NAB 2005 Conference April 16-21

[pbrennen]

What ever happend to the garage band breakout box?

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000103039512/

http://www.m-audio.com/messe/interface/pages/en/icontrol.htm

 

[lewdvig]

The e600 from freescale which is available in both single and dual core has a 667MHZ memory bus.
The dual core version has 2 memory controllers both able to use DDR2.

"This is not your fathers G4" it is a major upgrade over the old Single pathed 200Mhz memory controller of the old G4.

So YES

DDR2 is not all that it is cracked up to be. DDR2 533 is pricey and the greater latency of the RAM means that it is not much faster. DDR2 667 sodimms - which would be fast - are practically non-existant.

The new G4s are nice, but the plain jane G4 is hitting 2GHz now while maintaining pin compatibility.

I don't think Apple is going to design a new motherboard from scratchj just for a interim update this summer. I expect 1.6-1.8 (or 1.8-2.0 if we are really lucky) G4 updates this summer and G5 PowerBook at MW 2006 (similar clock speeds but entirely new arcjitecture with SATA, DDR2, PCIe, Supercard).

 

[lewdvig]

I think many people would argue that the Powerbooks were not updated.
That was the saddest update in the history of the line in my opinion.
Apple had to do something with them because they are becoming FeebleBooks instead PowerBooks.

I believe that the PowerBook is ready for a dual-core G4 from freescale right now, but Apple won't release them for at least 3 or 4 months because they would likely perform as well as the current PowerMacs.

Yeah, the clock speeds are similar between Centrino laptops and PBs, but the real world performance is night and day. I think the PB needs a lot more than just a dual core CPU - and because of the multitude of bottlenecks on Apple's old G4 based architecture I would rather see them save up all the changes for the 2006 PBs.

Re-engineering the G4 based PB at this stage for the new Freescale G4 is a waste. The G5 is still better.

If the Athlon64 can go thin and light (Turion 1.6) why not the G5? If the G5 puts out 100 watts at 2.5 I doubt it would be more than 50 watts at 1.6 - and that doesn't factor powersaving (clock throttling tech). I am sure they can get it down to 25-30 watts. Strange.

 

[rosalindavenue]

The link from last year is a hoot, in retrospect:

Monday, April 19, 2004, 08:45 AM EST

[...] "Meanwhile, according to whispers, this should be the last G4 PowerBook revision."

Bwaa-ha-ha-ha!

 

[PeterQVenkman]

I think many people would argue that the Powerbooks were not updated.
That was the saddest update in the history of the line in my opinion.
Apple had to do something with them because they are becoming FeebleBooks instead PowerBooks.

I think you could argue that point pretty well. Then again, since I need so much power, I have NEVER batted an eye at Apple's portables. It just doesn't make sense for my job.

 

[tommy.hanks]

Powerbook Update.

Updated displays, and faster clock rate on the G4. I'm not a hardware engineer but I don't see the point in being able to address large amounts of memory in a laptop that tops out at 2 gigs, which a 32bit processor can address just fine. Wow sorry about the really long "sentence." Anyway, I'm in no big hurry for a G5 PB. Especially since I'm not in the market for one!

 

[Blackheart]

I thought NAB started Monday. Oh well, that just means we'll hear from Apple sooner. It could be a good day tomorrow because Apple HAS to update the Powermacs. If they don't then the stocks will keep diving. Don't forget Motion 2.

Bring it on.

I agree. If Apple doesn't start bombarding the market with new goodies, the stock will continue on its downward path

I lost ~$900 Thursday as a result of those "bad" earnings

 

[aafuss1]

Apple's news conference goes for 1hr 15 mins-so I do at least expect new versions of Shake, Motion, Final Cut Pro HD and DVD Studio Pro. But we should see updated iBooks (with a new design, maybe and I don't think Apple would do a iBook mini),eMac's, Powermac's and iMacs in the coming months.

 

[SAukland]

I'm curious about FCP 5 and its integration with HDV and Tiger's core features. Powermacs better have a Blu-Ray drive. I know it's early but it would get some attention for Apple.

Blu-Ray would be a good addition, and would keep Apple on top in terms of popularizing new technologies, as usual.

Sounds like Sony is also pushing for Blu-Ray soon, though.
Sony Vaios On The Road To Blu-Ray

 

[iGuy]

the year of HD - PowerBook HD

NAB is NOT about Apple hardware releases. Broadcast and video professionals want to see new versions of Final Cut Pro, Shake, XSAN and Motion.

Yes, new PowerMacs would be nice and are much needed, but that won't be the center of Sunday's announcement.

The current 17 inch PB is 1440 x 900. It needs at least 1080 lines of vertical resolution to be suitable for HD, the real spec anyway (yes, I know about 720p, but for me this is what I call 'prentend HD').

So a PowerBook HD with a new display capable of 1080 lines would be very much at home at an event like NAB.

As for other hardware improvements, well, why not announce upgrades to the Power line at an event for Power Users? Seems to make sense to me.

All this said however, I would agree that most of the emphasis will likely be on software. But that doesn't rule out hardware announcements.

Fingers crossed,
~iGuy

 

[animefan_1]

I lost ~$900 Thursday as a result of those "bad" earnings

I think it's more like you lost $900 on account of a bunch of idiots

Nonetheless, losing money is losing money - it sucks
Hopefully, you have good karma and will get it back soon. Good luck!

 

[THX1965]

So a PowerBook HD with a new display capable of 1080 lines would be very much at home at an event like NAB....

All this said however, I would agree that most of the emphasis will likely be on software. But that doesn't rule out hardware announcements.
~iGuy

True, since the event tomorrow has a focus on "High Definition and Production". I forgot what the exact title is, but "High-Def" is in it.

You're right, that could mean an HD PowerBook, but most likely Apple will show amazing new things you can do with their line of updated pro apps, with the new FCP 5 being the center piece.

Unless PowerMacs have a special capability to do true HighDef in real time, those won't be announced tomorrow.

So will all those who are turning this thread into a PowerMac discussion please stop doing so. This is not what tomorrow's event is about. Period.

 

[wdlove]

I'm going to be at the Chestnut Hill tomorrow after church. Going to have lunch at Charley's. So should be at the Apple Store in time to catch any news. Will try not to count on anything and be surprised.

 

[Lacero]

No, I didn't sell. No one's ever made a dime by panicking

I have a problem... I bought more when it dropped...

Hmm.. Lost is past tense, meaning it already happened? I don't quite follow, unless it was a grammatical error.

 

[berkleeboy210]

I'm going to be at the Chestnut Hill tomorrow after church. Going to have lunch at Charley's. So should be at the Apple Store in time to catch any news. Will try not to count on anything and be surprised.

We're Neighbors! I go to Berklee, and eat at Charley's all the time. -- I've never been to the Chesnut Hill Store, I always go to Cambridgeside.

 

[rockthecasbah]

NAB is NOT about Apple hardware releases. Broadcast and video professionals want to see new versions of Final Cut Pro, Shake, XSAN and Motion.

While I must agree, this professional conference would be perfect to unveil PROFESSIONAL hardware. If anything will be unveiled, it will be Power Macs. And if new Power Macs indeed are displayed, they will have to be much more than speed bumps, such as quad processor action. That's my take, now back to your speculation of iBooks and God knows what else.

 

[Blackheart]

Hmm.. Lost is past tense, meaning it already happened? I don't quite follow, unless it was a grammatical error.

I say "lost" because that's the current value of it. If you only judge a loss on sale then you could have bought Lucent before the drop... held onto it till this day and claim that you've lost nothing only because you choose not to sell.

 

[~loserman~]

Yeah, the clock speeds are similar between Centrino laptops and PBs, but the real world performance is night and day. I think the PB needs a lot more than just a dual core CPU - and because of the multitude of bottlenecks on Apple's old G4 based architecture I would rather see them save up all the changes for the 2006 PBs.

Re-engineering the G4 based PB at this stage for the new Freescale G4 is a waste. The G5 is still better.

The bottlenecks have been removed. The dual core e600 will have higher memory bandwidth than any of the G5's. Freescale stole stole a page out of AMD's playbook and put dual memory controllers on die.

Therein lies the whole reasons why the e600 is SO nice.
15 watts for the 2GHz dual core. thats less than the current G4.
The e600 is also clock for clock faster than the G5 except for double precision floating point math. Which all but some special scientific apps don't use. It has twice the cache size, shorter pipelines, and a superior Altivec implementation.

And get this.... the single and dual core versions are pin compatible.

 

[Avicdar]

Unless PowerMacs have a special capability to do true HighDef in real time, those won't be announced tomorrow.

So will all those who are turning this thread into a PowerMac discussion please stop doing so. This is not what tomorrow's event is about. Period.

While I am in complete agreement with the spirit of your post, I think that if Apple were to introduce anything that would be of interest in the hardware field, it would have to be blu-ray. Of course, these blu-ray drives would need a home, so a powermac would need to enter into it. I would be perfectly blown away if blu-ray with a surprisingly soon shipping date were announced. (orderable for my current DP2.0 please...I do NOT want to buy a new powermac).

Of course, FCP5 is what I am really waiting to see. Like most editors I have my own shopping list of features that I would like to see make it in. Some enhancement to logging would be welcome (a configurable dialog to allow inclusion of any of the fields from the browser would be great. I've been doing a lot of doc work lately, just logged some 45 hours worth of footage). Multicam would be interesting, too.

One feature that I heard about from someone who claims to have seen a seed of it, is that it will have a turnkey Avid like optional interface. Much like the three levels of interface offered in DVDSP, but I suppose with remapped keys that would be familiar to Avid editors. Certainly not a feature I would care about, but I can see why Apple might think it a good move.

The idea of greater performance thanks to things like Tiger core technologies is a pretty sweet prospect.

Any idea how Apple is going to handle the whole issue of QTPro keys when people start installing Tiger, only to realize that their QTPro 6.5 will be gone, only to be replaced by a QT7 'regular'? Thats what I expect will happen to me when I install Tiger. Guess I will need a separate drive with a Panther image kickin around.

Or maybe they will pass out free QTPro 7.0 keys if you provide a valid FCP4.5 serial number and a proof of purchase of TIger. Hmm. Wishful thinking.

 

[quagmire]

The bottlenecks have been removed. The dual core e600 will have higher memory bandwidth than any of the G5's. Freescale stole stole a page out of AMD's playbook and put dual memory controllers on die.

Therein lies the whole reasons why the e600 is SO nice.
15 watts for the 2GHz dual core. thats less than the current G4.
The e600 is also clock for clock faster than the G5 except for double precision floating point math. Which all but some special scientific apps don't use. It has twice the cache size, shorter pipelines, and a superior Altivec implementation.

And get this.... the single and dual core versions are pin compatible.

There are 2 sad things about this though. 1st sad thing: All about marketing. The G4 has the reputation as the Celeron now. Moto screwed it up so bad, no non-tech savvy person or a person that doesn't hang out in forums would buy a G4 machine that is greater then $1000. So for marketing purpose Apple better use the G5 moniker on the e600 if used. 2) The dual core G4 is not set to be sampled intill fall of '05. So don't expect it in the next rev. The next rev should have the PPC 7448 if no G5 yet, which is 1.8 Ghz with a 200 Mhz FSB which should of been sampled January.

 

[JordanNZ]

There are 2 sad things about this though. 1st sad thing: All about marketing. The G4 has the reputation as the Celeron now. Moto screwed it up so bad, no non-tech savvy person or a person that doesn't hang out in forums would buy a G4 machine that is greater then $1000. So for marketing purpose Apple better use the G5 moniker on the e600 if used. 2) The dual core G4 is not set to be sampled intill fall of '05. So don't expect it in the next rev. The next rev should have the PPC 7448 if no G5 yet, which is 1.8 Ghz with a 200 Mhz FSB which should of been sampled January.

But you see... These new moto chips wouldn't have to be called G4s

 

[sw1tcher]

Here's hoping for an update to the iBook. I'm actually in the market for one (12"). Holding off until they get around to actually updating it since it's been ~ 6 months since the last revision.

New design? Higher res. screen?

 

[rickvanr]

I think many people would argue that the Powerbooks were not updated.
That was the saddest update in the history of the line in my opinion.
Apple had to do something with them because they are becoming FeebleBooks instead PowerBooks.

I believe that the PowerBook is ready for a dual-core G4 from freescale right now, but Apple won't release them for at least 3 or 4 months because they would likely perform as well as the current PowerMacs.

I think the new powerbook's are good. My 2 year old powerbook is still going strong, and have you been following the powerbooks? The latest update was much more substantial then the 667-800MHz to 867-1GHz update, but hey.

I know a little about dualcore chips, but I don't think a dual core G4 at current clock speed would really challenge a powermac G5 @ 2.5GHz, but if it did, it wouldn't be a bad thing, they are both pro machines selling to the same market. It would only be bad if they put it in an "i" machine, but they wouldn't.

 

[NNO-Stephen]

The bottlenecks have been removed. The dual core e600 will have higher memory bandwidth than any of the G5's. Freescale stole stole a page out of AMD's playbook and put dual memory controllers on die.

Therein lies the whole reasons why the e600 is SO nice.
15 watts for the 2GHz dual core. thats less than the current G4.
The e600 is also clock for clock faster than the G5 except for double precision floating point math. Which all but some special scientific apps don't use. It has twice the cache size, shorter pipelines, and a superior Altivec implementation.

And get this.... the single and dual core versions are pin compatible.

the e600 core is the G4 core. it's being used. it's not referring to the dual-core G4. next: you have zero details on the performance of the dual-core G4, what you say is expected, but by no means official.

and no, they are NOT pin compatible with current chips. the 7448 is pin-compatible, and should be used in the next revision.

 

[Platform]

I don't understand why apple hasn't doing quad processors. The OS and their multithreaded apps could totally handle it. I would think it would be benificial to offer CPU Modules, so they could sell a single or quad system and then let consumers buy extra cpu modules to boost the CPU if they need it.

It can't be a money thing stoping them, because they could inflate the CPU modules enough to make their profits so it doesn't cut into new system sales.

Thanks that is one of the best ideas I have heard....

CPU modules yes c'mon apple then we could buy a PM with one CPU and as our need would grow we could buy another and another .....please do that