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More 90nm PowerPC G5 Details?

Newbie: HI ALL: SHOULD I BUY TODAY OR WAIT

Greetings,

I am so excited to be getting a G5 but all this talk about new systems makes think that I should wait till end of january!

However, it stinks because I finially made the commitment to go BiG.

However, I do not really think I need the power? What do you all use the power for? I am wondering about price drop as well not watching the apple market till a few weeks ago...

Go BigMacs, Bad PCs ....

Thanks Everyone....

Mark:eek:
 
Originally posted by greenstork
I hate to be picky because you were right to correct me but a 50% year over year increase is not linear, it's parabolic. Plot some hypothetical numbers on a graph and you would see the same thing.

I was thinking of it in terms of a linear progression which is 1 GHz per year making it mid to late 2005 until IBM reaches 4 GHz. As you pointed out, linear progressions are wrought with inaccuracy.
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Actually, jettredmont was right to talk about a linear extrapolation, he just omitted to say that he plotted the frequency on a log scale, which is the only one making sense here. :D

Seriously, it does not make any sense to compare cpu frequencies in absolute terms. You have to look at relative increases.
 
Originally posted by greenstork
I hate to be picky because you were right to correct me but a 50% year over year increase is not linear, it's parabolic.

...

While I'll probably eat my words and be proven wrong by Moore's Law, I would venture to guess that IBM chip speed will continue to increase at 1 GHz a year for a while and not at the 50% a year clip.
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Actually, Moore's Law (which relates to transistor density (iirc) and has been perverted to all things CPU) specifies about a 59% year over year increase (2x/1.5 years == 1.59x/year). So if IBM manages only 50% per year they are behind the curve :D .

Of course, Intel is only planning on going up 800 Mhz in over a years time, so they are REALLY behind :cool: .
 
Originally posted by Rincewind42
Actually, Moore's Law (which relates to transistor density (iirc) and has been perverted to all things CPU) specifies about a 59% year over year increase (2x/1.5 years == 1.59x/year).
Click to expand...

Actually Moore's Law only talks about the number of transistors in an integrated circuit. It does not relate to density or speed other than the same forces allowing Moore's Law to remain in effect also tend to increase the density and speed.

Here is a good URL: http://www.intel.com/research/silicon/mooreslaw.htm
 
Originally posted by jouster
The "hoped for and promised by Jobs rate" is 50% in one year but heh, plenty can happen in either direction that we know nothing about.

Remember, 400--->500--->450?
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that was a completely different company supplying those chips, remember?
ibm is not motorola.
the g5 is not the g4.
cheer the heck up already.
:D
 
Re: Re: Correct Me IF I Am Wrong

Originally posted by illumin8
I did have a question that maybe someone could answer though: Is DDR-2 533 the same as PC4200 memory? PC4200 memory (533 mhz.) is available in a 1GB kit (2x 512MB sticks) for only $168 according to Pricewatch. That's not too much more than PC3200, which is $124 for a 1GB kit.
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ddr-2 ram is different from plain ddr.
i haven't been shopping for RAM lately, but last time i looked, i only found plain ddr ram. the only place i've heard of ddr2 being used so far in a shipping product is in graphics cards, like the original geforce fx . . . .
also, CAS3 to CAS2 does make a small difference in memory performance, as long as your memory controller will actually switch to CAS2. if it won't, cas2 ram will happily run at cas3, which is what's happening to the guy with the Dell who said it gets the sam sandra score no matter the ram he uses.
i'm not sure about apple's memory controllers, but from bare feats' tests, it looks like it doesn't make a difference on mac's right now. I do know that the motherboard detects what the ram is rated for, since it's listed in apple system reporter . . . .
 
Originally posted by ktlx
Actually Moore's Law only talks about the number of transistors in an integrated circuit. It does not relate to density or speed other than the same forces allowing Moore's Law to remain in effect also tend to increase the density and speed.

Here is a good URL: http://www.intel.com/research/silicon/mooreslaw.htm
Click to expand...
If you actually read Moore's paper it is simply an observation that fabrication technology advances at a rate such that fabrication techniques improve roughly every 12 months, which was then revised. It talks about transistor densities for a given integrated circuit size and not specifically transistor count. It's really just a paper making an observation about the economics of integrated circuit manufacture and the size of fabrication processes.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Don't expect a G5 PowerBook

Originally posted by JoeRadar
This seems reasonable. Apple will probably consume most of the available 970FX (or whatever will be the name) for the PowerMac line -- the line for which performance is critical. Next will probably come the xServes. Finally, the PowerBooks will bring up the 3rd spot.
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This sounds logical, but it's not good for Apple. Apple has biggest margins in laptops, and will do everything to put that G5 beast in their PowerBooks asap.

And not only that, now is a historic chance for Apple, to integrate G5 in ALL their systems and products, and claim "64bit computing for everyone".

That would be awesome!
But, at least, I would do that If I were SJ.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Don't expect a G5 PowerBook

Originally posted by Nemesis
And not only that, now is a historic chance for Apple, to integrate G5 in ALL their systems and products, and claim "64bit computing for everyone".
Click to expand...

Why would they claim that? You can already get 64bit in laptops/desktops.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Don't expect a G5 PowerBook

Originally posted by leet1
Why would they claim that? You can already get 64bit in laptops/desktops.
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And pay how much for it?

It's not "for everyone" if the laptop's $6000+. :eek:
 
Is it just me or does it seem like the IBM chip development pipeline is lighyears ahead of Motorola when it comes to speed of development and manufacture, (not to mention chip technology). Moto almost killed the Mac, it just wasn't a priority for them. IBM, on the other hand, is set to make Macs the fastest thing on a desktop once again.;)
 
Originally posted by Telomar
If you actually read Moore's paper it is simply an observation that fabrication technology advances at a rate such that fabrication techniques improve roughly every 12 months, which was then revised. It talks about transistor densities for a given integrated circuit size and not specifically transistor count. It's really just a paper making an observation about the economics of integrated circuit manufacture and the size of fabrication processes.
Click to expand...

Could you point out where it talks about densities in terms of paragraph and page number of the paper? I read it and did not interpret it to mean densities at all. I only found one place where he spoke about the physical size of a chip. None of his graphs or charts talk about transistor density, either, unless I am misinterpreting them.

Even in interviews that I have read with Moore, he has said that the law meant nothing more than an observation that the number of transitors in an IC is doubling.
 
Re: Found out some interesting news today.

Originally posted by ITR 81
I think my AppleCare rep has heard a few things from inside of Apple and kinda of let it slip out new processors were coming for the G5 in Jan.
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I'm afraid if you want someone to spill some insider info, then tech support & sales people are the last ones you should talk to. People who talk for a living generally don't get trusted with confidential company info! :D


He did tell me MacWorld is going to be huge and I should go and get passes now.
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Since it's the 20th anniversary of the Mac, it should be no surprise Macworld is going to be big, in fact it's surprising there haven't been even more rumours floating about it!
 
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