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A New PowerPC laptop in 2020?!?!

im_to_hyper

im_to_hyper

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 25, 2004
1,387
401
Pasadena, California, USA
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In 2020? Never. It's only about prototypes so far. Until this notebook can be sold the NXP CPUs are obsolete.
 
I think I’ve seen this thread pop up almost every year since like 2015, all with roughly the same title.

And the laptop in question is still an insanely over priced machine for the niche of a niche market with little to no intended audience or support.

PowerPC by name, not by reputation, if you will.
 
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im_to_hyper said:
This is... off topic since it’s not a Mac. But. It’s half relevant because it’s PowerPC (PowerPC Hackintosh, anyone?!?!).

Anyway, found this Open Laptop project fundraiser and thought I would check in to see if anyone else is contributing!

Dunno why, but I would be happy to have this for Linux, etc.

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This is NOT fake news.. I am excited about that - maybe PowerPC still has life in it. Back in the day I was a PPC loyalist. Loved PPC and still do which is why I have 3 PPC machines: a G5 Quad, PB G4 AL DLSD, and a PowerBook G4 Pismo. Now, if I can get in good condition a PB G4 Titanium 1ghz then I will be a happy camper.
 
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That isn't VapoWare and it would be pretty cool to have a new PowerPC notebook. But I think before this notebook is on sale RaptorCS released a POWER notebook.
 
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Actually, PowerPC is coming back - when Apple dumps Intel for RISC ARM - as far as I am concerned, its another PowerPC derivative.
 
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Macbookprodude said:
This is NOT fake news.. I am excited about that - maybe PowerPC still has life in it. Back in the day I was a PPC loyalist. Loved PPC and still do which is why I have 3 PPC machines: a G5 Quad, PB G4 AL DLSD, and a PowerBook G4 Pismo. Now, if I can get in good condition a PB G4 Titanium 1ghz then I will be a happy camper.
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Keep your eyes open on Mercari!!! Often there are random machines in great condition that pop up out of the blue!

ks23 said:
That isn't VapoWare and it would be pretty cool to have a new PowerPC notebook. But I think before this notebook is on sale RaptorCS released a POWER notebook.
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Honestly - I've really wanted to grab their motherboard/POWER CPU combo but it has been too cost-prohibitive for me at this time, sadly. I also would need to research GPU compatibility, etc I suppose!

Macbookprodude said:
Actually, PowerPC is coming back - when Apple dumps Intel for RISC ARM - as far as I am concerned, its another PowerPC derivative.
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Waaaaait a second!! Open-RISC / RISC-V and ARM are all derivatives of PowerPC?? Or are ARM and PowerPC RISC derivatives?
 
ARM is similar to PowerPC - both are RISC processors.. The bottom line is I want to see Intel suffer and go down very hard. Its about time ARM(PowerPC's little brother) to come back and bite intel. I never liked Ottelini and the wafer being given to Jobs - that was a stab in the back. The G5 could have been reformed and made to work. We also had the time G4 dual capability in the higher end freescale PowerPC chips at the time. I just don't like Intel and their monopoly and making us look bad.

Remember the snail video ? Yeah.
 
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The ARM and POWER architectures are different beasts entirely. The only trait they really share is their RISC heritage.

There is a reason one is only found in phones and embedded devices and the other exclusively in gigantic supercomputers and high-end workstations.

-

The move to Intel was largely a Jobs decision, to my understanding. I think he was the one that stabbed P.A. Semi's back when he blew off PWRficient in favor of Intel's Core series. In his words, Apple was "done with POWER".

Which is OK, because who wants to be trapped in an appliance anyway? ;)
 
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It actually gets even worse than that. Apple started out with Motorola's G series of PPC processors. Yeah, that's where the G3 name comes from. But they dumped them for an IBM designed POWER4 derivative which they named the G5. No, Motorola was not happy about any of this.
 
What Power CPU would be suitable for a laptop? I know the POWER9 processors are for server & workstation applications. I know Apple never made a G5 laptop because they couldn't meet the thermal requirements (too hot).
 
RogerWilco6502 said:
Yeah, I meant that too. I should've been clearer. The ARM transition wouldn't really affect me because I use separate PCs and Macs and don't virtualize, but I could definitely see it causing issues for some users.
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It's possible that ARM Macs will officially run the ARM version of Windows 10, and even if they don't, it's only a matter of time before someone figures out how to do it. And what about macOS on WoA devices? "Hackintosh 2.0" :cool:
 
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Amethyst1 said:
It's possible that ARM Macs will officially run the ARM version of Windows 10, and even if they don't, it's only a matter of time before someone figures out how to do it. And what about macOS on WoA devices? "Hackintosh 2.0" :cool:
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That would be pretty epic. Maybe that would also encourage more developers to write applications for Windows 10 ARM. :D

"Hackintosh 2.0" would be a fun experiment for sure. :p
 
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