Powerbook Rumors Again

MacRumors · Jul 20, 2003

MacBidouille claims to have reliable information on upcoming Powerbook updates.

They claim that the long-awaited Powerbooks will make an appearance at the "end of the next month" and will be produced with the PowerPC 7457 from Motorola. Speeds are expected to be 1.1, 1.25 and 1.33 GHz with USB 2.0 and Firewire 800 throughout the entire line.

This information is consistent with expectations from The Register that this processor will be used in upcoming Powerbooks. Availability of the 7457 is expected Q3 2003, per previous reports with a top speed of 1.3GHz.

A recent Page 2 Rumor, however, pegs the Powerbook releases in September (presumably at Apple-Expo in Paris).

gunb0y · Jul 20, 2003

bring 'em on!

crenz · Jul 20, 2003

Firewire 800

That would mean no more OS9 boot compatibility for the 15" PowerBook...

Apart from that, IMHO it is not hard anymore to guess at the specs for the new powerbooks. And that they will arrive some time soon is obvious as well. My guess is we'll see a number of "rumors" from different sources stating the obvious: We know they're gonna come, we know they'll use the new Motorola CPU, but we don't know exactly when 🙂.

beefcake · Jul 20, 2003

Great, I need to make a purchase by the beginning of next month for school, excellent timing Apple.

Stella · Jul 20, 2003

Deja Vu of macwhispers

Each time I read these 15.4" PB soon.. I get Deja vu of macwhispers -
"New PowerBooks out tomorrow, iPods *definitely* being released tomorrow etc etc"!!

Until I see it, now, I simply won't believe any such reports ;-)

Having said that, MacBidouille is an excellent track record recently..

shecky · Jul 20, 2003

"end of next month" = as late as August 31st

grrrrrrrrr........... i hope this means i can have one in my hands by 1st week of September or its a no go for me personally.

mistersquid · Jul 20, 2003

7457

Anyone care to offer some comments on the 7457 CPU, its similarities to the current G4 processor in the PB line and what, if any, improvements it might bring?

I'll probably google some stuff myself, but I always love a good showing in the peanut gallery.
_______________

OK, google returns this as the first newsource regarding the 7457. Looks like the shrinking of the die will give about a 30% boost to the clock. From what I can tell, the 7457 is a toe-the-line improvement to the 7455 given the presence of IBM's PPC 970. Natch there will be improvements to the architecture of the PB line, but for the first time starting in August or September, Apple will have a huge performance difference between its desktop and powerbook lines. Looks like this will be the year of the laptop getting lapped!

MetallicPenguin · Jul 20, 2003

I don't need one before school starts (because I don't need one for school, and I won't until college because our school was stupid and invested in some Palm thing, so there are no laptops allowed just really outdated Palms).

But I sure as heck want one before I have to go back.

vniow · Jul 20, 2003

Re: 7457

Originally posted by mistersquid
Anyone care to offer some comments on the 7457 CPU, its similarities to the current G4 processor in the PB line and what, if any, improvements it might bring?

200Mhz bus, low power consumption and DDR support are just a few of the things I can think of from the top of my head, you know, stuff that was cool last year..

ZildjianKX · Jul 20, 2003

Hey Arn, ya forgot this:

As for the G5 protables, they shall arrive at the beginning of 2004 (perhaps February). There's still much work to do on the motherboard controller that dissipates too much heat. They'll have to engrave it in 0,09 Microns.

Also, I still wonder if the 15" will be 15.4" and have a Radeon 9600m...

Catfish_Man · Jul 20, 2003

Re: 7457

Originally posted by mistersquid
Anyone care to offer some comments on the 7457 CPU, its similarities to the current G4 processor in the PB line and what, if any, improvements it might bring?

I'll probably google some stuff myself, but I always love a good showing in the peanut gallery.

There's no "might" about it. Motorola has released the info for this chip. It's a .13 micron version of the G4 with double the L2 cache and a few very minor tweaks. The only rumors I've heard going around about it are about possible 200MHz bus support (Moto claims 167MHz bus support, but they claimed 133 while Apple was shipping 167MHz parts, so that's not always reliable). The improvements over the 7455 are: Bigger cache, smaller chip, lower power, lower heat, higher clock frequency

anastasis · Jul 20, 2003

They need to give it a 15.4" screen and pop a great video card in it for portable gaming. Also, why don't they offer different screens for them? Every other manufacturer has SXGA and UXGA for their laptops. I would love to see a new laptop with an ATI Radeon Mobility that supports a 1900 x 1200 resolution. I currently have a Dell Inspiron 8500 (I had to sell my powerbook to get this for a new job) and it sports that resolution and it is amazing!!

chomsky · Jul 20, 2003

Personally, I'm more concerned about the video chipset upgrade than the CPU upgrade. I want a 128mb radeon 9600 in my "17 powerbook.... the geforce4 440 just can't drive 1440x900 3D very smoothly.

If this is indeed the new motorola chip though, we'll probably see faster bus speeds across the board. I think 200mhz was the referenced estimate?

mmm... faster superdrive, faster video, faster mem bus... *drooool***

I also think that this fits in well with the current student discount - the discount will deplete the stores of older models, then when the discount is over... comes the announcement.

Please, apple! Please!!

blueBomber · Jul 20, 2003

I'm really hoping that the 12" gets an L3 cache this time around, and if it were to hit 1 ghz, that would be pretty sweet too.

DGFan · Jul 20, 2003

This may also tie into the educational discount being improved. What better way to clear out inventory than to offer a better discounts to students looking for a laptio this fall?

DGFan · Jul 20, 2003

Re: Re: 7457

Originally posted by vniow
200Mhz bus, low power consumption and DDR support are just a few of the things I can think of from the top of my head, you know, stuff that was cool last year..

Are we talking *real* DDR support or the fakey kind of support they have now?

arn · Jul 20, 2003

Re: Re: Re: 7457

Originally posted by DGFan
Are we talking *real* DDR support or the fakey kind of support they have now?

if the processor supports it - real.

arn

xDANx · Jul 20, 2003

Re: Powerbook Rumors Again

Originally posted by Macrumors

They claim that the long-awaited Powerbooks will make an appearance at the "end of the next month" and will be produced with the PowerPC 7457 from Motorola . . . Availability of the 7457 is Q3 2004, per previous reports with a top speed of 1.3GHz.

maybe i'm missing something here...but if the 7457 isn't expected until the 3rd quarter of 2004 then why would anyone expect that new powerbooks would ship with 7457s by the end of august? or is it just a typo and it's really Q3 2003 (which would seem to make much more sense)?

orangeclockwork · Jul 20, 2003

So does this mean I can buy a powerbook say mid-august...and if they come out with the new ones late august I could then trade it in for the new one??? I just can't go to school (august 22) without anything

AppleMatt · Jul 20, 2003

What's this about 'fake' DDR support at the mo?

AppleMatt

arn · Jul 20, 2003

Re: Re: Powerbook Rumors Again

Originally posted by xDANx
maybe i'm missing something here...but if the 7457 isn't expected until the 3rd quarter of 2004 then why would anyone expect that new powerbooks would ship with 7457s by the end of august? or is it just a typo and it's really Q3 2003 (which would seem to make much more sense)?

er... sorry, typo.

Q3 2003

arn

Billicus · Jul 20, 2003

Great! Now I don't know what to do about getting a 17" PowerBook. But I suppose that if I wait forever, I'll always be disappointed with what I could get verses what I can get.😱

Kermit · Jul 20, 2003

Fake DDR support

Motorola better have put in a 200MHz bus in these babies so that they can run on DDR400-memory without the processor being the bottleneck. If they haven't I'll be really mad. Not mad as in CRAZY mind you, mad as in ANGRY!! 😡

beefcake · Jul 20, 2003

Originally posted by orangeclockwork
So does this mean I can buy a powerbook say mid-august...and if they come out with the new ones late august I could then trade it in for the new one??? I just can't go to school (august 22) without anything

I know what you mean. I leave August 30th, but if the PB's aren't available by then I could probably bring an old desktop.

Hurry up Motorola 😡

Waluigi · Jul 20, 2003

Originally posted by beefcake
I know what you mean. I leave August 30th, but if the PB's aren't available by then I could probably bring an old desktop.

Hurry up Motorola 😡

Yea, I'm taking a few old PC boxes with me too. That is, until my G5 arrives on september 25th....then I can enjoy destroying them in an open field somewhere with a sledge hammer (a la office space)

--Waluigi

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