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IBM Announces the PowerPC 970MP

I'm really late on this subject (been out of town) but I have some thoughts. I think a lot of us are speculating too much (I know it's a rumor site). What I think it comes down to is business and Steve Jobs. Motorola increases speed too slow to compete - IBM steps in and says 970 and 3 GHz in a year - IBM fails to meet that mark. All the while OS X is ready for X86 or PPC. Steve (a bit angry at IBM and the repeated Moto pattern) looks at all the options. It appears that Intel has the brightest future 2 years down the road. (Maybe IBM didn't sell their future as well or based on past/current experience Steve doesn't believe them). Intel seems more secure, more reliable, faster moving, more options, cheaper computers as a whole, etc. Apple switches. I don't think IBM is trying to save face or Steve was just putting pressure on them to get them to come out with better products. This is too much soap opera ish.

What I would like to see...IBM, Motorola, Intel, AMD and anyone else who would like to really innovate and fight against each other in terms of product performance, power consumption, price etc. Apple sets themselves up to implement PPC or what X86 turns into through this universal binaries thing (and that it is universal in terms of PPC, X86, 32-bit, 64-bit, Altivec - whatever). Then at any given time Apple releases updates with the best hardware for the computer.

We the mac users get the best hardware at that moment with of course the best operating system from Apple and hopefully none of the problems that plague the windows world.

Back to more on subject - IBM announced these because they have developed them and the want to sell them now. I think that's about all there is to it.
 
Val-kyrie said:
You might want to wait at least until the Apple Paris Expo is over before you order--just in case.
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The thing is I want to take advantage of the Free iPod deal. I am torn right now. Wait for the Paris Expo to see if it is updated or buy it in early Mid September and get a free iPod.
 
How I see it

I am in the market for a new PowerBook because my 800 MHZ TI is finally starting to fail. I like most have been waiting for a more serious upgrade.

If Apple came out with three new machines tomorrow. One based on Intel Yonah processor, one based on Freescale low power dual core G4, and one based on the IBM 970FX, Here is the order I would buy.
1) G4 Freescale Dual Core
2) IBM G5 970FX
3) Intel Yonah

Why? because if I bought the Yonah machine, the only thing that would run native would be OS X, mail, iTunes, iLife. safari all of which are consumer apps that don't need much HP to run properly. All of my pro Apps would run like crap through rosetta if they ran at all since most use custom altivec code.

The G5 would be great advertising but wouldn't run that much faster than the current offering.

The Dual core G4 would kick ass. Dual processors in a pro laptop. Include a high-end graphics card, faster bus, serial ata fast HD, there you go. A big sales success that would last 2 - 3 years until pro software companies have a chance to re-tool applications for intel 64 bit dual cores. Which by that time will have exceeded PPC technology.
 
Glad to see someone else still kicking on the other side of the silicon curtain. MIPS, Alpha, HP-UX, Ultrasparc, m68k, Itanium are all more or less dead. The only players in the 32-bit/64-bit arena are x86(x64), PPC and ARM. ARM just isnt aiming for the same market, which really leaves PPC and x86/x64 for the Desktop AND the server market. Its amazing so many architectures are now powered by the same chips (mac, AS400, RS6000, game consoles, industrial VME cards) by PPC and everything else by x86/x64.
 
Lord Kythe said:
Imagine this:
iMacs: single 970MP (2 Cores) in the sub 2 GHz
PowerMacs: dual 970MP (4 Cores) 2.0-2.5 GHz
Mac Mini, iBooks and 12/15" PowerBooks: 970FX, 1.2-1.6 GHz
PowerBooks 17": 970MP (2 Cores, since one can be turned off, 1 Core when on battery, then 2 Cores when plugged) @ 1.8 or maybe even 2.0 GHz.

That would be sweet! If all PowerMacs could also get 1 GB RAM standard, some kind of a Video Card price drop and perhaps even PCIe (dare I say SLI?)... *drool*

Now I'm just dreaming... :(
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Actually sounds realistic except SLi :rolleyes: :D
 
Lacero said:
Glad to see someone else still kicking on the other side of the silicon curtain. MIPS, Alpha, HP-UX, Ultrasparc, m68k, Itanium are all more or less dead.
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Minor correction -- HP-UX is the OS. The CPU architecture is PA-RISC.

I'd also dispute Ultrasparc's death -- it's still going fairly strong, with Fujitsu and Sun both investing a fair bit in R&D towards improving it. (Niagara is an interesting concept, being designed towards the networking market rather than number crunching; and Sun does have a more traditional design in the pipeline as well. Time will tell if their bets have paid off.) Remember that the goals for a good desktop are not the same as the goals for a good server, and I doubt that x86, with its emphasis until very recently on raw clock speed, is meeting either set of goals, save through brute force.

But vis-a-vis PA-RISC, Alpha, MIPS, and Itanic, yes. m68k was effectively dead a long time ago; you might as well mention the Z80 and the 6502 in the same breath.
 
Val-kyrie said:
BTW--Everyone is religious whether or not they associate with a religious institution.
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As a top ranking member of the 'flawed logic' police I must point out the fallacy...can't help myself. ;)

In other news, I do believe the powerbooks will remain with the G4's until Intel. Why? Well, as Val-kyrie himself pointed out, I doubt Apple would set themselves up with lower clock speeds than what they already have. The average idiot looks at the current Book line and says "wow, theyre half the speed of the PCs!" They wouldnt want to make that situation any worse. In addition, I question how much of a performance gain would come from celeroned G5's as opposed to the G4's. Sure, the G5 is a nice chip, and I even thought it was the best thing since sliced bread when it first came out. However, Intel will continue to trump whatever IBM can offer for the consumer market. Like ~loserman~ said a few pages back, IBM could give a flying monkey about Apple, which is why we haven't seen anything significant since the introduction of the G5. I don't think Apple is going to bind themselves to the low power offerings from IBM this close to intel. Like someone else had said in a previous thread, it would make no sence to completely rewire the innards of the Powerbook when intel is on the horizon.

As an aside, I have a sick appreciation for IBM. They've been in buisiness since 1888 and have consistently been on top of the market. Even their name is brilliant, International Business Machines. They built typewriters when they were the ideal, now computers...what will IBM get their hands into next? What will be the international business machine of the future I wonder?
 
$MacUser$ said:
I doubt Apple would set themselves up with lower clock speeds than what they already have. The average idiot looks at the current Book line and says "wow, theyre half the speed of the PCs!"
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The Lisa was launched at a slower clock speed than the Mac, and it was 5 times the price. Forget about clock speeds. There will be a new performance benchmark coming soon.

The original Mac design team talks about Jobs' "Reality Distortion Feild" in the new book, "Revolution in the Valley." When he leaves, the field weakens! And, I wouldn't call Jobs the average idot, just "reality challenged."
 
Platform said:
Actually sounds realistic except SLi :rolleyes: :D
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Knowing Apple, I think we have a better shot at seeing SLi than 1GB RAM standard. The only reason we get 512MB RAM in the PM is that there's probably little wholesale cost difference between 2x256 and 2x128.

If Apple could sell a PM with 2x64MB standard, they might do it!
 
chatin said:
The Lisa was launched at a slower clock speed than the Mac, and it was 5 times the price. Forget about clock speeds. There will be a new performance benchmark coming soon.

The original Mac design team talks about Jobs' "Reality Distortion Feild" in the new book, "Revolution in the Valley." When he leaves, the field weakens! And, I wouldn't call Jobs the average idot, just "reality challenged."
Click to expand...

I wasn't referring to Jobs, I was referring to the people that drive his profits. Forgive my ignorance, but what is "The Lisa?"
 
idea_hamster said:
Knowing Apple, I think we have a better shot at seeing SLi than 1GB RAM standard. The only reason we get 512MB RAM in the PM is that there's probably little wholesale cost difference between 2x256 and 2x128.

If Apple could sell a PM with 2x64MB standard, they might do it!
Click to expand...

Except that the min RAM required for Tiger is 256MB
 
$MacUser$ said:
As a top ranking member of the 'flawed logic' police I must point out the fallacy...can't help myself. ;)

In other news, I do believe the powerbooks will remain with the G4's until Intel. Why? Well, as Val-kyrie himself pointed out, I doubt Apple would set themselves up with lower clock speeds than what they already have. The average idiot looks at the current Book line and says "wow, theyre half the speed of the PCs!" They wouldnt want to make that situation any worse. In addition, I question how much of a performance gain would come from celeroned G5's as opposed to the G4's. Sure, the G5 is a nice chip, and I even thought it was the best thing since sliced bread when it first came out. However, Intel will continue to trump whatever IBM can offer for the consumer market. Like ~loserman~ said a few pages back, IBM could give a flying monkey about Apple, which is why we haven't seen anything significant since the introduction of the G5. I don't think Apple is going to bind themselves to the low power offerings from IBM this close to intel. Like someone else had said in a previous thread, it would make no sence to completely rewire the innards of the Powerbook when intel is on the horizon.

As an aside, I have a sick appreciation for IBM. They've been in buisiness since 1888 and have consistently been on top of the market. Even their name is brilliant, International Business Machines. They built typewriters when they were the ideal, now computers...what will IBM get their hands into next? What will be the international business machine of the future I wonder?
Click to expand...

software, of course. a majority of their profit comes from software and services.
 
Indeed, but they are a hardware manufacturer first...at least on paper. That statement was more of a goofy speculation about future technologies than any real query on IBM's business road map.
 
A lot of people are talking about the Centrino. A lot of people are talking about a mobile G5. Well, call me a visionary (fat chance) or call me an idiot (more likely) but here's what's going to happen:

Apple will present us with an update that (1) stimulates current sales, and (2) does not set the bar itoo high for future proposed intel-based macs. They're a company with shareholders so they want a financial situation that's continually improving. In addition, they're a forward-looking company so any PPC-based products won't be as good (from a marketing standpoint, at least) as the intel-based products that will eventually replace them.

Call me drunk, but I think that makes sense.

Squire
 
$MacUser$ said:
I wasn't referring to Jobs, I was referring to the people that drive his profits. Forgive my ignorance, but what is "The Lisa?"
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Probably before your time. ;) The Lisa was introduced in 1983 and had a good life until about 1986 or so. It had a 5 MHz 68000, 16k of ROM and either a 5 MB or 10 MB external HD. It was a sweet little machine! :cool:
 
Geez, I was born in '83. Looks like it has a color screen...that thing must have been a revelation back in the day. 5MHz, huh? Real screamer! :D
 
chatin said:
The Lisa was launched at a slower clock speed than the Mac, and it was 5 times the price. Forget about clock speeds. There will be a new performance benchmark coming soon.

The original Mac design team talks about Jobs' "Reality Distortion Feild" in the new book, "Revolution in the Valley." When he leaves, the field weakens! And, I wouldn't call Jobs the average idot, just "reality challenged."
Click to expand...

It looks like mac vs. Lisa is irrelivant when considering a comparison between modern computers and components. The eighties were the dark ages as far as PCs go. Plus, the Lisa looks like it had a number of features the Mac did not, thus its higher price tag.

Personally, I dont compare hardware based on raw speed. I realize the low-po G5's may be more powerful than higher clocked G4's. Im simply referring to all those college students who see an IBM and an iBook right next to each other. One is labeled "1.4GHz G5" while the other is "2.2 GHz Pentium" (or whatever theyre at now). The choice appears obvious to all but the computer savvy, who understand the difference between the two systems.
 
$MacUser$ said:
Geez, I was born in '83. Looks like it has a color screen...that thing must have been a revelation back in the day. 5MHz, huh? Real screamer! :D
Click to expand...

It was also the year that I purchased my first Apple, an Apple IIe. That makes it a great year for both of us. ;)
 
$MacUser$, hate to break it you, but the 2.13ghz centrino blazes. It should beat the pants off the 1.6ghz G5. That said, the 1.6ghz G5 should be competitive enough that it's acceptable, something which the speeds of the current G4 laptops are not.
 
me too

amac4me said:
Hmmm .... I wonder what this means for all of us who are considering purchasing. I'm in the market for a Powerbook but I can't seem to make up my mind.
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I'm in the same boat, i cant decide whether to buy a powerfull dell latitude d610 for 500 dollars cheaper than the powerbook, then put the x86 version of os X on it when it becomes available, or to buy a the powerbook now! This whole development just confuses me further, because i dont want a 970 going into new powerbooks a few weeks after i buy mine! any input?
 
Multimedia said:
Way cheaper. But no way to compress and archive those shows fromt the HD Tivo that I know of. :(
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It's been hacked, like the earlier models. I'm sure the info is Googleable :)
 
$MacUser$ said:
Geez, I was born in '83. Looks like it has a color screen...that thing must have been a revelation back in the day. 5MHz, huh? Real screamer! :D
Click to expand...

If I remember right, it was also subject to a problem where some of the cards, not inserted far enough during the assembly process, came loose during shipping. People were told to hold their machines just slightly above a table by maybe an inch, then drop them, to get the cards to re-seat.

"Have you dropped your Lisa today?" :)

Apparently, Lisa was also named after Steve's daughter. Hence, his baby.
 
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