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Powerbook G5 - A Fantasy?

MacSA

MacSA

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 4, 2003
1,803
5
UK
Maybe Apple will surprise us in a few months with one of the greatest engineering feats of all time by cramming a G5 chip (or chips) into a 1" thick Powerbook, however i'm starting to believe that there will never be a G5 Powerbook and that Apple will use the new dual core G4 chips in all Powerbook updates in the future. Unless you want something thats 2" thick and hot enough to fry an egg on, maybe it's time to let go of the idea of the G5 Powerbook. Any thoughts on this? :)
 
jxyama

jxyama

macrumors 68040
Apr 3, 2003
3,735
1
yes, let it go and don't start another thread because people will come and insist that it will happen soon (TM). :p
 
Z

Zaty

macrumors 65816
Mar 14, 2004
1,215
2
Switzerland
It wouldn't call it a fantasy, I'm sure Apple hasn't given up on the PB G5 yet. They will have to introduce it sooner or later, if only for marketing reasons and to satisfy all those people who wouldn't buy anything but a G5 portable computer from Apple. Secondly, 64bits is the future of personal computer so sticking with a 32bit processor for too long doesn't make sense. The longer Apple sells 32bit (pro) machines, the longer they have to main support for 32bit code. At one point, Apple will want to move the entire OS to 64bit (10.5?). So as soon as Apple can fit any PPC 97X into a 1" case without external liquid cooling and without having to plug the system in every hour, they will start selling the fabulous PowerBook G5.
 
joshua_msu

joshua_msu

macrumors regular
Aug 5, 2004
221
0
chicago (formerly detroit)
I hope the new PB's whenever they come out, have better screens. They are really starting to fall behind in screen quality compared to some PC laptop counterparts. I mean, they have one of the best laptop cards out there in the 128MB ATI, but not that great of a screen to show for it. Also, a faster harddrive option than the 5400 would be nice. I guess we will have to wait and see.
 
E

earthtoandy

macrumors 6502
Jan 18, 2003
250
0
i think we will see a G5 but in the vein of a mobile chip. i believe IBM has already done alot of work on the G5 for server application that has implications for a mobile chip. its a little ways away.
 
crazzyeddie

crazzyeddie

macrumors 68030
Dec 7, 2002
2,792
1
Florida, USA
Apple will have to maintain a 32-bit version of OS X for at least 2 or 3 more years, probably more like 5. They can't abandon people who are buying $3000 computers now with the G4 inside, not to mention educators who are buying iBooks/eMacs with 4+ year lease deals.
 
W

wide

macrumors 6502a
May 17, 2004
746
0
NYC
Zaty said:
It wouldn't call it a fantasy, I'm sure Apple hasn't given up on the PB G5 yet. They will have to introduce it sooner or later, if only for marketing reasons and to satisfy all those people who wouldn't buy anything but a G5 portable computer from Apple. Secondly, 64bits is the future of personal computer so sticking with a 32bit processor for too long doesn't make sense. The longer Apple sells 32bit (pro) machines, the longer they have to main support for 32bit code. At one point, Apple will want to move the entire OS to 64bit (10.5?). So as soon as Apple can fit any PPC 97X into a 1" case without external liquid cooling and without having to plug the system in every hour, they will start selling the fabulous PowerBook G5.
Click to expand...

Don't forget Motorola's e700 chip. That will probably have dual cores as well AND be able to handle 32 and 64 bit processes. I am skeptical about whether the G5 will reach ever reach notebooks--it's amazingly large (with the heatsink attached). However, like someone above mentioned, if Apple can fit dual G5s in an Xserve (pretty thin), then I bet they could do it in a notebook too (single processor form, of course).

EDIT: BTW, I think that Apple will continue to make the OS 10 line 64 bit, then maybe at 10.6 they will make a 32 bit version and a 64 bit version (like Windows XP and the "soon" to be released Windows XP 64 bit edition), and then at OS 11 they will make it only in 64 bit versions. Then 11.5 will be 128 bit :D....etc..... (is that possible?)
 
zv470

zv470

macrumors 6502
Jul 4, 2004
441
157
Japan
Zaty said:
...The longer Apple sells 32bit (pro) machines, the longer they have to main support for 32bit code. At one point, Apple will want to move the entire OS to 64bit (10.5?)...
Click to expand...

Sorry, I have to say this... I've read this kind of thing a few times now and have wanted to say something... so... ok... what is a fully 64-Bit OS? People seem to think that every part of an OS needs to be re-written to take advantage of 64-Bit processing, not the case.

What is 64-Bit code going to do to Mail app? or iCal? or Safari even, none of these apps need to address anywhere near the amount of information that you could address with a 64-Bit machine.

It's only disk and memory intensive applications that really take advantage of the technology, which really makes it pointless owning a G5 with only 512 Meg ram or what-ever. (I know a lot of people have more RAM, but a lot don't as well). Ok enough said =]
 
wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
wide said:
Don't forget Motorola's e700 chip. That will probably have dual cores as well AND be able to handle 32 and 64 bit processes. I am skeptical about whether the G5 will reach ever reach notebooks--it's amazingly large (with the heatsink attached). However, like someone above mentioned, if Apple can fit dual G5s in an Xserve (pretty thin), then I bet they could do it in a notebook too (single processor form, of course).

EDIT: BTW, I think that Apple will continue to make the OS 10 line 64 bit, then maybe at 10.6 they will make a 32 bit version and a 64 bit version (like Windows XP and the "soon" to be released Windows XP 64 bit edition), and then at OS 11 they will make it only in 64 bit versions. Then 11.5 will be 128 bit :D....etc..... (is that possible?)
Click to expand...
There's no such thing as far as Mac OS X is concerned as "fully 64-bit". The changes made in Tiger to make the core libraries 64-bit aware will be more than enough for developers to start taking advantage of. All that's needed now is to give the kernel a 64-bit memory space, and as far as I'm concerned, Mac OS X will have as much 64-bit support as it needs without messing up older 32-bit apps or pre-PPC G5 processors.
 
rueyeet

rueyeet

macrumors 65816
Jun 10, 2003
1,070
0
MD
Never say never. :p

If you don't think there will ever be a G4 Powerbook, what can Apple do instead? Dual G4s? a revamped G3 with AltiVec, branded as a G5 Mobile? an entirely new G6 chip? They can't just stay with the G4 forever, or no one has much of an incentive to upgrade, and their Powerbook sales go *poof*. Also there's a certain lack of credibility when the consumer-level iMac has the G5, and the pro notebooks don't. Apple HAS to do something, and probably by next summer, to not look stale.

I don't know if Apple will be able to cram the G5 as it currently exists into a Powerbook any time soon, but I'm not buying another G4-based Powerbook. There's no point to my upgrading until there's a new processor involved.
 
~Shard~

~Shard~

macrumors P6
Jun 4, 2003
18,377
48
1123.6536.5321
I think it will happen at some point, but definitely not in the foreseeable future. The next big upgrade to the PowerBooks will no doubt take advantage of the dual core G4 or some other Freescale derrivative. And in some tasks, the dual core G4s will no doubt outperform the G5s, so it's not like keeping the PowerBooks on G4s is a bad thing...
 
E

earthtoandy

macrumors 6502
Jan 18, 2003
250
0
wide said:
EDIT: BTW, I think that Apple will continue to make the OS 10 line 64 bit, then maybe at 10.6 they will make a 32 bit version and a 64 bit version (like Windows XP and the "soon" to be released Windows XP 64 bit edition)
Click to expand...
apple has specifically said they dont want to do that.
 
aswitcher

aswitcher

macrumors 603
Oct 8, 2003
5,338
14
Canberra OZ
crazzyeddie said:
Apple will have to maintain a 32-bit version of OS X for at least 2 or 3 more years, probably more like 5. They can't abandon people who are buying $3000 computers now with the G4 inside, not to mention educators who are buying iBooks/eMacs with 4+ year lease deals.
Click to expand...

I would like to think that it will be at least 5 years because Mac users keep there machines longer from what I read. I dont mind paying for a new OS every 18-24 months but to think that my June PB will be dropped anytime before 2009 kinda sux.

I am hoping that the new ultra thin machines from IBM, Sony and Toshiba will see the 32 bit processor have some long legs as Apple continue to innovate their book lines to be lighter. I even wonder if the PowerBook line will split into a 17" with a G5 and the others with G4 for a period, maybe with the 12" always having a G4 (even if its dual core).
 
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