PPC 970 Apple Motherboards?

[eric_n_dfw]

Anti G3ism

Don't knock those G3's - I recently was given a PowerBook G3 400 (Lombard) at work and, aside from the fact that it's battery is toast, it has a puny, 8MB video card and it needs more RAM, it handles OS X 10.2.4 pretty well. I know, that's a lot of aside's - but seriously, when I get a pair of 256MB SO-DIMMs in this thing, it will be every bit as usable as my companies Dell P3 700 laptop with Win2K.

As I've said 100 times here, put DDR FSB on the CURRENT chips (G3,G4) and I honestly believe their performance would astound people. Especially on the G4 with AltiVec applications. From the spec's about the 970 (900Mhz FSB!!!!) that thing should shut up even the staunchest Apple critics! (Okay, so they'll probably never shut up - but I can dream, can't I?)

 

[Rustus Maximus]

appeLappe, I was thinking the same thing

Originally posted by appeLappe
It just hit me!

What happens if we combine two recent rumors?

30inch LCD + longer and narrower motherboards!

30 inch wide-screen, isn't that quite close to a longer and narrower motherboard (starting with the size of today?s G4 motherboards)?

It's the MEGA TABLET PC !!!

Or something else, with a motherboard and a screen combined!

That would be incredible...

Rustus

 

[synp]

Re: I've got it!

Originally posted by appeLappe
It just hit me!

What happens if we combine two recent rumors?

30inch LCD + longer and narrower motherboards!

30 inch wide-screen, isn't that quite close to a longer and narrower motherboard (starting with the size of today’s G4 motherboards)?

It's the MEGA TABLET PC !!!

Or something else, with a motherboard and a screen combined!

No! They are for the iMac 30" and for the iBook 30"

Get a grip.

 

[-hh]

Re: I've got it!

Originally posted by appeLappe
It just hit me!

What happens if we combine two recent rumors?

30inch LCD + longer and narrower motherboards!
It's the MEGA TABLET PC !!!

Or something else, with a motherboard and a screen combined!

I mentioned this possibility last week while it was still a page 2 rumor; it all depends on the specific dimensions, which we haven't gotten yet. If its not particularly huge, you don't need a 30"... you can squeeze it into a 17-20" widescreen footprint.

FWIW, an interesting aside is that an LCD screen form factor is probably a pretty interesting one from a cooling standpoint...a large flat vertical surface to chimney from. Or at the very least, it could put any "fan noise" behind the LCD to block it from the user.

Another alternative would be to make an integrated CPU/keyboard system (although it would be a challenge for where to put the PCI expansion slots for a "pro" system, assuming that this isn't the next iMac)


FWIW, I generally see Mac's physically shrinking in size as a general design trait . . . "small is beautiful". Much of the technology has already been developed on the laptop product lines, and the cost issue of buying 2.5" hard drives instead of 3.5's probably isn't that great anymore.



-hh

 

[cubist]

Re: Re: Re: Macwhispers going away?

Originally posted by squatch
Well keep it like it is!! I love just the fact you have the inside connections with the supplier chain. Yeah good move on not guessing...that way your not always wondering if you have to eat crow on your guesses....better to just supply it and maybe give a personal speculation like you have been.

Once again, keep up the great work!!

I second that, MacWhispers. Since Apple is outsourcing their production, the contractors are not going to be able to keep secrets.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

If the new mobo is longer and narrower, I wonder if the PowerMac case will endup laying flat again and not be a mini tower? With enough support to place a 23" or even 30" monitor on top? It would be a nice space saving design for the desktop....

D

 

[Rocketman]

Re: PPC 970 Apple Motherboards?

Originally posted by Macrumors
MacBidouille claims that Apple has completed the new motherboards for the PPC 970, and that the new designs are longer and narrower.

MacWhispers made similar claims that new motherboard designs were complete, with assumptions that they were for upcoming PowerMacs.

Doesn't this at least imply that the first 970 board is a blade? This way Apple could use it in an upgrade mode, a 1U server in single or dual mode, or a 3U server in high density blade mode.

Rocketman

 

[kansaigaijin]

so the guy is not feeling good enough about himself to just have a web page and post tidbits that probably half the fab industry in Taiwan knows about, but he has to get on Macrumors (and what other rumors sites?) and gloat about it. Where did I see this story at least a week ago? big deal. and he has a loser fan club as well, as if he can't get on and post in his own defence. like he is doing something necessary for the good of mankind, rather than boost his own ego.

no one has pointed out that the 970 supports a 900mhz frontside bus. what's that, about 6x the current real bus speed?

and 64bit= (can't find the article) a huge increase in possible memory addresses. still hunig for the story.

 

[robotrenegade]

I hope to see these on the next upgrades.

 

[drastik]

Originally posted by dukestreet
If the new mobo is longer and narrower, I wonder if the PowerMac case will endup laying flat again and not be a mini tower? With enough support to place a 23" or even 30" monitor on top? It would be a nice space saving design for the desktop....

D

Ah, sweet memories of my Centris 610, power in a pizza box!

 

[kansaigaijin]

centris 610, I had one of those, ah the memories . . .

 

[gbojim]

Re: Re: PPC 970 Apple Motherboards?

Originally posted by BenRoethig
Longer and narrower? Is it possible these were just prototype boards designed in fit in ATX cases?

Probably not. Low quantity prototype boards do not typically go out for bid like that.

 

[ryan]

Originally posted by kansaigaijin
[snip]
no one has pointed out that the 970 supports a 900mhz frontside bus. what's that, about 6x the current real bus speed?
[snip]

What are you talking about? Do you not read the previous posts in a given thread before posting yourself? The benefits of the faster bus has been brought up.

 

[bobindashadows]

interesting.. but reliable?

This is rather interesting... MacBidouille has had (IMO) a rather reliable background, with some ups and downs.... however, MacWhispers is really going to be reduced to nothing if they keep on getting rumors wrong, especially since it is Jack Campbell's site...

 

[Mr. MacPhisto]

Friends at IBM R&D have told me Apple has had the 970 since the beginning of the year. I have a feeling we may see PPC970 based Macs by August with a slight possibility of introduction at MWNY in the summer. I've also been told that the 970 was specifically designed for Apple because the cost of development could not be justified for use in the Blade servers alone. Nice thing is that IBM is willing to listen to Apple's needs and wants and design a chip towards that. Motorola has given up in that area.

 

[Drewkakke]

I don't understand how anyone can be so optomistic about a product that neither Apple nor IBM has formally confirmed to be used for macs. I love macs, but to hear people boast and gush over a product that hasn't been produced yet and how it'll blow pcs out of the water once its out is pathetic. I guess its great that people are very excited about this unproven, yet-to-be produced product but, please, get a backbone people!!! I'll stay cynical until i see it on store shelves. Look at the 17inch PB. Jobs announced it last Jan. and its only trickling into stores just now. I don't know how much PCs have advanced from the time Jobs announced it to the time it is available. I hate it when mac users compare PCs available now with macs that don't even exist yet.


---Regime change...in 2004---

 

[drastik]

Originally posted by Drewkakke
I don't understand how anyone can be so optomistic about a product that neither Apple nor IBM has formally confirmed to be used for macs. I love macs, but to hear people boast and gush over a product that hasn't been produced yet and how it'll blow pcs out of the water once its out is pathetic. I guess its great that people are very excited about this unproven, yet-to-be produced product but, please, get a backbone people!!! I'll stay cynical until i see it on store shelves. Look at the 17inch PB. Jobs announced it last Jan. and its only trickling into stores just now. I don't know how much PCs have advanced from the time Jobs announced it to the time it is available. I hate it when mac users compare PCs available now with macs that don't even exist yet.


---Regime change...in 2004---

Though I generally agree that we shoudln't count our eggs before they fry, you have to realize where you are. This is a rumor site, it is all about speculation. "...backstage pass to the future." and all that. Once things are confirmed, they aren't rumors anymore.

 

[dongmin]

Re: Re: I've got it!

Originally posted by -hh
I mentioned this possibility last week while it was still a page 2 rumor; it all depends on the specific dimensions, which we haven't gotten yet. If its not particularly huge, you don't need a 30"... you can squeeze it into a 17-20" widescreen footprint.

FWIW, an interesting aside is that an LCD screen form factor is probably a pretty interesting one from a cooling standpoint...a large flat vertical surface to chimney from. Or at the very least, it could put any "fan noise" behind the LCD to block it from the user.

Another alternative would be to make an integrated CPU/keyboard system (although it would be a challenge for where to put the PCI expansion slots for a "pro" system, assuming that this isn't the next iMac)

wow, an 'integrated cpu/keyboard system' and possibly a LCD screen attached on a hinge! Wait, they already did that: it´s called a laptop. And for a desktop laptop: the 20th Anniversary Mac.

 

[hacurio1]

Originally posted by kansaigaijin
so the guy is not feeling good enough about himself to just have a web page and post tidbits that probably half the fab industry in Taiwan knows about, but he has to get on Macrumors (and what other rumors sites?) and gloat about it. Where did I see this story at least a week ago? big deal. and he has a loser fan club as well, as if he can't get on and post in his own defence. like he is doing something necessary for the good of mankind, rather than boost his own ego.

no one has pointed out that the 970 supports a 900mhz frontside bus. what's that, about 6x the current real bus speed?

and 64bit= (can't find the article) a huge increase in possible memory addresses. still hunig for the story.

Man.....Where have you been?

 

[dongmin]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Macwhispers going away?

Originally posted by cubist
I second that, MacWhispers. Since Apple is outsourcing their production, the contractors are not going to be able to keep secrets.

No, I don´t think so. Contractors are just as bound to NDAs as anyone else. Remember the time ATI goofed and announced new PowerMacs the day before they were supposed to be announced. Well, everyone knows what happened after that. Steve Jobs dropped them like a rock, and they´re just now getting back into supplying GPUs for the PowerMacs.

MacBidouille is just rehashing rumors posted by MacWhispers a couple of weeks ago. No new info. Of course, it´s possible that they´re posting the bit after they´ve had the time to check their sources. But we aren´t exactly talking about the NYTimes here...

MacWhispers: unproven trackrecord; they bombed on some recent iPod rumors; the site run by a really sketchy guy

MacBidouille: mixed record; do a search...

 

[Fender2112]

Can anyone clue me into why this type of psyche exists in the computer industry?? Has MS brainwashed people so bad that the blinders are almost impossible to remove?? They were very difficult for me that's for sure!

It's only human nature to not want to be proven wrong. The negative backlashing is just an inate defense mechanism. I know i get defensive about Macs, but I'm not wrong

 

[nagromme]

To my knowledge, MacWhispers hasn't had any inside info relayed through the site and then proven wrong. Every rumor site has that happen frequently--that's the nature of rumors--so such a record seems impressive to me. As for proving reports RIGHT, that will take time. We'll have to see what products come out.

What MacWhispers HAS gotten wrong was a conclusion (the date of new iPods) drawn from facts that were not relayed. That's a very DIFFERENT kind of content from the reports themselves--it's a conclusion BASED on those reports. And MacWhispers' only crime there was in overstating the certainty of that conclusion. What rumor site hasn't done that from time to time? Remember Spymac and the iWalk hoax?

If MacWhispers has (as far as we still can tell) real rumor sources--ones which are DIFFERENT from those found elsewhere on the web--and makes reasonable analyses/guesses based on those--which you can easily identify and form a different conclusion if you wish--then why reject the site? The incorrect iPod date is so clearly a different kind of content than the rest of the site that I just don't see the logic of lumping it all together. (And even the iPod date prediction admitted from the start a small chance of being wrong. Fair enough--the guy will need to time to learn how to use the sources to draw conclusions most accurately. Meanwhile, the facts BEHIND those conclusions remain--since I doubt the entire site is a hoax. And yes, some of those facts will turn out to be false info, and some will be true but then change. No rumor site is going to hit 100%.)

As for this particular rumor, if MacBidouille and MacWhispers have similar info but with different deadline dates mentioned, that seems to suggest two different sources--and adds credibility to the overall report of new motherboards.

 

[kenohki]

Originally posted by Drewkakke
I don't understand how anyone can be so optomistic about a product that neither Apple nor IBM has formally confirmed to be used for macs. I love macs, but to hear people boast and gush over a product that hasn't been produced yet and how it'll blow pcs out of the water once its out is pathetic. I guess its great that people are very excited about this unproven, yet-to-be produced product but, please, get a backbone people!!! I'll stay cynical until i see it on store shelves. Look at the 17inch PB. Jobs announced it last Jan. and its only trickling into stores just now. I don't know how much PCs have advanced from the time Jobs announced it to the time it is available. I hate it when mac users compare PCs available now with macs that don't even exist yet.

While I generally agree that we won't know the introduction date of the thing and how the competition will look by that time, I do think that these types of discussions are useful to those who have a clue and aren't just spreading FUD. Apple is probably not going to talk about it and the roadmaps that the AIM alliance had for desktop chips are all obsolete, so people come to sites like this to swap information and expertise. Nothing wrong in that.

I also think it's HIGHLY unlikely that IBM would put VMX/AltiVec into the 970 if it weren't required by another major vendor for the chip. I've read that IBM has told it's AIX and Linux developers not to expect vector unit support from IBM (as I guess you probably won't see VMX being integrated into future POWER iterations). The only reason I could see the vector unit being integrated is if another company could buy enough of the PowerPC 970 to make that addition worthwhile. Well, the only other volume user of PowerPC cores outside of the telecom/videogame business (for which this type of processor is overkill) is Apple, and they are the only one who specifically have a requirement for VMX due to the fact that they have optimized code for the thing. Apple is gonna use it. Its really the only scenario that makes any sense.

 

[beatle888]

Originally posted by Drewkakke
I don't understand how anyone can be so optomistic

---Regime change...in 2004---

ok, ask yourself this. why else would IBM develope the chip with altivec. isnt apple the biggest customer for such a chip? who else do you think would use these chips? woohoo
i cant wait.

 

[GPTurismo]

can these things do multithreading? I know power4's can't which is one reason they ship two chips on one die. Also if not I hope HOPE they release duals.

I just hope they release duals anyway.

GPT