Rumored Timeline: G4, 970 and Beyond

MacRumors · May 5, 2003, 02:00 AM

MacBidouille posts (english translation provided on their site) a timeline based their rumors. It's unclear how much of it is based on substantiated rumors vs. speculation.

The timeline starts with PPC 970 Based PowerMacs and Xserves in June/July 2003, and promises faster G4 iMacs and Gobi G3 based iBooks by year's end. Jan/Feb 2004 brings the PPC 970 to the iMac and a second generation 970 to the PowerMacs/Xserves.... with the possibility of the 980 in March of 2004.

Also mentioned is a high-end "Xstation" with up to 64 processors, as well as a Xserve Enterprise Edition.

Readers will remember first mention of both an "Xstation" as well as an Xserve Enterprise Edition in an unusually detailed anonymous report from November 2002, posted here on MacRumors. In it, the writer mentions the following:

Quote:

An eight way 2U Xserve is currently in the works, and will be based on the 970, and will switch over to the Power 5. It will be Apple's high end server, and the name Xserve enterprise edition has been proposed. A high end multiprocessor workstation class pro model is also in the works. The name XStation has been proposed for it, and it could debut a year from now. It will feature Nvidia's highest end Quadro or equivalent graphics card, and it will feature the upcoming Power 5 chip from IBM.

rubikcube · May 5, 2003, 02:03 AM

This sounds a bit shady...

Grimace · May 5, 2003, 02:12 AM

Faster G4s? Not for much longer I hope...

They must have a mole in Apple.

mproud · May 5, 2003, 02:14 AM

Interesting it talks about everything except the Powerbooks... the 970 known to be perfect for the Powerbooks. I wonder how this fits in with this timeline, if this is somewhat closish to what happens.

CybrCyfr · May 5, 2003, 02:17 AM

After redirecting our (my software company) technology goals tward the perception that Apple will soon tackle the high-end Enterprise markets, this is very good news! I was hoping not to sink the ship in hopes of "Apple Enterprise".

Arn, what confirmations have you came across with regards to the XStation and/or XServer Enterprise?

I would love to see Apple competing with the high-end Sun SunFire (maybe even the Sun Enteprise 10000?) and HP Nclass (maybe even the HP Superdome) servers.

I know it is comming, but how soon? Are we really talking about dual fibre channel (Xserve/XRaid already has this), up to sixtyfour processors, and secure management enviroments? (drooling)

And where is Apple heading with it's storage stratigy? The XRaid is a great start, but what about true SAN solutions with Apple quality integration?

Arn, what do you know?

arn · May 5, 2003, 02:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mproud
Interesting it talks about everything except the Powerbooks... the 970 known to be perfect for the Powerbooks. I wonder how this fits in with this timeline, if this is somewhat closish to what happens.

970 powerbooks are mentioned in March 2004

arn

herocero · May 5, 2003, 02:37 AM

with the g4? if the 970 can be ready for all the lines in june, why not do em? i hope there are enough reasons for a clean sweep of the g4 in the PM, PB and xserve and toss that 970 in there.

i love the possibility of apple picking up the power4 and 5s for some high end enterprise stuff. maybe steve got ticked off that the best rendering farm pixar could use was an intel/linux box . . .

dump the g4. now. ok, please?

arn · 02:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by herocero
with the g4? if the 970 can be ready for all the lines in june, why not do em?

Why does the eMac need a 970? Or the iMac? Clearly there's plenty of reasons not to put the 970 across the line - esp when there will only be a certain number of speed-points available. Why don't PC makers put Pentium 4's in every computer? The G4 will certainly be a cheaper chip than the 970 when it first comes out.

Besides... I see everyone's getting their hopes up... and getting a little greedy... personally, if they _demo_ the 970 at WWDC, I'll be pleased. You'll be lucky if "only" the PowerMacs get the 970 as early as June.

arn

fpnc · May 5, 2003, 02:53 AM

Well, it is my opinion that these rumors about soon-to-be-released PPC970 Macs are entirely wrong. I don't expect that we will see PPC970 based Mac desktop systems until VERY late this year or more likely in early 2004. PowerBooks probably won't appear until well into year 2004. Just because Apple is in desperate need for faster systems won't make them just happen (all wishful thinking aside).

Some may remember rumors at about this same time last year concerning the then soon-to-be-released Motorola G5. It was reported that benchmarks on those prototypes were so good that they could actually run Windows under VirtualPC at a speed that was comparable to a high-end PC.

At about that time I posted a note to a discussion forum stating that it was my opinion that the __G4__ would probably be the last desktop PPC processor that Motorola would ever produce and that we should forget about ever seeing a Motorola-based G5 PowerMac. I also said that Motorola would be out of the desktop processor market in less than two more years.

I received a fair amount of "flack" for those comments, but it seems that time has proven me correct, and I suspect that I will also be correct about the PPC970.

Of course, these are only my opinions and I have no direct, inside knowledge about anything that is happening at Apple, Motorola, or IBM. My opinions are just based upon common sense and my over twenty years experience in the computer and semiconductor industries.

And now for my disclaimer, if Apple does release a PPC970 before the end of July 2003 I will not only be surprised (and humbled) but I will be first in line to buy one. ;-)

arn · May 5, 2003, 02:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by fpnc
I don't expect that we will see PPC970 based Mac desktop systems until VERY late this year or more likely in early 2004.

I also think June 2003 is very optimistic. But... we'll see. Maybe MacBidouille knows something we don't.

arn

shadowfax · May 5, 2003, 03:04 AM

they'll pull a crazy "look we have these, check out the new powermac that isn't coming out for 6-7 months, but we are showing it to you and here is panther with 64 bit support..."

i believe it's not too far fetched to announce them next month or so, justt for powermacs at least. that doesn't mean anything, it'll just get developers pepped (and cut their prices on current ones, one would hope).

thinking about that, it seems odd to imagine that apple could take 6 months of people waiting to buy a new mac, but i suppose stranger things have happened... (3.5 month wait on 17 powerbooks?)

a9mike · May 5, 2003, 03:05 AM

Quote:

Besides... I see everyone's getting their hopes up... and getting a little greedy... personally, if they _demo_ the 970 at WWDC, I'll be pleased. You'll be lucky if "only" the PowerMacs get the 970 as early as June.

I fully agree Arn, it's always nice to dream, and everyone wants to see the next gen proc asap... but let's not get too ahead of ourselves. It will take time from the introduction of the 970 in the PowerMac to the point where it is in all systems. It always takes time (G3 --> G4), especially with Apple. They like to have a decent gap between their Pro & Consumer lines.

I'd like to see official confirmation/roll-out of the 970 in any system. From there we can speculate more accurately.

I'm running a 450 Sawtooth and can't wait to own one of these monsters when they debut... er... maybe 2nd gen, if I can wait.

luke_s · May 5, 2003, 03:30 AM

just one question: if apple announces 970 based pm or pb in june or may and say: look at these computers and buy them in 6 months, what will they be selling the next 6 months? no one will buy any g4 mac anymore.......

Rai · May 5, 2003, 03:33 AM

WoW this getting exciting.

MacBidouille, has posted three detailed posts, about the release of the 970. With the confidence, and regularity of these posts, MacBidouille is staking the reputation of there name in the mac rumor game, on this one rumor.

Either they have some pretty concrete evidence, or there hoping there wild speculation comes true, and making them insanely popular.

I personnally would like to believe the former.

I'm a window user, and first came to this site a month ago, when i was looking to buy an ipod, thanks to your great defective work, i waited into the release of the new ipod.

I thing while reading this message board (finding out info on ipod), has warped my mind i know find myself looking to buy a Mac.

Anyway waiting for the 970 to be released, before making the switch, so sooner the better.

Rai

herocero · May 5, 2003, 03:52 AM

i didn't mention the emac or imac cause i assumed my grandma or the library comp lab don't need 64-bit computing power

i'll clarify a bit more next time

Quote:

Originally posted by arn
Why does the eMac need a 970? Or the iMac? Clearly there's plenty of reasons not to put the 970 across the line - esp when there will only be a certain number of speed-points available. Why don't PC makers put Pentium 4's in every computer? The G4 will certainly be a cheaper chip than the 970 when it first comes out.

Besides... I see everyone's getting their hopes up... and getting a little greedy... personally, if they _demo_ the 970 at WWDC, I'll be pleased. You'll be lucky if "only" the PowerMacs get the 970 as early as June.

arn

Shaktai · May 5, 2003, 04:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by mproud
Interesting it talks about everything except the Powerbooks... the 970 known to be perfect for the Powerbooks. I wonder how this fits in with this timeline, if this is somewhat closish to what happens.

Re-read the first line of the actual article, not just the post. (they do offer it in English.) It clearly states faster G4 processors at 1.25ghz for Powerbooks.

Sorry, no 970 Powerbooks yet. Probably no redesigned motherboards. May still be some issues with adequate chip supply too. Dont' everyone panic though, everything seems to be moving faster then expected. Just remember that all time lines are "estimates" subject to change and not locked in stone.

leo · May 5, 2003, 04:27 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Shaktai
Sorry, no 970 Powerbooks yet. Probably no redesigned motherboards.

But this is exactly what MacWhispers claims: 970 PBs soon and new motherboards. This is really getting interesting. Let's see who's gonna win this game, MacBidouille or MacWhispers...

beeblebrox87 · May 5, 2003, 05:50 AM

There is now an editor's note on the MacBidouille article:

[NDR] Actuellement, le nom Xstation appartient à IBM. Allons nous vers une fusion des pôles serveur d'Apple et d'IBM ?

This roughly translates to:

Currently, the name Xstation belongs to IBM. Are we now moving towards a fusion of the server systems (?) of Apple and IBM?

Anybody who can provide a better translation?

deadduck · May 5, 2003, 05:52 AM

Apple has competition and must act sooner than later

http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/...usp4c800.shtml

This articles describes P4 boards running with 800Mhz FSB's this will increase speed better than processor increase in Mhz Not only that they inlcude SATA RAID firewire, Gigabit ethernet etc all those hardware bits I normally expect built into a mac, not a pc

Falleron · May 5, 2003, 06:27 AM

I think that IF apple is going to make an enterprise server it will need the credability of IBM. Therefore, I suspect it will be a partnership. However, I still have my doubts about Apple making an enterprise server.

G4scott · May 5, 2003, 08:09 AM

HOLY SH*T!!!

This is cool...

Everybody say "F*CK Motorola!"

It looks like Apple has a very nice processor plan for the coming year, and if IBM keeps up the good work, we'll be kickin pee-cee ass, AND taking names... So many names, you'll need that 64-way xStation to process them all...

Man I feel good...

What a wonderful way to start the week

And these are just rumors...

Everybody say it again! "F*CK MOTOROLA!!!"

hehe

oh, and deadduck, while those certainly are nice for games and all, they're just an over-hyped 800mhz bus. It's only really a 200mhz bus that's been quadrupled... Besides, the 970 can handle that wonderful 6.4gb/s throughput, just like those mobos. That, and the 970 will require a 450, or even 900mhz system bus...

I'm sure that the 970 will wipe the floor with everything the pee-cee world can offer...

oh, and everybody say "F*CK MOORE'S LAW!!!" (I just thought that was necessary

)

pilotgi · 08:55 AM

So, they're going to put a new and improved Gobi G3 in the iBook and the same old 0.18 micron G4 in the PowerBook?

And at 1.25 Ghz it will be even hotter!

Doesn't make sense to me.

deadduck · May 5, 2003, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by G4scott

oh, and deadduck, while those certainly are nice for games and all, they're just an over-hyped 800mhz bus. It's only really a 200mhz bus that's been quadrupled... Besides, the 970 can handle that wonderful 6.4gb/s throughput, just like those mobos. That, and the 970 will require a 450, or even 900mhz system bus...

No this is what database developers like me to sell our customers high bandwidth with raid sub-systems

Quote:

I'm sure that the 970 will wipe the floor with everything the pee-cee world can offer...

I'm sure it will but If 10,000 PC's are sold with these specs thats 10,000 less 970 upgrades in the next 2 years

ryanweb · May 5, 2003, 09:28 AM

Remember how everybody expected Chimera to become the new Apple browser, and then, boom, we've got Safari based on KDE?
Why everybody is so sure that Apple will even use PPC 970?
Why not Opteron from AMD? I've read an interview with head of AMD and he sounded very confident about this new chip, like he already have a very big customer to sell it to.
Just a thought.

Mr. Anderson · May 5, 2003, 09:32 AM

I'm floored by the XStation specs....if it truly can have upto 64 processors, well, damn, that's amazing.

I wouldn't be able to afford one, though, but maybe one with 8 processors....3D animation would be quite snappy

Don't know if I'll be able to wait for one of those, however. Probably I'll get a 970 when a dual becomes available.

D

May 5, 2003, 02:12 AM	#3
Grimace Contributor Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: with Hamburglar.	Faster G4s? Not for much longer I hope... They must have a mole in Apple. __________________ Canon 1Ds Mk III • Canon 5D MkII 16-35mm f/2.8L II • 24-70mm f/2.8L • 70-200mm f/2.8L IS 50mm f/1.2L • 85mm f/1.2L • 135mm f/2L • 300mm f/2.8L IS

May 5, 2003, 02:14 AM	#4
mproud macrumors regular Join Date: Mar 2003	Powerbooks? Interesting it talks about everything except the Powerbooks... the 970 known to be perfect for the Powerbooks. I wonder how this fits in with this timeline, if this is somewhat closish to what happens.

May 5, 2003, 02:17 AM	#5
CybrCyfr macrumors newbie Join Date: Jan 2003	Apple in the Enterprise After redirecting our (my software company) technology goals tward the perception that Apple will soon tackle the high-end Enterprise markets, this is very good news! I was hoping not to sink the ship in hopes of "Apple Enterprise". Arn, what confirmations have you came across with regards to the XStation and/or XServer Enterprise? I would love to see Apple competing with the high-end Sun SunFire (maybe even the Sun Enteprise 10000?) and HP Nclass (maybe even the HP Superdome) servers. I know it is comming, but how soon? Are we really talking about dual fibre channel (Xserve/XRaid already has this), up to sixtyfour processors, and secure management enviroments? (drooling) And where is Apple heading with it's storage stratigy? The XRaid is a great start, but what about true SAN solutions with Apple quality integration? Arn, what do you know?

May 5, 2003, 02:37 AM	#7
herocero macrumors member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: down on the upside	is apple beating a dead horse . . . with the g4? if the 970 can be ready for all the lines in june, why not do em? i hope there are enough reasons for a clean sweep of the g4 in the PM, PB and xserve and toss that 970 in there. i love the possibility of apple picking up the power4 and 5s for some high end enterprise stuff. maybe steve got ticked off that the best rendering farm pixar could use was an intel/linux box . . . dump the g4. now. ok, please?

May 5, 2003, 02:53 AM	#9
fpnc macrumors 6502a Join Date: Oct 2002	These PPC970 rumors are plain silly Well, it is my opinion that these rumors about soon-to-be-released PPC970 Macs are entirely wrong. I don't expect that we will see PPC970 based Mac desktop systems until VERY late this year or more likely in early 2004. PowerBooks probably won't appear until well into year 2004. Just because Apple is in desperate need for faster systems won't make them just happen (all wishful thinking aside). Some may remember rumors at about this same time last year concerning the then soon-to-be-released Motorola G5. It was reported that benchmarks on those prototypes were so good that they could actually run Windows under VirtualPC at a speed that was comparable to a high-end PC. At about that time I posted a note to a discussion forum stating that it was my opinion that the __G4__ would probably be the last desktop PPC processor that Motorola would ever produce and that we should forget about ever seeing a Motorola-based G5 PowerMac. I also said that Motorola would be out of the desktop processor market in less than two more years. I received a fair amount of "flack" for those comments, but it seems that time has proven me correct, and I suspect that I will also be correct about the PPC970. Of course, these are only my opinions and I have no direct, inside knowledge about anything that is happening at Apple, Motorola, or IBM. My opinions are just based upon common sense and my over twenty years experience in the computer and semiconductor industries. And now for my disclaimer, if Apple does release a PPC970 before the end of July 2003 I will not only be surprised (and humbled) but I will be first in line to buy one. ;-)

May 5, 2003, 02:03 AM	#2
rubikcube macrumors newbie Join Date: Jan 2002	This sounds a bit shady...

May 5, 2003, 03:04 AM	#11
shadowfax macrumors Demi-God Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Houston, TX	they'll pull a crazy "look we have these, check out the new powermac that isn't coming out for 6-7 months, but we are showing it to you and here is panther with 64 bit support..." i believe it's not too far fetched to announce them next month or so, justt for powermacs at least. that doesn't mean anything, it'll just get developers pepped (and cut their prices on current ones, one would hope). thinking about that, it seems odd to imagine that apple could take 6 months of people waiting to buy a new mac, but i suppose stranger things have happened... (3.5 month wait on 17 powerbooks?) __________________ iMac 3.06 GHz \| 4GB RAM \| 500 GB ::: Unibody MacBook 2.4 GHz \| 4GB RAM\| 250GB 80 GB Video iPod ::: 16 GB iPhone 3G

May 5, 2003, 03:30 AM	#13
luke_s macrumors newbie Join Date: Jan 2003	just one question: if apple announces 970 based pm or pb in june or may and say: look at these computers and buy them in 6 months, what will they be selling the next 6 months? no one will buy any g4 mac anymore.......

May 5, 2003, 03:33 AM	#14
Rai macrumors member Join Date: May 2003	WoW this getting exciting. MacBidouille, has posted three detailed posts, about the release of the 970. With the confidence, and regularity of these posts, MacBidouille is staking the reputation of there name in the mac rumor game, on this one rumor. Either they have some pretty concrete evidence, or there hoping there wild speculation comes true, and making them insanely popular. I personnally would like to believe the former. I'm a window user, and first came to this site a month ago, when i was looking to buy an ipod, thanks to your great defective work, i waited into the release of the new ipod. I thing while reading this message board (finding out info on ipod), has warped my mind i know find myself looking to buy a Mac. Anyway waiting for the 970 to be released, before making the switch, so sooner the better. Rai

May 5, 2003, 05:50 AM	#18
beeblebrox87 macrumors newbie Join Date: May 2003	There is now an editor's note on the MacBidouille article: [NDR] Actuellement, le nom Xstation appartient à IBM. Allons nous vers une fusion des pôles serveur d'Apple et d'IBM ? This roughly translates to: Currently, the name Xstation belongs to IBM. Are we now moving towards a fusion of the server systems (?) of Apple and IBM? Anybody who can provide a better translation?

May 5, 2003, 05:52 AM	#19
deadduck macrumors newbie Join Date: May 2003	Apple has competition.... Apple has competition and must act sooner than later http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/...usp4c800.shtml This articles describes P4 boards running with 800Mhz FSB's this will increase speed better than processor increase in Mhz Not only that they inlcude SATA RAID firewire, Gigabit ethernet etc all those hardware bits I normally expect built into a mac, not a pc

May 5, 2003, 06:27 AM	#20
Falleron macrumors 68000 Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: UK	I think that IF apple is going to make an enterprise server it will need the credability of IBM. Therefore, I suspect it will be a partnership. However, I still have my doubts about Apple making an enterprise server.

May 5, 2003, 08:09 AM	#21
G4scott macrumors 68020 Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Austin, TX	HOLY SHT!!! This is cool... Everybody say "FCK Motorola!" It looks like Apple has a very nice processor plan for the coming year, and if IBM keeps up the good work, we'll be kickin pee-cee ass, AND taking names... So many names, you'll need that 64-way xStation to process them all... Man I feel good... What a wonderful way to start the week And these are just rumors... Everybody say it again! "FCK MOTOROLA!!!" hehe oh, and deadduck, while those certainly are nice for games and all, they're just an over-hyped 800mhz bus. It's only really a 200mhz bus that's been quadrupled... Besides, the 970 can handle that wonderful 6.4gb/s throughput, just like those mobos. That, and the 970 will require a 450, or even 900mhz system bus... I'm sure that the 970 will wipe the floor with everything the pee-cee world can offer... oh, and everybody say "FCK MOORE'S LAW!!!" (I just thought that was necessary ) __________________ Hook 'em Horns!

May 5, 2003, 08:52 AM	#22
pilotgi macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2002	So, they're going to put a new and improved Gobi G3 in the iBook and the same old 0.18 micron G4 in the PowerBook? And at 1.25 Ghz it will be even hotter! Doesn't make sense to me. __________________ "It's my life and I'll do what I want. It's my mind and I'll think what I want." <Eric Burdon> Last edited by pilotgi : May 5, 2003 at 08:55 AM.

May 5, 2003, 09:28 AM	#24
ryanweb macrumors member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: NY	What if.. Remember how everybody expected Chimera to become the new Apple browser, and then, boom, we've got Safari based on KDE? Why everybody is so sure that Apple will even use PPC 970? Why not Opteron from AMD? I've read an interview with head of AMD and he sounded very confident about this new chip, like he already have a very big customer to sell it to. Just a thought.

May 5, 2003, 09:32 AM	#25
Mr. Anderson Demi-God (Moderator) Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Back in VA	I'm floored by the XStation specs....if it truly can have upto 64 processors, well, damn, that's amazing. I wouldn't be able to afford one, though, but maybe one with 8 processors....3D animation would be quite snappy Don't know if I'll be able to wait for one of those, however. Probably I'll get a 970 when a dual becomes available. D __________________ "Klaatu varada nikto!"

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