PPC 970/MacBidouille Rumor Summary

[Ambrose Chapel]

warp 5

Nice one, theFly

Actually I think all the pre G5 hype I remember from last year was on the AI forum, before I came to my senses and found MacRumors.

 

[Steamboatwillie]

Re: Re: PPC 970/MacBidouille Rumor Summary

Originally posted by dongmin

-A new twist-off zif-socket design?

ROFL! <gasp> can't breathe...

Brother, that made my day, too funnny!

 

[BaghdadBob]

Re: Re: PPC 970/MacBidouille Rumor Summary

Originally posted by dongmin
what the hell does that mean, "a twist"?

Wrong, arn, this clearly means he's going to be served with a lemon wedge. Sheesh, you'd think you'd be good at this by now.

 

[phampton81]

I am getting a strong anti macbidulle feel from this post, dont know why, I mean I do realize they have been extra vocal about this one, but I still think we should wait the month and either let them prove themselves or shoot themselves in the foot.

 

[ktlx]

Originally posted by dongmin
the biggest difference between MWSF2002 and now is that the 970 is a real chip that's been developed and is now in production (according to IBM's own publicized schedule).

Could you provide a link for this? The last things I heard still have production starting in 2H 2003.

 

[machan]

hi guys, i just registered (finally).

my guess, and you know i'm nobody after all, is that every developer at the conference will receive a low-end 970 tower to take with them, along with a copy of Panther. i mean, that would be quite a twist and make a good impression on all there to develop, develop and develop some more.

crazy, i know, but that's what my gut is saying will happen.

 

[blueBomber]

at least were taking this with a smile

seriously though, MB's rep. will be destroyed if they are off by a hair... it kinda seems like they're putting all of their eggs in one basket to me. Even still though, I'd love to see Apple bring back the "pentium smoking" campaign

 

[edenwaith]

Originally posted by blueBomber
I'd love to see Apple bring back the "pentium smoking" campaign

All they'd have to do is put an Al Powerbook on a Pentium chip and wait for the smoke storm to begin!

 

[Hawthorne]

Re: Re: PPC 970/MacBidouille Rumor Summary

Originally posted by dongmin
what the hell does that mean, "a twist"?


-Steve doing the twist during the intro?

-A twist in time which allows Steve to go back 5 years to when Apple last had the lead in speed?

-A new twist-off zif-socket design?

Simple. Kelly and Jack Osbourne will walk out on stage with a PowerMac each:

Osbournes: "Steve, Steve, we've something to tell you. These aren't regular PowerMacs, they're PowerMacs with a twist!" (sound of zipper, PowerMacs morph into new form factor that shows off the Dual 3.2 Ghz 970's inside).

Steve: "You're a bunch of bloody magicians!"

Osbournes: "And we're not really the Osbournes (zip) We're Osbourne 2's! We're finally released!"

 

[Wonder Boy]

Originally posted by edenwaith
All they'd have to do is put an Al Powerbook on a Pentium chip and wait for the smoke storm to begin!

Now that is actually funny!

 

[hvfsl]

Only a dual PPC970 will be able to beat the new P4 3.4Ghz which is meant to come out around June. But PCs will still be faster since they will have dual 3.4Ghz will Macs will have dual 1.8Ghz. There is no way the PPC970 can be fast enough to take the speed crown back from PCs straight away, I expect we will have to wait for the PPC980 to see that.

 

[BaghdadBob]

Originally posted by hvfsl
Only a dual PPC970 will be able to beat the new P4 3.4Ghz which is meant to come out around June. But PCs will still be faster since they will have dual 3.4Ghz will Macs will have dual 1.8Ghz. There is no way the PPC970 can be fast enough to take the speed crown back from PCs straight away, I expect we will have to wait for the PPC980 to see that.

B*******. Those 970 "benchmarks" may be off, but you may be the only one who expects so little from it.

 

[mcs37]

Originally posted by hvfsl
Only a dual PPC970 will be able to beat the new P4 3.4Ghz which is meant to come out around June. But PCs will still be faster since they will have dual 3.4Ghz will Macs will have dual 1.8Ghz.

There best bet is to blitzkrieg the world with dual PPC970 machines, including dual PPC970 17" PowerBooks. If they wait around for their older machines to sell, they'll only hurt themselves more because people will be waiting for a PPC970 PowerBook (why buy a 1 Ghz G4 PB when you can wait a few months and get a 2 GHz PPC 970 PB?). In order to make a big splash this year ("of the laptop"), they need to throw everything they've got at us immediately. It worked for the Germans!

 

[deepkid]

Re: Re: Re: PPC 970/MacBidouille Rumor Summary

Originally posted by arn
As with all unverified rumors, I would just go "Hmmm... interesting" and move on.

arn

Isn't an "unverified rumor" redundant?

A verified rumor then becomes fact. And as with all rumor sites, most of the content not verified (take the official 10.2.6 announcement as an example of an exception) should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[BaghdadBob]

No, an "unverified rumor" is redundant. An oxymoron is self-contradicting, such as holy war.

Edit: Editing your post to reflect my linguistic correction is cheating. You said "oxymoron" and you know it!

 

[jamilecrire]

Originally posted by hvfsl
Only a dual PPC970 will be able to beat the new P4 3.4Ghz which is meant to come out around June. But PCs will still be faster since they will have dual 3.4Ghz will Macs will have dual 1.8Ghz. There is no way the PPC970 can be fast enough to take the speed crown back from PCs straight away, I expect we will have to wait for the PPC980 to see that.

Show me a dual P4. The 3.06GHz P4 has hyperthreading which is similar to a DP machine but it is still 1 processor.

You can however get a dual/quad/... Xeon. But as a desktop it's kind of pointless.

 

[deepkid]

Originally posted by BaghdadBob
No, an "unverified rumor" is redundant. An oxymoron is self-contradicting, such as holy war.

Right you are.

 

[GulGnu]

Originally posted by jamilecrire
Show me a dual P4. The 3.06GHz P4 has hyperthreading which is similar to a DP machine but it is still 1 processor.

You can however get a dual/quad/... Xeon. But as a desktop it's kind of pointless.

Why is a Dual Xeon more pointless than a dual 970?

Regards / GulGnu

 

[MacsRgr8]

Originally posted by GulGnu
Why is a Dual Xeon more pointless than a dual 970?

Regards / GulGnu

Not pointless....... but very expensive, and not too many consumer apps running on Windows take advantage of MP.

Just one thing:

I have registered myself to the Apple-Expo in Paris coming September.
To my surprize I can (and will) also attend the Keynote on September 16th! I had the impression Apple wouldn't do a Keynote, as MacWorld Tokyo and New York have been cancelled... But maybe.....maybe Steve wants to show-off PPC 970 and 10.3 to Europe! Stating these guys will be available right away!....even in Holland. <drool>

 

[GulGnu]

"Not pointless....... but very expensive, and not too many consumer apps running on Windows take advantage of MP."

True - then again, dual processor users by the very nature of SMP processing, are power-hungry pros. As for price, Xeons are indeed pricier, but not *that* much pricier, especially if you are content to settle for the second-fastest model (2,8 GHz), as opposed to the top-of-the-line one (3,06 GHz). Then there is of course the Opteron to consider as well.

As for the 970, it will be interesting to see if Apple goes Dual for the PM:s. Being able to stay single-processor, no longer lagging far behind Intel, the temptation to cut costs by sticking to a mostly SP line must be pretty strong. Oh well, hope they get em out for the WWDC...

Regards / GulGnu

-Stabil som fan!

 

[bones]

Originally posted by GulGnu
Why is a Dual Xeon more pointless than a dual 970?

Regards / GulGnu

Because the processors cost far, far more than the 970. As a desktop it is not in the same league.

 

[jouster]

Hawthorne,

That was hilarious....the whole Osborne 2 thing got a bit lost in the arguments over the definition of rumor, but.........nice one!!

 

[keithcobbett]

OK, Maybe it's me...

I was under the impression that the 970 was quicker than the Power4. Am I not correct in assuming that? I just download the spec sheet that was above on somebody else's post and on Page 13, operating at 1GHz, the 970 was slower than the Power4???? Is this data correct or am I reading it incorrectly??? Please advise.

 

[cb911]

yeah!! the 970 will be released at WWDC. with a twist!!

sounds good to me! i'm just going to keep hoping that there will be a really big twist!

and like others have said, all of this talk about the 970 almost definitely means that something 970 will happen at WWDC. at least that is something to look forward to.

 

[GulGnu]

Originally posted by bones
Because the processors cost far, far more than the 970. As a desktop it is not in the same league.

From Googlegear:

Xeon 3,06 GHz: $729.00

Xeon 2,80 GHz: $470.00 / $442.00 depending on bus speed (800MHz / 533 MHz)

Xeon 2,6 GHz: $295.00

Reference: Pentium 4, 3 GHz: $499.00

The 970 isn't out yet, so the P4 will have to serve as a proxy representing the top end of the "ordinary" processor market.

While Xeons certainly are pricier, It's an exaggeration to say they aren't in the same league price-wise, especially if you are willing to settle for not picking the newest, flashiest one.

Regards / GulGnu

-Stabil som fan!