It,s up to you!!! the one you want! Anyway i don't mind :)

[networkman]

feb 12 next year for the g5? or feb 12 this year for a speed bumped g4?

i thought the speed bumped g4 was coming out next week

many of us are impatient

[mcasalino]

Could it be that Apple is saving the big new stuff for super sunday ?

[grouse]

It's not a new Macintosh, it's a revised one. That's not Super Sunday stuff.

It'll be slipped out quietly on Tuesday.

[networkman]

also i am a huge sports fan as well as a huge mac fan, but the two groups rarely have the same members in it so the superbowl is not the place to debut a new mac

debut a beer or sports illustrated swimsuit issue, but a new mac? no way

[IndyGopher]

Originally posted by networkman
also i am a huge sports fan as well as a huge mac fan, but the two groups rarely have the same members in it so the superbowl is not the place to debut a new mac
I think you'll find that a LARGE number of people who watch the superbowl do so just to see the commercials. You think the people watching the superbowl in 1984 were not impressed with the Apple commercial?

[networkman]

do you think that the number of mac people watching the superbowl is large? is it large enough to justify the astronomical cost of airing an apple commercial?

and do you think the commercial in 1984 said anything? granted, it looked cool

what about putting an ad on the last installment of a survivor show? just an idea since there are way more people watching that than anything...except for a few episodes of who wants to be a millionaire which had the largest number of people watching in tv history

i would tend to think survivor and millionaire would be more broad and appeal to both sexes more, but i can't comment on how much a commercial would be on survivor's last installment since i have not read anything on it...i am sure it's very expensive though

[spikey]

There is no point in putting USB2 in the imac (which is already quite expensive as consumer machines go). Firewire is better and external hardware is normally made in two versions USB and firewire, so you wont miss out on anything.

What im interested in is whether a revision will happen to this imac, i.e gigawire, modified case etc. Remember how it happened to the original imac after less than a year.

[IndyGopher]

Originally posted by networkman
do you think that the number of mac people watching the superbowl is large? is it large enough to justify the astronomical cost of airing an apple commercial?
I thought the idea was for NON-mac people to see it?

Originally posted by networkman
and do you think the commercial in 1984 said anything? granted, it looked cool
I think it said a lot.. and since the point of advertising is to make an impression, it was clearly a HUGE success.

Originally posted by networkman
what about putting an ad on the last installment of a survivor show? just an idea since there are way more people watching that than anything...except for a few episodes of who wants to be a millionaire which had the largest number of people watching in tv history

i would tend to think survivor and millionaire would be more broad and appeal to both sexes more, but i can't comment on how much a commercial would be on survivor's last installment since i have not read anything on it...i am sure it's very expensive though
Those sorts of programs are again targetted at certain people. The superbowl is an entirely different animal. A clever superbowl ad is talked about on radio and television for weeks afterward. No other venue can offer that.

[grouse]

The launch of the mac was an "event" and deserved its spot. Back then it was still possible that macs would be the dominant force in world computing. Now they may well be the best around and highly influential in terms of industrial and techincal design, but the game is still shoring up the current market share rather than taking over the world.

Apple, needs machines in every area that it has deemed vital to its survival. Which includes a proportion of the consumer market and a larger and more profitable proportion of the high-end pro design market. And oddly enough the two sectors need each other.

The lower end helps to keep enough of a base to re-assure the pro market that apple is worth sticking with.

1GHz on Tuesday, weather permitting

[networkman]

is the superbowl more broad in appeal to bring in more non mac types to the mac than survivor

i personally like the superbowl better than survivor, but when i go see the superbowl in public and among fellow football fans, i find the people a very narrow target group largely uninterested in computers and, i hate to admit it, other things which would require the cereberal like this forum which has a lot of really brainy people on it

i am a teacher and i am educated and i like macs and i fit the stereotype/profile pretty well but as much as i would like to see the superbowl fans become computer literate en masse, my sports fans buddies could really give a rip about macs

i don't really like to hang out with fellow thinking type of people and other various intellectuals and (mac users)...but that is just my personality and tastes but i do know football fans and i am telling you, the percentage that would like macs or be tempted into becoming computer users is truly laughable...

btw, what do you personally know about football or football fans?...not meant to be an attack but a question? i was a football player in college, failed and third string walk on type though, but i know the football culture and in my other job (landscaper), football is a religion and so is budweiser and political incorrectness, but macs never make a peep in out conversation any more than opera and chardonnay

[Kid Red]

I think youi guys underestimate the people of today. My dad is an electrician and a football fan as big as the next guy, me included. He gets season tickets to the Hurricanes, and he goes to Dolphins games as well. I got him to get an iMac CRT, and all his buddies have PCs. You'd be amazed how many people actually have computers today. Granted many sport buffs (yes, I am a huge one) are into there computers, but maybe talk less about them and more about sports.

Besides, the iMac is for everyone watching the superbowl who doesn't have a mac/computer.

[networkman]

maybe the face of mac users is broadening somewhat

i can't imagine badass babes, badass cars, beer, and boutique computers sharing the same airspace during the superbowl

then where is the add for san francisco opera and the ad for the engineering program at caltech? only certain items can successfully work during the black and blue rawness of a superbowl eith all its blood and guts

an imac is too "cute" if you know what i mean

[IndyGopher]

Originally posted by networkman
maybe the face of mac users is broadening somewhat

i can't imagine badass babes, badass cars, beer, and boutique computers sharing the same airspace during the superbowl

then where is the add for san francisco opera and the ad for the engineering program at caltech? only certain items can successfully work during the black and blue rawness of a superbowl eith all its blood and guts

an imac is too "cute" if you know what i mean

Are you kidding? You don't think the clapping monkey ad that e*trade ran was supposed to be cute? Or the "Cat Herders" or "Running with Squirrels" ads from EDS? I guess because I could not care one iota less about the actual game, I have something of an advantage when it comes to remembering the commercials.. but I think you are as mistaken as you could possibly be about who runs commercials during the superbowl. I think a spot with an iMac rolling out to the 50-yard line on a rubber ball, like the Luxo Jr everyone calls it, and singing the national anthem, would be a riot, and talked about for quite some time.

[networkman]

i would certainly remember it if the lamp sang the anthem

i am sure it would be talked about for the longest time after the commercial aired

but would it be worth apple's money and add enough new users to justify the cost of the airtime?

why not put the money to better advertising use and put the ad somewhere else besides the superbowl? for instance, i like the pullout ad in time concerning the imac

you can also get a lot of exposure if you dropped leaflets of imac ads into the poorest populations of the poorest nations of the third world and have millions of people see it but would that make a big difference?

i don't argue with your great idea for an ad, it certainly is more entertaining and inventive than the 1984 ad, but i think you are targeting the wrong audience

i think apple came up with a great product when they released the cube but there was not a "big enough" audience to justify its existence (the ibook and imac have been more successsful)

i have seen many people on this forum since mid-2000 suggest different marketing and advertising ideas for apple, but i really like the lamp idea and i think it would be the best apple commercial ever made, but the audience would be all wrong, that's all

my suggestion, imho, is to air a great apple commercial with a more broad audience like survivor's last episode which would more likely have both sexes watching and more people overall

ideas are important but so are demographics

in 1996, apple had 6 billion in liquid assets and they almost went out of business...today apple has 4 billion and their stock is down

if apple had ten times that in the bank, i would say go ahead and run the lamp ad for apple during the superbowl and see what happens but that is clearly not the case

the main thing we all want is for apple to increase their market share and continue to survive in this competitive high tech business of which we are both in (as network techies)