Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple and High-End Graphics?

Don't you all remember?

Apple bought Raycer Graphics a long time ago. (http://www.architosh.com/news/1999-11/1104-raycer-applebuy.phtml) My theory... Apple is looking beyond nVidia and ATI. Yes, these guys are necessary for the consumer, but the professional needs something more. Apple is building a graphics card with technology they bought, to provide the professional a system to out-class anything SGI has out there. This is what's needed for Apple to sell to the VFX studios and to give PIXAR the power tools they need. While I hate to say it, I think SGI is toast.
 
Originally posted by canadianmacguy
You know, we're all never going to figure it out.. I'm just going to enjoy the leadup to MWNY, and hope that TechTV carries the keynote, as I finally get the channel!
Click to expand...

Well, neighbor to the North, they should definitely broadcast it...they did last time.

Only weird thing is that they essentially TiVo it to get commercials and such in, so by the end you're like 10 minute behind the "real" keynote...but hey, it sure beats trying to fight a million other people for a 320x240 pixellated QT stream.:D

I think a new graphics card is an interesting rumor, especially with the QuartzGL requirements...but I think the chances of them buying nVidia or ATI is somewhere in the area between slim and none.
 
i would like to see something like this just for the knowledge that it is there..but even if such a product was released, the likelihood of it being used in consumer-level products in any near future is none...but still, it might make a few sales in the professional side of things,,
 
So I'm confused...

Could someone please explain to me why in the world any credibility is being given to a rumour from Spymac? Wonder what the iWalk will look like THIS time...

Seems obvious to me, what with their recent purchases and all, that Apple has something regarding 'graphics' in the pipeline.

(tig)
 
This only thing is... and I'll be the first to admit that it isn't a huge deal... but wouldn't Apple be better off doing such an announcment (whatever) at a west coast event? I mean in these days of Satellite and now live streaming via akimi (hmmm I wonder... will MP4 be used to stream the NY event and was that a major reason to release it a bit early??) it doesn't really matter too much but still I'm not 100% sure Apple will do 'as well' making such an announcment in NYC.

Then again what do I know... I've never been an iCEO and I never figured the 1st iMac would do so well either... Oh and I really loved the Cube (cept the price) but since I've always loved OS X I guess my record isn't too bad. ;)

Oh and BTW for those who can't make it out here to NYC for the July event start calling your local Apple Marketing Center (if you have one) since even the one in NYC will be showing the broadcast... And that's where I'm gonna watch it. I hate waiting in lines and hate it when I can't connect to a stream oh yea and I like the leather chairs at the NYC office much better than the hard plastic ones at the Javits Center. :)

Dave
 
when Nvidia acquired 3Dfx they acquired their SLI technology which essentially allows two or four graphics chips to work together, each one rendering a different frame. Now Nvidia wouldn't want to implement this on the PC side because it would canabalize their quadro line sales which are very high margin. But since they don't sell quadro's to the mac, there is no reason Apple couldn't do something similar providing a very high performance with a *relatively* low cost.

Alternatively, since Apple is targetting video applications so heavily, maybe they are developing a co-GPU that handles 2D superfast since both Nvidia and ATI seem to be more focused on 3D apps.
 
Re: So I'm confused...

Originally posted by The Grimace
Could someone please explain to me why in the world any credibility is being given to a rumour from Spymac? Wonder what the iWalk will look like THIS time...

Seems obvious to me, what with their recent purchases and all, that Apple has something regarding 'graphics' in the pipeline.

(tig)
Click to expand...

Well, let me explain why. They have been right lately a lot, and this is a rumor site, and we discuss rumors. We had a flamewar with them, and it was settled professionally, so please refrain from flaming them.

Thanks.
 
Pixar's Renderman for OS X?

My guess would be that Pixar have ported their Renderman graphics package to Mac OS X. Now Apple have XServe, with Jobs connections, and as Renderman already runs on IRIX, Windows NT and Linux, this would make sense. Tie this in with a dedicated graphics card, and Apple is ready to take over in this lucrative market.
 
Renderman

I think a OSX version of Renderman is pretty likely, at some point anyway. The Renderman FAQ on Pixars says " Does RAT run on Macintosh (OSX) ? - No, not at THIS time"...

And it would only make sense. Apple really needs Renderman if they want to be taken seriously in the high-end CG market and start selling XServe in effect houses...there just isn't any high-end renderer currently available on the mac (Ok, there is Lightwave3D and Cinema4D, but they are hardly used beyond TV productions).

Interesting times ahead, the mac is back with a vengeance ;-) and we all follow it religiously :)
 
I just have to say that this is a welcome change to see Apple operating on so many fronts. Even if they're size revenuewise doesn't reflect them as being one of the big boys, they have their hands in quite a bit of things. They've been making moves in the graphics and video market for years now and quite frankly I really haven't noticed much of a presense from MS in any of those markets. That alone seems disturbing in some way but I guess we'll see what happens.
 
All this talk about the web, HyperTransport, RapidI/O, 3GIO, G4s & G5s, DDR, DSPs, AGP 8x...

Apple, IBM, Motorola, nVidia...

Nothing Real, Silicon Grail, that FireWire company that starts with a 'Z' but I cannot remember how to spell right now, FilmLogic, FCP from Macromedia, etc. ...

Mac OS X 10.2 - JagWire...

Pixar, RenderMan, Alias|wavefront, Maya...

MacWorld New York 2002 looks to be pretty exciting...

And I would love to see the reactions if Apple showed up at Siggraph this year...!

Cheers!
 
Originally posted by MacRonin
All this talk about the web, HyperTransport, RapidI/O, 3GIO, G4s & G5s, DDR, DSPs, AGP 8x...

Apple, IBM, Motorola, nVidia...

Nothing Real, Silicon Grail, that FireWire company that starts with a 'Z' but I cannot remember how to spell right now, FilmLogic, FCP from Macromedia, etc. ...

Mac OS X 10.2 - JagWire...

Pixar, RenderMan, Alias|wavefront, Maya...

MacWorld New York 2002 looks to be pretty exciting...

And I would love to see the reactions if Apple showed up at Siggraph this year...!

Cheers!
Click to expand...

I'm not sure we're going to see AGP 8x or even much of some of the other technologies you mentioned in the first paragraph. Apple has always trailed the PC industry in those areas and I can't see that changing unfortunately. The software side is a different story though. Things do look to be exciting for MacWord in both July and January.

I'm also thinking that since Apple is staggering out releases this year of products, we're probably going to see some new stuff show up not long before xmas. Could be an expensive xmas. ;)
 
Originally posted by Eple
Whay apple needs to do is to put all the different GPU's on one card like this.

:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Dude, you need to either stop takin drugs, or stop drinking your nappy bong water. :rolleyes: :p :D

That has the same chance of happening as a snowball being found in the center of the planet. Or the sun has of dying tomorrow.
 
Re: Don't you all remember?

Originally posted by Scottgfx
Apple bought Raycer Graphics a long time ago. (http://www.architosh.com/news/1999-11/1104-raycer-applebuy.phtml) My theory... Apple is looking beyond nVidia and ATI. Yes, these guys are necessary for the consumer, but the professional needs something more. Apple is building a graphics card with technology they bought, to provide the professional a system to out-class anything SGI has out there. This is what's needed for Apple to sell to the VFX studios and to give PIXAR the power tools they need. While I hate to say it, I think SGI is toast.
Click to expand...

Is no one listening/reading the posts? Scottgfx hit it on the head. Raycer is something we need more information on and the technology that has been building up since the purchase. Don't be surprised if Apple only sells the graphic chips as an option to high end users. Might not be this year, but it'll come soon enough. Enough with nVidia purchase.
 
Re: Re: Don't you all remember?

Originally posted by Archer


Is no one listening/reading the posts? Scottgfx hit it on the head. Raycer is something we need more information on and the technology that has been building up since the purchase. Don't be surprised if Apple only sells the graphic chips as an option to high end users. Might not be this year, but it'll come soon enough. Enough with nVidia purchase.
Click to expand...

Many folks probably already knew about this unless their head was in the sand. The Raycer deal took place back in like Nov or Dec of 1999. It *might* have something to do with upcoming announcements and products but I wouldn't base anything on it with that having taken place so long ago. Just do a search on Google for "Raycer" and "Apple" and you'll know all anyone else knows which is pretty much nothing that could apply to the hear and now.

It's all rumors.

I'm suprised no one has even brought up the acquisition of Spruce Technologies who developed dvd software and hardware products. I'm sure someone wants dvd products in a pda with highend graphics. ;)
 
Re: Apple and High-End Graphics?



In April, Architosh had discussed the possibiliy of an Apple
[/B]
Click to expand...



"While Mac and PC users both have much
to say about Apple's shortcomings in the
3D and special effects worlds, it has
been clearly indentified for more than
two years now that Apple's two chief
performance concerns amount to: one,
the lack of 'workstation level' graphics
card options and, two, low bandwidth
on the motherboard.The G4, itself, is not
necessarily complained about. In fact,
the G4 architecture has always been cited
for its strong floating point performance
and AltiVec processing unit." - Architosh article


The hard rumours about a high bandwidth G4 Pro series due this Fall seem to be targeted to address these issues which have also been raised by ego driven consumers. The graphics processor card seems to be a likely build to order option since even gamers are not likely to need dual graphics processors, only fast ones. As I understand it Quake geeks (or other games) get higher frame rates on a Mac than a peecee right now.

G5 or not, it seems likely there will be a "high bandwidth" motherboard very soon and a related graphics card, or in the case of pro boxes, a large count PCI slot box. These guys often buy external PCI slot bozes to support the many cards they buy.

It's time for a home budget mac to have the power to author Toy Story 4.

Rocketman



avatar.jpg
 
Raycer was a hardware company that never actually produced any hardware... They were working on the design for a chip that would do backside culling & occlusion on graphics data streams, before the stream hit the GPU... This would reduce the amount of polygons that would need to be rendered, thereby allowing the GPU to work harder on polys that the end user would actually see... I am sure it took transparancy/translucency/light transmission into account...

Now, if we corrolate this theoretical chip (let's call it a DSP...) with the posts by folks over at AppleInsider (particularly those of Moki) then this could be a possible DSP that is designed to assist the CPU/GPU in working smarter...

But this is all conjecture and heresay, so apply several grains of salt...
 
Re: Re: Apple and High-End Graphics?

Originally posted by Rocketman
The G4, itself, is not
necessarily complained about. In fact,
the G4 architecture has always been cited
for its strong floating point performance
and AltiVec processing unit." - Architosh article
Click to expand...

That's interesting. I've always heard the floating point be criticized negatively on the G3 and G4. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but it was my understanding that they were based off of the 603 design rather than the 604 design which was more fpu happy.

Originally posted by Rocketman
As I understand it Quake geeks (or other games) get higher frame rates on a Mac than a peecee right now.
Click to expand...

Care to cite some sources? I've only heard of that from blind Mac fanatics and they've been disproven by hard facts everytime on the PC side. Note that I'm not arguing one over the other just that the Mac side always comes up inaccurate when investigated or severely skewed.

Originally posted by Rocketman

G5 or not, it seems likely there will be a "high bandwidth" motherboard very soon and a related graphics card, or in the case of pro boxes, a large count PCI slot box. These guys often buy external PCI slot bozes to support the many cards they buy.
Click to expand...

The high bandwidth motherboard rumor has circulated for many months now and it's a sure bet to happen. I would just like to know what Apple will consider "high bandwidth". An upgraded system with PC2100 ram hardly qualifies these days as high bandwidth unless they work some magic and beat everyone to the punch with dual channel ddr.

It would really be nice to know just how many G5's if any Moto might have produced so far. If they are producing them, perhaps Apple might release an upper class citizen for a workstation system with a G5 at a high price point to milk some profits as well as keep the demand low since the number of G5's produced and shipped probably wouldn't be too high with Cisco being in the mix for getting them as well.

Again all speculation. :)
 
Renderman to OSX

Hmmmmm....it does seem like Apple is positioning itself to be a major player in the world of 3D production. The only problem I see right now is in the workstation (G4). it just doesnt have the muscle to perform as well as SGI's O2's yet. They are 64-bit powerhouses that can practically hardware render. However, you could easily spend 15grand a pop on these puppies.

However, Apple does have the XServe, Maya (although its still 3.5), a Unix core, and a very good friendship with Pixar.

I never never never never thought I would say it, but if Apple could get a powerful workstation out the door (and no, the current lineup of G4's STILL dont quite cut it) in a relatively low price (under 5 grand??) they could become a MAJOR player in the 3D world. It all comes down to the workstation in my opinion.

One more thing, it would still take some convincing from 'boss man' Jobs to get Pixar to switch over to all Apple equipment. They are making great films, and have their system streamlined. Why fix it if it aint broke? The last thing Pixar needs is to go dinking around with a formula that already works and screw themselves up.
 
Re: Renderman to OSX

Agreed! I think this is one of the reasons Jobs has made it a point to ask the entire industry, "What do you need to do your jobs, and what do you want to see in the future?" This is just my theoretical guess at what Jobs asked, but I think it's valid. No, the G4 desktops are not ready to replace the O2, but I think we would all agree that the G4s, as they stand today, are at the end of thier life. July has to at least give us DDR! And I would hope, a lot more. I'm personally not expecting G5 yet. Where I work, I'm already seeing SGI being replaced with Intel Xenon Dual Processor systems. Damn!, the thing's got a nVidia Quatro running on Linux! There are a lot of developers who are paranoid about SGI and are looking at alternatives. Kind of like when Commodore went under in 1994!

July is just around the corner, and their stock it at close to a 6 month low! (Insert evil laugh here) :) `scuse me, I have to empty my savings account and do some trades!

Originally posted by agreenster
Hmmmmm....it does seem like Apple is positioning itself to be a major player in the world of 3D production. The only problem I see right now is in the workstation (G4). it just doesnt have the muscle to perform as well as SGI's O2's yet. They are 64-bit powerhouses that can practically hardware render. However, you could easily spend 15grand a pop on these puppies.

However, Apple does have the XServe, Maya (although its still 3.5), a Unix core, and a very good friendship with Pixar.

I never never never never thought I would say it, but if Apple could get a powerful workstation out the door (and no, the current lineup of G4's STILL dont quite cut it) in a relatively low price (under 5 grand??) they could become a MAJOR player in the 3D world. It all comes down to the workstation in my opinion.

One more thing, it would still take some convincing from 'boss man' Jobs to get Pixar to switch over to all Apple equipment. They are making great films, and have their system streamlined. Why fix it if it aint broke? The last thing Pixar needs is to go dinking around with a formula that already works and screw themselves up.
Click to expand...
 
I can't imagine what would happen if Apple would buy out Nvidia or ATI, not only would it cost them a lot of $$$ but those companies have more costumers in the PeeCee market and I don't think Apple would want to start making PeeCee cards. I think if they worked close with Nvidia or ATI to create a new technology in graphics or a new graphics card that would make much more sense.

I want to get a key and take a test drive of 10.2!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back