2nd processor in the Tibook

[Geert]

Just been reading the article on the possible release of the new PM on August 5th.

But when I scrolled all the way up there is another article that caught my attention (first article)

Seems that somebody in the US opened his Tibook and that there is a new, rather strange motherboard inside, providing place for a second proccessor. He said that he did not find any pictures, but asked if somebody recently acquired a new Tibook 800 and needed to open it up for some reason to take a look, to see if this is a really the case.

Any of you guys know something about this?

 

[4409723]

Yeah, he was also asking anybody else with a tibook to open up their keyboard and have a look. Somebody have a newly bought powerbook?

 

[Mr. Anderson]

hmm, time to go to the Apple Store and look under the hood - heh, I bet I could get one of the employees to do it for me. I'll try to do it soon.

D

 

[4409723]

Yeah dukestreet, if you can, check that out for us ;-).

 

[AlphaTech]

Is this alteration supposed to be on just the very latest shipments of the TiBook or on all of the DVI TiBooks?? I have one from around May (purchased within the first month of their release) which I could open up and look at when I get home. Provided it will be the correct one to check out.

 

[4409723]

If I remember correctly the slot for a second processor was only on the newest powerbooks, check the article I can't remember.

 

[jefhatfield]

since the second processor is not always on or being told to run, i could see this as a possibility for a tibook

but even if it does not run too hot, will it reduce battery time to an unacceptable level?

for example:

there is this pentium 4 pc laptop i saw reviewed with a 15" inch screen XGA res. running 64 MB DDR SDRAM video but the laptop only got 2 hours and 5 minutes on a standard test running word

this laptop got docked for its bad battery time and this shows that if you put too much horsepower into a mobile laptop, something will suffer and most likely it will be battery time

notice that there are no 128 MB video cards for laptops and 17" inch lcd screens yet?

also, a heavy laptop is not a good thing and packing everything into something that weighs less than six or seven pounds is not an easy thing to do

i do hope to eventually see a dualie tibook as prices for mobile processors come down and parts and components are increasingly miniaturized

 

[Geert]

Originally posted by AlphaTech
Is this alteration supposed to be on just the very latest shipments of the TiBook or on all of the DVI TiBooks?? I have one from around May (purchased within the first month of their release) which I could open up and look at when I get home. Provided it will be the correct one to check out.

Don't know, it just says Powerbook G4 800.
So technically yours is ....
But hey, don't blame me if things get screwed up.

 

[arn]

I saw this newsitem...

seems very unlikely...

arn

 

[alex_ant]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
since the second processor is not always on or being told to run, i could see this as a possibility for a tibook

but even if it does not run too hot, will it reduce battery time to an unacceptable level?

I would imagine if there were a DP TiBook there would be an option to switch off the second processor when using the battery (or whenever). I don't think it would be too unrealistic to espect a little CPU icon right in the menu bar next to the clock and the battery life indicators. "Multiprocessing on, multiprocessing off!"

If OS X doesn't support this, there's always processor cycling and speed reduction. I'm sure there would be a way to work dual processors into a TiBook while keeping battery life and heat at an acceptable level.

also, a heavy laptop is not a good thing and packing everything into something that weighs less than six or seven pounds is not an easy thing to do

I don't think a second processor would add much weight. I haven't seen the insides of an Apollo TiBook, but the 550MHz 7440 in the rev B is quite small and has to weigh well under 100 grams. (Not too familiar with either the metric OR the customary system when dealing with small weights, sorry )

Or small masses, what-the-****-ever.

 

[tjwett]

the processor in the TiBooks has a heatsink and pipes completely covering it and going all over the place. even if there was space for a new processor, which there isn't, how do they intend to cool it? have you ever looked inside a TiBook? there is VERY little room for anything at all, surely not enough for another processor. i think the guy who made the "discovery" doesn't know what he is looking at. or he's just making it up.

 

[jefhatfield]

too bad

i don't know of any pcs out there with two processors in a laptop

battery mode could very well be set up to turn off the second processor and have it automatically kick in with the ac connection

and having a manual override of the default could be a great option, too...kind of like speedstep or powernow technologies on the pcs

 

[bousozoku]

Considering my dual 800 MHz PowerMac and the 2.5 inch or so fan, connected to the 3 inch heatsink over the processors, I think it's hard to believe they'll be using two processors in a PowerBook any time soon.

Think of the battery they could use in such a machine. Even with the drain of two processors, they could still have 12-15 hours of battery life.

 

[alex_ant]

Originally posted by tjwett
the processor in the TiBooks has a heatsink and pipes completely covering it and going all over the place. even if there was space for a new processor, which there isn't, how do they intend to cool it? have you ever looked inside a TiBook? there is VERY little room for anything at all, surely not enough for another processor. i think the guy who made the "discovery" doesn't know what he is looking at. or he's just making it up.

You have a 550MHz TiBook, right? Or was that someone else? On my 550, there is a 3/4" x roughly 3.5" gap of empty space at the rear of the combo drive. I'm not sure if that's been eliminated on the rev Cs, but the CPU is only about 1" x 1" anyway. With dual fans or liquid cooling I'm sure a DP TiBook would be possible, not least in terms of space. Would there be some retooling of the motherboard design required? Probably.

Alex

 

[Joshlew]

It COULD be done, there's little doubt about that, but how much extra cooling
equipment would you need?

And what what happen to the price?

And what what happen to the weight?

And what what happen to the battery life?

And would the TiBook become thicker?

 

[alex_ant]

Originally posted by Joshlew
It COULD be done, there's little doubt about that, but how much extra cooling
equipment would you need?

And what what happen to the price?

And what what happen to the weight?

And what what happen to the battery life?

And would the TiBook become thicker?

1 - I dunno
2 - Way up
3 - Not more difference than adding an AirPort card
4 - Depends whether or not you'd be able to switch the 2nd CPU off
5 - I doubt it

There aren't any dual PC notebooks out there. There really isn't much likelihood of them either because of battery life and heat issues. If Apple could step up and deliver an SMP notebook, it would sell very well even if it cost $4500 because nobody else offers anything like that - Apple would have the high-high-end notebook market all to itself. MARGINS!

 

[funkywhat2]

margins are good.......does anyone have a pic?

 

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by Joshlew
It COULD be done, there's little doubt about that, but how much extra cooling
equipment would you need?

And what what happen to the price?

And what what happen to the weight?

And what what happen to the battery life?

And would the TiBook become thicker?

the price of the dualie will initially be TOO HIGH

the wieght will stay under seven pounds so that's still ok

battery life will go way down if both processors will be used, but how many things make both run full bore?

ti is so thin now, a little thicker won't really hurt it any

apple has not done anything "super" revolutionary in a BIG WAY since the 1998 imac...form and price and design all at once

a dualie ti would be just as big in a hardware sense but due to price, it wouldn't sell like the original imac

but laptop and mobile computing magazines would go nuts...they already love the tibook, usually 4 out of 5 stars, and it tops many lists for best portable

a dualie would also rank very high and if apple somehow got that thing over dual 1 ghz and under three grand, it would get that coveted five star rating in a pc magazine

 

[Arcady]

Proof please.

Anyone remember when MOSR was claiming that some people got TiBooks returned from Apple Service with combo drives in them? (this was way before the combo drive was offered.) They never had any proof, pics, or anything to back up the claim.

If someone has a PowerBook with dual cpu sockets (the current logic board has a soldered CPU - there is no socket) then why not take a pic and post it. Apple cannot remove a picture of a currently shipped product, even if it was a mistake.

 

[alex_ant]

Originally posted by AlphaTech
Is this alteration supposed to be on just the very latest shipments of the TiBook or on all of the DVI TiBooks?? I have one from around May (purchased within the first month of their release) which I could open up and look at when I get home. Provided it will be the correct one to check out.

Are you home yet, slowy?

 

[cb911]

yeah, come on AlphaTech! i wanna see this!

 

[Screamingbeaver]

The Wait....

We are waiting..... We gotsta gotsta know!

 

[jefhatfield]

Re: The Wait....

Originally posted by Screamingbeaver
We are waiting..... We gotsta gotsta know!

whether they have it now or in two years or later, i don't care too much

i just want to see apple put one out and be the "first" dualie laptop

battery times and laptop form factor and weight can improve with each successive model

the g4 is dual -"able"

 

[tjwett]

Originally posted by alex_ant

You have a 550MHz TiBook, right? Or was that someone else? On my 550, there is a 3/4" x roughly 3.5" gap of empty space at the rear of the combo drive. I'm not sure if that's been eliminated on the rev Cs, but the CPU is only about 1" x 1" anyway. With dual fans or liquid cooling I'm sure a DP TiBook would be possible, not least in terms of space. Would there be some retooling of the motherboard design required? Probably.

Alex

keyboard is off and i'm looking into my 550 right now and i don't see the empty space behind the optical drive. the first thing to the rear of the drive is he ribbon cable for the keyboard and beyond that there is a area the size you described but it's occupied with various diodes, conductors, and other electronic thingys i know nothing about. i still don't see another proc fitting in here. let me know if i'm looking in the wrong place. i want to see this before i ship this thing away soon.

 

[Geert]

yeah, come on AlphaTech! i wanna see this!

I think he slipped with his screwdriver, it has been two days since he replied to the topic here.

Surely hope that that is not the case Alpha, it would hurt me to see a Tibook 800 got wasted.