970 at WWDC?

[Flynnstone]

There is no difference between a "embedded" microprocessor and a "desktop" microprocessor.
The only difference is the marketting.

 

[Snowy_River]

Originally posted by Flynnstone
There is no difference between a "embedded" microprocessor and a "desktop" microprocessor.
The only difference is the marketting.

That's simply not true. One very basic difference is that the embedded chips don't have Altivec. There are also some slight differences in the way some parts of the interface is implemented.

Simply put, you can't just take a G4 that was manufactured for the embedded market and put it into your Mac. They are, in fact, two different chips, manufactured on two different production lines, etc.

 

[Flynnstone]

Originally posted by Snowy_River
That's simply not true. One very basic difference is that the embedded chips don't have Altivec. There are also some slight differences in the way some parts of the interface is implemented.

Simply put, you can't just take a G4 that was manufactured for the embedded market and put it into your Mac. They are, in fact, two different chips, manufactured on two different production lines, etc.

Embedded microprocessors do have Altivec.
Is there slight differences? yes and no.

Case in point. The Motorola 68332 microcontroller is used in a lot of automobiles (and other industrial systems). They come in three speed grades 16, 20 and 25 MHz. Is there any difference between the chips ... no really, they are labeled differently. All chips meet at least the 20 MHz spec. But why a 16 MHz part. Because GM buys by part number.
Now what about Apple. Motorola doesn't seem to offer 7455 in a 1.42 GHz speed grade (as seen by there web site). What Motorola does (for Apple) is test the chips to 1.42 GHz. Apple gets the best of the lot!
There could be variation in the 7455, because there appears to be two mask revisions.

This link to a doc about Motorola PVR register values for different PPC.
http://e-www.motorola.com/collateral/PPCPVR.pdf

So you are correct in one respect, that it may not be likely that you can buy a 7455 from a distributor and drop it into your Mac and run it at 1.42 GHz. ( but if you cool it enough, maybe you can!)

 

[Flynnstone]

In my previous post about the Motorola document, a couple comments about the contents :
- The PPC designers appear to be James Bond and Star Trek fans
- The 7457 is on it's second rev.
- Curious, no mention of the 7447.
- No G5s

On another note (but related)

Does Motorola have a 0.13 um fab running yet ? or are they using TSMC ?