G6 estimate?

[believo]

I know this is impossible to make a good supported estimate, but does anyone have any rough estimates on when G6's will be on the market.

[evilgEEk]

I think I'm more curious as to whether or not Apple will continue the "Gx" sequence. Mainly because of Pontiac's new car, "The First Ever G6" as it's been marketed.

I don't think there are any legal issues here being as though the Pontiac's a car and the Apple's a processor, but will Apple want to call their next generation of processors something that has already been taken?

I dunno...maybe I'm reading too much into this?

[JFreak]

better not even talk about G6 before there's a G5 in a powerbook ;)

[Bobcat37]

I would think dual-core G4s and G5s will be the next step before any G6s...

[stylum]

Isnt this the first honest to god "when wil G6 arrive?" thread..
i think grew so accustomed to the G5 kind that i couldnt help but notice..

[Zaty]

better not even talk about G6 before there's a G5 in a powerbook ;)

I guess it's not unlikely that the PPC 970/PPC970FX will never make it into a PB. What if Apple decides, for what ever reason, to call the successor to the PPC 970 a G6? Anyway, does it matter what a particular CPU is called? What's important is the performance of a CPU.

To answer the original question: We might see a G6 as early as next year, or not until 2007/8. It depends on when, according to Apple, a new CPU has to be considered a new generation of CPUs used in Macs.

[Abstract]

I can't believe I'm reading a G6 thread right now... :rolleyes:

[SiliconAddict]

I know this is impossible to make a good supported estimate, but does anyone have any rough estimates on when G6's will be on the market.

The name G5 has only been out a year. There is definitely a buzz behind the name G5 and rightly so. Its a solid architecture. I really don't think they are going to be moving to a G6 name anytime soon. Actually I'm more interested in seeing if they play around with the G5 name when it comes out on a PowerBook. I'm thinking Apple has gone back to IBM and asked them to give them a tweaked version of the G5 for the PowerBook.
G5-M anyone?

[Mr. Anderson]

The only thing I can see is that they might call the dual core G5 a G6. But with the delay and supply issues with the current crop of G5s - why even bother worrying about G6s right now.

Do you *need* a G6?

D

[kettle]

The only thing I can see is that they might call the dual core G5 a G6. But with the delay and supply issues with the current crop of G5s - why even bother worrying about G6s right now.

Do you *need* a G6?

D

That's what I thought the difference was, the Power5 is a Power4 that can do multi core doings. The Power4 was called G5, so I suppose the Power5 will be a G6.

I'm hoping the Power Mac G5 will be a bit like the B/W G3 Powermac and there will be a really manic G6 powermac just around the corner. After all, we have a G5 iMac, what about a Powermac using a pro chip rather than the consumer one in the iMac. ;)

[NusuniAdmin]

G6 wont be out for at least 3 years


but i will tell you that IBM does most likely have working prototypes working. Most likely based on 65 NM technology. ;)

[rdrr]

I think I'm more curious as to whether or not Apple will continue the "Gx" sequence.

How about calling it H2? :D

I don't think it will be comming out for powermac for at least 2 years, since they really haven't had the G5 out very long, and they probably will bump up the speeds 3 to 4 more times. Example, How long has Intel had the Xeon Chip out?

As for the PowerBook, I think that a dual core G4 ( maybe call it G4^2, or G8), will be a standard for a lot longer... There really isn't a rush to get a 64 bit chip in a laptop since there isn't any competition in the market.

my .02 cents

[stoid]

Let's take a look at history for a minute.

G1 - the first Apple shipped processor capable of supporting the Mac OS interface. Motorola produced processors in the 68xxx series. The first computers with G1 chips shipped in 1984, the Mac 128k. This proc also shipped in many LC and Quadra machines. It would go into the first Apple laptop, the Macintosh Portable (though at 15.8 lbs!)

G2 - the first Apple shipped processor that earned it's carrier the title of Power Macintosh. Motorola produced processors in the 60x(e) series. The first of which being the Power Macintosh 6100 shipping in March of 1994. It would not make it into their laptops until August of 1995 (17 months) in the PowerBook 5300.

G3 - the first processor to carry the utilize backside cache system. Motorola produced PowerPC 750 processor design. First shipped in the Power Macintosh G3 in November of 1997. Simultaneously shipped in laptop form albeit with a lower top speed in the PowerBook G3.

G4 - essentially a G3 processor, but with an AltiVec vector processing unit built into the chip as well. Motorola processor PowerPC 74xx series. The Power Mac G4 debuted in August of 2000 along with the ill-fated G4 Cube. In January 2001 (5 months) Apple got the G4 into laptop form with the PowerBook G4.

G5 - announced in June of 2003 the G5 was the first Apple shipped 64-bit processor, and the first not produced under Motorola, but with IBM. It utilizes the PowerPC 970 chipset. It has yet to find it's way into the PowerBook series, now 15 months since the PowerMac's release.


As you can see, there is a significant jump in each new generation of processor, and I don't think that Apple will call a processor the G6 without an equally large change in architecture. In terms of a simple time scale...

G1-G2 10 years
G2-G3 3.66 years
G3-G4 2.75 years
G4-G5 3 years
G5-present 1.25 years

I'm guessing that it's going to be nearly two more years before the G6 is out, so don't hold your breath.

While I'm on the topic of time scales, let's look at the time between the release of the desktop and the portable. I will not use the G1 since the processor was not the engineering hurdle in the release of it's portable counterpart.

G2 - 17 months
G3 - simultaneous
G4 - 5 months
G5 - 15 and counting

There doesn't seem to be any correlation here, and so we'll just have to be patient for the PowerBook G5.

[wdlove]

I can't believe I'm reading a G6 thread right now... :rolleyes:

This is a rumor site, so everyone is anxious for the latest rumor. If stoid is correct then we still have 2 year wait. It will be fun speculating, so let the rumors begin.