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When Could we really expect a G5 laptop?
- Thread starter Cheap-Chopstix
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But in this situation, he recorded the movie before the G5 announcement so he's saying about the G5 PPC970.
I think Apple might hurry up its G5 laptop to get one out on the market/announced before AMD's Athlon 64-M which is going to be announced officially in September I think, but when this means we'll see a laptop with the chip in I don't know. So in other words both companies, Apple and AMD, will presumably want to claim first 64-Bit mobile processor, especially Apple as it would add extra advertising and publicity kudos if they can claim both the first commercial 64-Bit Desktop and laptop.
Remember that the G5 currently has nine fans. Greg Wozniak said in an interview that G5 laptops are a long way off, and it took 18 months for the G4 to be moved into a laptop as well.
If history and common sense serves as a guidance, I'd be surprised if it arrives before 2005.
If history and common sense serves as a guidance, I'd be surprised if it arrives before 2005.
Now with the release of the updated G4 PowerBook line, it looks certain that we won't be seeing another update for at least 6 months. While I doubt they will go to another revision of the G4 lineup, I am confident that when I graduate from college in May of 2004, I will be able to purchase a G5 PowerBook, probably with an iSight device built-in, running around 1.4 GHz (if not dual). The real question for me is how those 90 nm G5 fabs are coming along. It would be amazing to have a dual G5 15" PowerBook when I graduate!
I remember seeing stuff in the news about IBM developing new technologies to make chips smaller, and use less power. There was also the rumor about them going to a .06µ wiring process (or something like that), and if they can bring the size, power, and heat down of just the 1.6ghz G5, we could have a very, very nice laptop chip. IBM could even go farther, and take stuff out of the G5 that would be impractical in a laptop, and make a PPC970m, m for mobile. When you think about it, it would make sense. The G5 is only 10% smaller than a desktop P4. It'd be hard to fit a chip of that magnitude in even the 15" PowerBook. And then there's the system controller. The system controller itself has got to be one mother of a chip. I can also make a good guess that that system controller would make a 12" PowerBook running at 100% CPU seem cold. They could take out the PCI-X stuff. Another thing that they might be able to cut down on is the RAM. It'd be hard to implement dual memory banks in a laptop.
I don't know if anything actually needs to be taken out of the G5, but by this time next year, G5 laptops at 1.4, 1.6, and possible 1.8 Ghz might seem plausible. It's just a matter of IBM shrinking the current G5, and cutting down on the power it uses and heat it gives off, and Apple coming up with a way to put this kick-ass processor into a laptop with all the bells and whistles.
My 12" PowerBook is going to have to do throughout the year, and possibly part of next school year, but I'll be working, and saving, because the day the G5 laptops come, I know that I'm going to have to have one
I really do have a good feeling about IBM here. You see, IBM can benefit by making these chips for Apple, because they have uses for them too. Motorola really had no real motivation, other than Apple. IBM can make a kick-ass, low power 970, and then use it in blade servers where space is tight, and low amounts of heat are important. They can also use the normal, or top of the line 970's in their other servers, or even use them to make small supercomputer clusters. I imagine they aren't going to forget about their Power5 processor, but the 970 is cheaper, and easier to make, and offers quite a punch. Come on IBM, don't let us down!
I don't know if anything actually needs to be taken out of the G5, but by this time next year, G5 laptops at 1.4, 1.6, and possible 1.8 Ghz might seem plausible. It's just a matter of IBM shrinking the current G5, and cutting down on the power it uses and heat it gives off, and Apple coming up with a way to put this kick-ass processor into a laptop with all the bells and whistles.
My 12" PowerBook is going to have to do throughout the year, and possibly part of next school year, but I'll be working, and saving, because the day the G5 laptops come, I know that I'm going to have to have one
I really do have a good feeling about IBM here. You see, IBM can benefit by making these chips for Apple, because they have uses for them too. Motorola really had no real motivation, other than Apple. IBM can make a kick-ass, low power 970, and then use it in blade servers where space is tight, and low amounts of heat are important. They can also use the normal, or top of the line 970's in their other servers, or even use them to make small supercomputer clusters. I imagine they aren't going to forget about their Power5 processor, but the 970 is cheaper, and easier to make, and offers quite a punch. Come on IBM, don't let us down!
I find it interesting that that at the rate of powerbook mhz increase a 1.6GHz g5 is looking more and more like the next revision. Apple wouldn't dare (?) releasing a 1.666GHz g4 in the next revision only to be followed by a 1.6GHz g5. There's clearly other issues involved, but the first g5 laptop will be a 1.6.... right?
Also amazing ot me is that all this time people were complaining with "Whats taking so long with the pb update?" and it hadnt occured to us (me at least) that they were solving the "Waiting for PB" complaint..." they were ready to ship when announced. So I guess we can rest assured that the next g5 update is also a long ways away also, cuz I'm sure Steve got sick of hearing "Wheres my dual g5"?
Which do we prefer, a 4month waiting period between announcement and shipping, or not knowing that theyre coming and then shipping right away?
If you guys can make sense of all that, I'm not sure.. either way. g5 powerbook ~March, April. Just my .02!
Also amazing ot me is that all this time people were complaining with "Whats taking so long with the pb update?" and it hadnt occured to us (me at least) that they were solving the "Waiting for PB" complaint..." they were ready to ship when announced. So I guess we can rest assured that the next g5 update is also a long ways away also, cuz I'm sure Steve got sick of hearing "Wheres my dual g5"?
Which do we prefer, a 4month waiting period between announcement and shipping, or not knowing that theyre coming and then shipping right away?
If you guys can make sense of all that, I'm not sure.. either way. g5 powerbook ~March, April. Just my .02!
the Ti G4 came out almost 2 years after the initial G4 tower release
that was cause by a heat issue, hence the need to Ti shell
but the acctuall g3 to g4 set up wasn't all the different
look at the inside of that G5 compared to that of a G4, totally different set up, seems that the heat issue is an even bigger problem
Look at those heat sinks over the processor, plus 4 seperate cooling zones?
it's going to take some time before the guys at apple figure out a way to make that work, and still give us a light and small machine.
that was cause by a heat issue, hence the need to Ti shell
but the acctuall g3 to g4 set up wasn't all the different
look at the inside of that G5 compared to that of a G4, totally different set up, seems that the heat issue is an even bigger problem
Look at those heat sinks over the processor, plus 4 seperate cooling zones?
it's going to take some time before the guys at apple figure out a way to make that work, and still give us a light and small machine.