IBM G4's in 2003

[arn]

MacEdition posts vague details and a report that IBM's 64-bit Power 4 Chip will make its way to the next generation of PowerMacs with a new Apple Processor Interconect bus.

While the new systems are reported to be in prototype form presently, are not expected for full production until later in 2003.

[vniow]

That report's kinda vaugue, nothing really specific about it and nothing that differs it from other rumors, except for the fact that it mentions something called the Apple Processor Interconnect bus and that it won't coincide with the official death of OS9.
Bah.

[rice_web]

first post! (maybe)

Anyway, This sounds promising. The general concensus seems to be that we'll see Power4 processors of some sort in 2003.

Most every site has ventured to guess that the Power4 is coming.

[Edit: no first post, dangit ]

[ibjoshua]

more fuel on the fire.
what everyone wants to hear etc etc.
we all hope it comes true - i just hope it's not wishful thinking. i pity anyone who has no choice but to buy a new machine in the next 6-9 months.

i_b_joshua

[ennerseed]

Sounds very good to me.
Has the gayblade ever been misleading?

[jaykk]

If this is true, it is one of the best thing for Apple. Its time to buy some apple stocks..

[QuiteSure]

ApplePI? Oh please.

[shadowfax0]

But will it still be the G4? Or is it also time for a name change....Also, does this mean Apple will be the first one to offer a 64-bit processor for the masses?

[ibjoshua]

Originally posted by shadowfax0
But will it still be the G4?

i believe the 'G' stands for 'generation' so i think if you wanted you could call it a G5

but that would probably confuse people so why not just call it a 'good idea'.

i_b_joshua

[reyesmac]

If Apple does have some chip that will replace the G4 next year, who in here thinks that Apple will have them go more than 30% faster than the previous generation? What has been the biggest speed bump that Apple has had compared to what it replaced? Will they use dual processors, or will they just put one that is a little faster than two? Hope we dont get the usual top two getting upgraded and the bottom getting Yikesed.

What will the low end look like? Would the low end going from dual 867 to a 1gig be enough? Has Apple ever given us a speedbump that has made the low end faster than the high end that it replaces? I have played with the new macs and they seem fast enough as long as you buy more ram for it but what size speedbumb would be enough to make PC users heads turn?

[bousozoku]

Processor Interconnect bus? Does this sound like the same business that's already running to allow the processor to interface with memory in interesting ways?

I'll wait to see but I would be skeptical as to whether these systems will ever come to light and, if so, whether they will have good or extraordinary performance.

[G4scott]

Originally posted by QuiteSure
ApplePI? Oh please.

I didn't notice it until you said this... I'm laughing so hard right now

What's MacEdition's track record on rumors? These rumors seem pretty good... We keep on hearing how far the G4 is behind the P4, but really, even with 3ghz clock speeds, I don't see them hurting Apple's market share any more than 2+ghz clock speeds...

I'm crossing my fingers...

Although, my next computer might be a dual 867... I can get $500 for my G4 400 at Comp USA...

[tjwett]

didn't anyone see their names? this is obviously fake. pretty funny though.

[DaveGee]

Originally posted by tjwett
didn't anyone see their names? this is obviously fake. pretty funny though.

Rule is with TGB (as it was with Mac The Knife) you usually gotta look PAST the 1st paragraph to get on to the TRUE meat of the story. Been that way for a long long time. TGB doesn't talk trash... You do see him talking about iWalks and QUAD Processor PPC based monsters and the day you seem him talking about em... well then that means we might really see em come true.

Biggest problem with TGB is he usually waits for REAL confirmation about the stuff he is working on and as such he doesn't report on nearly as much stuff as say SpyMac or MOSR does... (isn't about time MOSR dusts off that QUAD CPU rumor again?)

Dave

[Choppaface]

what is with that guy's writing style?? O_o

[soilchmst]

Originally posted by DaveGee

QUAD CPU rumor again?)

Did someone say quad processors
I knew they aren't going to appear (any time in my youth, at least), and I would could never use that much power. BUT, I would like to say I have a quad processor Power 4

[nuckinfutz]

If Apple does have some chip that will replace the G4 next year, who in here thinks that Apple will have them go more than 30% faster than the previous generation?

If Apple uses this new chips announced by IBM on Oct 15 then they won't have too many problems getting %30 more speed. This Proc supports up to 6.4GBps bandwith. Keep in mind today AMD/Intel systems are hovering around 2.6 to low 3.x Mem Bandwidth. Plus this Proc looks to be 8way Superscalar which is double the current G4 capabilities theoretically of course.

Processor Interconnect bus? Does this sound like the same business that's already running to allow the processor to interface with memory in interesting ways?

My guess is it would be a bus that supercedes Motorolas MPX bus. Proc to memory. I'm sure it will probably offer more features than MPX and will definitely support some nexgen tech. Wish NMR had more info on this.

didn't anyone see their names? this is obviously fake. pretty funny though.

I've been reading this guys stuff for what 5-6 years now when he wrote for Macweek Magazine. His stuff is legit. He was the first person I new that broke the rumors of Connectix VirtualPC back when the idea of Connectix shipping a PC Emulator was akin to Quark shipping an Audio app or something. Hearing this from him makes me feel MUCH more positive.

what is with that guy's writing style?? O_o

That's "The Gay Blades" style. I just cut to the chase and reade the bottom.

[dongmin]

Does this Apple PI thing mean they're not gonna use RapidI/O or Hypertransport? Or are they all separate things?

[Nipsy]

Originally posted by reyesmac
If Apple does have some chip that will replace the G4 next year, who in here thinks that Apple will have them go more than 30% faster than the previous generation? What has been the biggest speed bump that Apple has had compared to what it replaced?

Well, it will be MUCH faster. Much much faster, but it may still be a 1GHz chip.

The 1GHz Power4 I read about was blowing the doors off of everything in the consumer market by a factor of 5, so it is conceivable that a Power4 Lite would be twice as fast as the 3.2-3.5GHz Pentium 4 that will be shipping then, even if it is a 1GHz chip.

However, some people will still be concerned about the GHz disparity, regardless of processor power. These people deserve Windows!

[iwantanewmac]

Originally posted by jaykk
If this is true, it is one of the best thing for Apple. Its time to buy some apple stocks..

you might reconsider that..........

[barkmonster]

If Apple does have some chip that will replace the G4 next year, who in here thinks that Apple will have them go more than 30% faster than the previous generation?

46.6% is the largest speed bump apple have ever made on a whole lineup of powermacs. That was when they went from 500Mhz to 733Mhz. It wasn't too impressive in a lot of benchmarks because it was nowhere near 46% faster.

57.2% is the largest speed bump on 1 model when they went from 466Mhz digital audio to 733Mhz Quicksilver on the entry level model.

since the G4 jumped from 500Mhz to 733Mhz the fastest chip in the following range has always been not only predicted with pinpoint accuracy by overclocking attempts on the previous range but speed increases have been in 15 - 25% range :

500Mhz - 733Mhz - 46.6%
733Mhz - 867Mhz - 18.3%
867Mhz - 1Ghz - 15.4%
1Ghz - 1.25Ghz - 25%

If clockspeed actually equates to actual performance increases when you're comparing the same CPU family, the next power mac should be a dual model at 1.5 - 1.6Ghz. That's a 25 - 30% speed increase and I can't see someone buying a dual 1.25Ghz G4 this year only to buy a dual 1.6Ghz next year unless there's some serious change in the architechture that makes the actual perceived speed increase more like 50 - 60%.

[peterjhill]

Originally posted by Choppaface
what is with that guy's writing style?? O_o

It all goes back to MacWeek Magazine. MacWeek was like MOSR, but in print. I was sorry to see it get sucked up into (the sucky) maccentral. Mac the Knife always had the last page editorial/rumor page. The web version always had cool but strange links from the text. I hope that the MacEdition guy is the same person.

Anyone here have an official Mac the Knife coffee mug? That would be worth something.

[AmigaMac]

For one, Apple is not going to leave the PowerPC architecture! So that pretty much kills the specualtion of anything x86 (which would be dead on arrival anyways). The question is, who was going to deliver the 64bit incarnation of PowerPC to Apple first? Well it seems that the answer is laying right in our laps... IBM! I think Motorola/IBM might be switching roles in Apple's requirements where IBM will be delivering for the desktops and Motorola (if they get a 64bit G4/G5 of their own out there) will make its way to laptops because of their low power consumption while delivering high performance. Or IBM could take the whole ball and chain and Moto gets left behind. I figure IBM will be the best bet since Amiga has also adopted their offerings (though the AmigaOnes will get G4s in the near future).

Bottomline is that the PowerPC is here to stay folks!

[Telomar]

Originally posted by Nipsy


Well, it will be MUCH faster. Much much faster, but it may still be a 1GHz chip.

The 1GHz Power4 I read about was blowing the doors off of everything in the consumer market by a factor of 5, so it is conceivable that a Power4 Lite would be twice as fast as the 3.2-3.5GHz Pentium 4 that will be shipping then, even if it is a 1GHz chip.

However, some people will still be concerned about the GHz disparity, regardless of processor power. These people deserve Windows!

For a start the POWER4 is a good chip but on single threaded programs it isn't computationally 5 times faster than current top desktop chips. It does have some aspects of its architecture that make it very attractive though.

Secondly I'd advise you not to get your hopes quite so high. I would expect Apple to handle the introduction of their next generation system in a similar way to the PIV introduction. That is to basically introduce it low even though you know it can scale and then scale it. I'd also expect a couple other things but you'll have to wait for those.

[G4scott]

Originally posted by AmigaMac
Bottomline is that PowerPC isn't going anywhere folks!

I hope you mean anywhere as in "Apple isn't going to leave the PPC architecture behind", because the way you say it, it sounds like the PowerPC is stuck where it is now, and can't be improved

I hope that's not what you meant