Apple's Processor Numbering "G" system

[wrldwzrd89]

I smell a dead thread here... Where's the Wasteland when I need it?

 

[ebow]

You would be wrong. The Generation designation refers exclusively to PPC-based Macs. It refers to the whole computer, not just the processor. There are substantial architectural changes from one "generation" to the next.

G1-NuBus, SCSI, PPC 601
G2-PCI, SCSI, PPC 603, 604, 603e, 604e
G3-PCI, ATA, PPC 74x, 75x
G4-AltiVec (seemingly a minor architectural change) PPC 74xx, 75xx
G5-PCI-X, S-ATA, PPC 970

So... on what grounds are you making this authoritative declaration? The G-moniker is a product naming scheme largely for public consumption. Since Apple never released "G1" and "G2" labeled products, or as far as I can tell even used those terms internally, your statement appears to be speculation, albeit well-reasoned speculation.

Personally, I always thought that the first gerenation were the M680x0 chips, the second gen were PPC60x, with the remainder being obvious. Besides, Apple refers to them as "G3 CPUs" (referring to the single chip exclusively) as well as "G3 Macintosh computers" (referring to the entire computer and its architecture).

 

[Rincewind42]

G4-AltiVec (seemingly a minor architectural change) PPC 74xx, 75xx

Actually, the G4 generation also brought about a new processor bus (MPX) that was a distinct improvement over the prior generations 60x bus.

besides PCI vs NuBus, what is different between a 601 and a 603/4 that necessitates a G change?

The 601 was a bridge chip between the POWER chips of the day (POWER-1 I think) and PowerPC. It contained instructions that were not part of the PowerPC instruction set but were part of POWER at that time, and was in general a rather oddball PowerPC chip. The 603/4 chips dispensed with these instructions and were much cleaner designs overall.

 

[Rincewind42]

So... on what grounds are you making this authoritative declaration? The G-moniker is a product naming scheme largely for public consumption. Since Apple never released "G1" and "G2" labeled products, or as far as I can tell even used those terms internally, your statement appears to be speculation, albeit well-reasoned speculation.

Personally, I always thought that the first gerenation were the M680x0 chips, the second gen were PPC60x, with the remainder being obvious. Besides, Apple refers to them as "G3 CPUs" (referring to the single chip exclusively) as well as "G3 Macintosh computers" (referring to the entire computer and its architecture).

Apple currently uses the Gx moniker to avoid talking about specific CPUs (which frankly tends to confuse most customers). When they say a G3 CPU they mean a cpu in a G3 Macintosh, which could really mean anything if they really wanted it to. In the beginning the Macintosh was powered by 680x0 chips, but Apple never had generational designations for them, they just went on CPU model number.

So it is absolutely correct that G1=PPC601, G2=PPC603/4, G3=750 (in all incarnations), G4=74xx, and now G5 with 97x (9xx?).

 

[Sun Baked]

Apple currently uses the Gx moniker to avoid talking about specific CPUs (which frankly tends to confuse most customers). When they say a G3 CPU they mean a cpu in a G3 Macintosh, which could really mean anything if they really wanted it to. In the beginning the Macintosh was powered by 680x0 chips, but Apple never had generational designations for them, they just went on CPU model number.

There you go somebody that thought it through.

Yes that was the big problem during the time the 68k, 601, 603/604 were being sold.

Too many CPU names for people to see, and too many meaningless PPC Macs at the time.

People would buy 275MHz PPC603 Perfomas #### because they thought they were faster and cheaper than the 200MHz PPC604 PowerMac ####. And it was tough to find benchmarks on a moments notice that proved otherwise.

Not only didn't people realize which CPUs were which, there was a dizzying array of pointless model numbers.

The iMac/G3 PowerMac simplified the product line.

Could people even imagine the number of 74xx PowerMac Model xxxx Macs that would have been produced if Apple didn't lump the entire 74xx series under the G4 name.