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wdlove

macrumors P6
Oct 20, 2002
16,568
0
jsw said:
Yes. It's been years since I've been on the bleeding edge (long enough to forget how much that can hurt), so I figured "what the heck" and ordered one. I was going to get a 17" PB, but I don't see that happening soon, so I went with the Dev kit.

Of course, I'll let everyone know how it works out (within the fairly restrictive bounds of the agreement Apple presents before the purchase).

I'm excited for you jsw. Won't the NDA prevent you from saying much at least here on the forum. I would appreciate it if you could PM me details, pictures would be awesome. Thank you for whatever you to decide.
;)
 

feakbeak

macrumors 6502a
Oct 16, 2003
925
1
Michigan
jsw said:
Those of us (not me) who use Virtual PC might do just that.

If it is possible to install Windows on the same hardware as OS X (or, to the same end, to install some wicked-fast version of VPC), I don't see that as a bad thing for Mac sales.
VPC has had to be emulated for the PPC, but with this move to OS X perhaps VMWare will jump in. Hardware virtualization is much faster than emulation. Plus, since Windows doesn't care what x86 hardware you are running I would imagine you could dual-boot. Haven't they been talking about running multiple versions of Windows simultaneously on the new multi-core chips sometime in the not-to-distant future? If that's the case, pheraps you could run OS X and Windows side-by-side on the same box. :)

Whatever turns out - there are certainly going to be a lot more options now that Mac will share the same hardware architecture with the rest of the PC world.
 

slooksterPSV

macrumors 68040
Apr 17, 2004
3,543
305
Nowheresville
wdlove said:
I'm excited for you jsw. Won't the NDA prevent you from saying much at least here on the forum. I would appreciate it if you could PM me details, pictures would be awesome. Thank you for whatever you to decide.
;)
I'll take a pm too ;)
 

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
Assuming I keep my order (likely, but I suppose I might cancel it and use the $$ to buy the next PB rev), I'll post whatever details I'm allowed to, and I'll PM those interested with all the information I can.

I'll read the NDA closely, but I suspect that photos of the innards aren't going to be forbidden, and I'm sure I can at least allude to performance.

However, as has been mentioned in many threads, this is just a box to help developers ensure that their code ports. It's not designed to be blisteringly fast. However, if a hacked-together single 3.6GHz P4 comes even close to a dual-G5, I'll be quite impressed.
 

bidge

macrumors 6502
Jul 16, 2002
286
0
New Zealand
These were posted on another website somewhere, before you look.

These benchmarks are running under Rosetta! The code that is being run is emulated.

Sorry I had to make it big, what do you think? The person that run the benchmarks forgot that XBench was compiled for PPC, I guess it shows just how transparent Rosetta is. That's pretty impressive.
 

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*Y*

macrumors regular
Oct 19, 2004
184
0
VA
jsw said:
Assuming I keep my order (likely, but I suppose I might cancel it and use the $$ to buy the next PB rev), I'll post whatever details I'm allowed to, and I'll PM those interested with all the information I can.

I'll read the NDA closely, but I suspect that photos of the innards aren't going to be forbidden, and I'm sure I can at least allude to performance.

However, as has been mentioned in many threads, this is just a box to help developers ensure that their code ports. It's not designed to be blisteringly fast. However, if a hacked-together single 3.6GHz P4 comes even close to a dual-G5, I'll be quite impressed.

Can You PM me too? Thanks.
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
bidge said:
These were posted on another website somewhere, before you look.

So, if I'm reading correctly, that machine runs PPC apps under Rosetta at about...what...the speed of a G4/500-600 or so? Not too shabby. A little slower than I thought, but not too shabby.
 

CubaTBird

macrumors 68020
Apr 18, 2004
2,135
0
erm u guys.. if u saw the keynote.. he's getting basically a g5 tower like computer with the p4 inside it...
 

bidge

macrumors 6502
Jul 16, 2002
286
0
New Zealand
Yeah, I want more specific details like have apple got their own motherboard? Is the cooling the same as the current cooling, all the little details.
 

Platform

macrumors 68030
Dec 30, 2004
2,880
0
jsw said:
Assuming I keep my order (likely, but I suppose I might cancel it and use the $$ to buy the next PB rev), I'll post whatever details I'm allowed to, and I'll PM those interested with all the information I can.

I'll read the NDA closely, but I suspect that photos of the innards aren't going to be forbidden, and I'm sure I can at least allude to performance.

However, as has been mentioned in many threads, this is just a box to help developers ensure that their code ports. It's not designed to be blisteringly fast. However, if a hacked-together single 3.6GHz P4 comes even close to a dual-G5, I'll be quite impressed.

Yes, please PM me :eek: :eek: :D
 

Sun Baked

macrumors G5
May 19, 2002
14,937
157
Platform said:
Yes, please PM me :eek: :eek: :D
How about he just prints it on his ass with one of the print on anything inkjets, and just gives us the scoop under the hairy moon.
 

admanimal

macrumors 68040
Apr 22, 2005
3,531
2
bidge said:
Yeah, I want more specific details like have apple got their own motherboard? Is the cooling the same as the current cooling, all the little details.

Well regardless of what is in the developer machines, Steve was pretty clear in pointing out that these will be nothing like the machines Apple releases to the (consumer) public. Unconfirmed reports say that the dev machines are regular PMs tweaked to support P4s.
 

DeepIn2U

macrumors G5
May 30, 2002
12,826
6,880
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
jsw said:
Mine has been ordered. I for one am excited about the Intel news and look forward to some cool new products....

Pls add me to the PM list as well. :cool:

Looks like JSW is the person of the hour. JSW, was wondering since your leasing this, and thinking retrospectively with Apple Developer incentives of the past, will Apple assist in promoting your application IF its ready at launch date? I think Apple should be doing this, promoting licensed-compatible MAC OS X software on their site & possibly in print, and or a mention in the next major keynote.

I think the NDA or whatever the agreement is to NOT publish details of the kits performance. Maybe the photos bidge found online was done just after the keynote with Jobs' machine, hehe. Does anyone know with deducing what cpu's Apple is going to get from Intel; or what technology on the Mobo we should hope for? I still am extremely worried, but I think I'll also purchase an iMac G5 revB this summer.
 

absolut_mac

macrumors 6502a
Oct 30, 2003
934
0
Dallas, Texas
bidge said:
No you won't get your money back. You get the machine for a year and a half and get to make sure your app works.

That seems like a bum deal to me.

The more developers Apple has on board, the greater their chances are of expanding their market share.

IMHO if Steve is really serious about enlarging Apple's market share big time, he should be giving these out for free. Not only would he get more developers on board, but eventually Apple would also benefit from a larger selection of apps and programs for their customers to choose from. A win-win situation in my book :)
 

roadapple

macrumors regular
Oct 21, 2004
218
0
absolut_mac said:
That seems like a bum deal to me.

The more developers Apple has on board, the greater their chances are of expanding their market share.

IMHO if Steve is really serious about enlarging Apple's market share big time, he should be giving these out for free. Not only would he get more developers on board, but eventually Apple would also benefit from a larger selection of apps and programs for their customers to choose from. A win-win situation in my book :)

I think most companies could have spent the $999 debating the cost of one of these systems in their 15 minute group meeting this morning. I'm not too sure that this very minimal cost has any impact on a serious developer, but keeps the mac freaks (you and me) from joining the club just to rent this machine.
 

Sun Baked

macrumors G5
May 19, 2002
14,937
157
$999

It's a nominal amount, most companies can lose far more money in equipment depreciation on machines that they buy for their development team.

Basically it's just an 18 month closed end lease. So you know how much it'll cost you upfront for it's use.
 

Mr. G4

macrumors 6502
Mar 29, 2002
299
1
Rohnert Park, CA
jsw said:
They don't say. Since it's only US$999, my guess is that you get an Intel CPU and (at Apple's prices) a 32MB stick of RAM in a plastic baggie, along with double-sided tape to use to stick it to your monitor while you program using XCode 2.1, which is free.

Whenever it arrives, I'll let you know. Hopefully, at least, it'll be one of those zip-lock baggies, not the cheap ones.

I don't know if you realized but you didn't buy it...you rent it...you have to return it by the end of 2006. I though it's quite expensive for that.
 

Mr. G4

macrumors 6502
Mar 29, 2002
299
1
Rohnert Park, CA
bidge said:
It is A 3.6Ghz P4 in a current G5 PowerMac case. It also has to be given back to apple at the end of 2006. I was going to buy one, but not if I had to give it back :(

I also want to know more about the specs of the machine. I'm sure we'll hear about them when some developers start getting them.

In the Lab at the WWDC I restarted the Mactel and press on delete to see...and like any Clone Box it went into the Bios...as the processor it says P4 and EM64T. I did some google search and it turn out that it is the Intel technology to address 64 bits memory...however, it should be only available on a Xeon...so may be Apple is working on the next Pentium already.
 

szark

macrumors 68030
May 14, 2002
2,886
0
Arid-Zone-A
I haven't decided if I'm going to get one yet. I really don't NEED it, as the few little apps I have will convert without a problem.

jsw said:
I'll read the NDA closely, but I suspect that photos of the innards aren't going to be forbidden

That's assuming that Apple doesn't weld the machine shut. :) Maybe I'll head over to the lab tomorrow and see if they'll let us look inside.

admanimal said:
Well regardless of what is in the developer machines, Steve was pretty clear in pointing out that these will be nothing like the machines Apple releases to the (consumer) public.

That's probably the main reason why they don't want benchmarks published. The developer systems will give no real indication of final performance, especially since they have another year to continue to optimize Tiger for x86.
 

LethalWolfe

macrumors G3
Jan 11, 2002
9,370
124
Los Angeles
absolut_mac said:
That seems like a bum deal to me.

The more developers Apple has on board, the greater their chances are of expanding their market share.

IMHO if Steve is really serious about enlarging Apple's market share big time, he should be giving these out for free. Not only would he get more developers on board, but eventually Apple would also benefit from a larger selection of apps and programs for their customers to choose from. A win-win situation in my book :)

If you make Mac products for a living and you cannot afford to spend $999 to rent a machine for the next year+ to make sure your products run on next gen Macs you should probably take that as a sign that you should do something else for a living.

I can't imagine any commercial companies balking at $999.
Share/freeware guys who code in their basement on the weekends sure, but not people who make their living from the Mac platform.


Lethal
 

groovebuster

macrumors 65816
Jan 22, 2002
1,249
101
3rd rock from the sun...
LethalWolfe said:
If you make Mac products for a living and you cannot afford to spend $999 to rent a machine for the next year+ to make sure your products run on next gen Macs you should probably take that as a sign that you should do something else for a living.
Exactly my thoughts! :)

The same can be said about pro software. I know many people who are bitching about pro software being so expensive... But hey, spending 1500$ for a nice app that you can use for 2 years and make higher revenue with, is nothing compared to the labour costs one person is causing during that time.

There is a reason why there are so called "consumer apps". The number of amateur users who need really an app like Photoshop or FCP is very limited. And if video editing is really a decent hobby of a private user, then so be it that the person has to spend the same as a pro for this app. There are many hobbies in this world that cost way more than e.g. the Adobe CS and nobody is bitching about it. If you pick a hobby you know about the "extra costs" in advance. I always wonder why people feel so different about it when it comes down to computers and software...

groovebuster
 
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