XServe Bumps?

[MacRumors]

MacOSRumors posts a speculative update regarding new DigitalLifestyleDevices in 2003 from Apple based on optimistic comments from Jobs in a recent memo.

Beyond this, they claim that "Also on the docket for early 2003 introductions are an updated Xserve with processors running at up to 1.4GHz."

 

[Falleron]

Sounds like good news to me. Its a shame they probably wont go to 1.5Ghz. However, the up-side is that the powermacs will then be due for an update as well.

 

[hobie]

So the PowerMacs get a speed bump too, huh?!

 

[Tiauguinho]

Oh good! I need an Xserve in about 2 months... Waiting game as started!

 

[arn]

I personally have my doubts... Mac OS Rumors' reliability has been a bit poor... and I feel this may simply be speculative.

arn

 

[dongmin]

this is a classic!

This is what's stated in the memo:

"[2003 will] have the best new products I've ever seen." -- attributed to Jobs

And MOSR's 'expert' spin:

"Steve Jobs said earlier this year that 2003 would be the most important year in Apple's history, that it would see several new product introductions and revisions of existing products that will make unprecedented progress in growing Apple's platform...

...Much of the money saved by the various cost-cutting measures and slowed product revisions this year has gone to R&D on these new products -- Apple's R&D spending is at record levels since Steve's insertion as CEO -- and he seems quite clear on the point that there is serious reason to consider 2003 a turning point for Apple.

Because Apple will be forced to continue to use enhanced G4-class processors throughout most of 2003, it would appear that most of this progress will come in the form of new DLDs and an updated iPod."

Wow, they're good. Really good.

 

[zac4mac]

I'm not so sure, Arn. Ryan has taken so much heat over the years, it seems he's getting a bit cautious about making wild claims. <caveat> I also think he's guessing here<end caveat>.
After getting a new iBook last weekend, I am most impressed with the jump in this line. I had a 600Combo, bought in April this year, that had to go when I saw specs on the new models. The new 800 Combo is a major improvement ovber it's predecessor.

If the other models(PM especially) get anywhere near the level of improvement the iBook has just seen, you better get a seatbelt for your computer chair. I really believe IBM's timeline for the 970 is a "red herring" and we'll see them much sooner.

I foresee replacing my aging DP Mystic550 next year. Current offerings aren't enough of a jump in performance to drop $3k.

Zack

 

[Frobozz]

40% Speed Increase

Originally posted by Falleron

Sounds like good news to me. Its a shame they probably wont go to 1.5Ghz. However, the up-side is that the powermacs will then be due for an update as well.

If the X-Serve receives the 1.4 GHz G4's, that would be a 40% speed increase in a single revision. That's pretty MAJOR. Although I share your sentiment, when was the last time they saw 40% in a single revision? I think it's nice the Desktop could see 1.4 GHz, but they have to deliver much larger MHz intervals now. 1.25 to 1.4 is, well, essentially nothing unless it's coupled with under the hood hardware improvements.

The last revision was a 25% speed increase with 250 MHz. Most revisions they've made are 25%. Assuming the revision of the G4 they will be using is comparable in per-mhz performance, they'd need a 313 Mhz increase. That'd mean a 1.5 or 1.6 Ghz chip. Do we think they can do that? Probably not right now. I think they may end up sacrificing CPU speed for other connectivity improvements, as has been suggested in other posts and rumor sites.

 

[iShater]

Originally posted by zac4mac

I foresee replacing my aging DP Mystic550 next year. Current offerings aren't enough of a jump in performance to drop $3k.

Zack

Wouldn't the high-end PM almost double the performance of your machine?

 

[GPTurismo]

1.4 Gigahertz? Maybe Power4's </daydreaming>

 

[bluecell]

The best products that he's ever seen? Maybe that means they're finally ditching the G4. There's nothing exciting about it at all. I'm not buying another Apple computer with that processor in it. The G4 is killing Apple.

 

[bidge]

Re: 40% Speed Increase

Originally posted by Frobozz


If the X-Serve receives the 1.4 GHz G4's, that would be a 40% speed increase in a single revision. That's pretty MAJOR. Although I share your sentiment, when was the last time they saw 40% in a single revision? I think it's nice the Desktop could see 1.4 GHz, but they have to deliver much larger MHz intervals now. 1.25 to 1.4 is, well, essentially nothing unless it's coupled with under the hood hardware improvements.

The last revision was a 25% speed increase with 250 MHz. Most revisions they've made are 25%. Assuming the revision of the G4 they will be using is comparable in per-mhz performance, they'd need a 313 Mhz increase. That'd mean a 1.5 or 1.6 Ghz chip. Do we think they can do that? Probably not right now. I think they may end up sacrificing CPU speed for other connectivity improvements, as has been suggested in other posts and rumor sites.

Ahh... the XServe hasn't had a revision yet, so the first speed bump was technically 1Ghz.

 

[.a]

once again, it's all about guessing...
looking at the last few revisions, apple has only surprised us with the pb 1ghz superdrive.
what about a new surprise? finally a xserve raid AND a new xserve with ibm 970 announced in jan03 - shipped in feb03? perhaps ibm could do a few of these chips, because xserves aren't sold in high quantities... later that year, the pm will follow...
but once again, it's all about guessing...

.a

 

[Hawthorne]

Okay, first we get the rumour that the G4 will top out at 1.3ghz, and now we get one that an XServe with a 1.4ghz chip is on the way.

So maybe 1.3ghz is not the limit?

 

[macmunch]

No ...

No, its no Major Speed Bump !!!

A Xserve is no PM or other Apple products !

Its a Server you cant update a Server ervery 6 Months !

If the Xserve will be updated in January then it will be 9 Months !

9 Month or 1 Year is good for a Server !

So its a Normal spped Bump like Wintel or Pro servers from (SUN,IBM...)

 

[bluecell]

Another G4 with crippled DDR. Great!

 

[adamcoop]

Originally posted by Hawthorne
Okay, first we get the rumour that the G4 will top out at 1.3ghz, and now we get one that an XServe with a 1.4ghz chip is on the way.

So maybe 1.3ghz is not the limit?

Damn! Beat me to it!
Let's start some rumours about the next xServe having an AMD chip in it.

 

[unclepain]

Too bad that new fangled handheld music/photo/movie/organizer device hasn't materialized in time for christmas. already got my present on order and it doesn't have an Apple logo on it, and Michael Dell is now 250 bucks richer. double whammie!

 

[Falleron]

The next revision of the G4 wont be crippled in terms of DDRAM. Also, from everything I have read I very much doubt that the G4 will top out at 1.3Ghz! Current 1.25Ghz machines can be clocked at more than their rated value! Therefore, do you think that the next revision (we know is coming) will have a lower clock speed???? I did not think SO!

 

[bluecell]

Originally posted by Falleron
The next revision of the G4 wont be crippled in terms of DDRAM. Also, from everything I have read I very much doubt that the G4 will top out at 1.3Ghz! Current 1.25Ghz machines can be clocked at more than their rated value! Therefore, do you think that the next revision (we know is coming) will have a lower clock speed???? I did not think SO!

How do you know that they won't cripple the DDR RAM? They've done it in both the Xserve and PowerMac. It doesn't really matter how much they push the clock speed of the G4, it's still trailing behind the rest of the world.

 

[Falleron]

Originally posted by bluecell
How do you know that they won't cripple the DDR RAM? They've done it in both the Xserve and PowerMac. It doesn't really matter how much they push the clock speed of the G4, it's still trailing behind the rest of the world.

There is a new Spec of G4 that is designed to use the full bandwidth of the DDRAM. Sorry, I dont remember the exact number of the processor. I agree, up till now, they have been crippled but the next round of updates will sort this out.

 

[barkmonster]

There is a new Spec of G4 that is designed to use the full bandwidth of the DDRAM. Sorry, I dont remember the exact number of the processor. I agree, up till now, they have been crippled but the next round of updates will sort this out.

They won't have the 7457 (733Mhz -1.3Ghz) ready for production till Q2 of 2003. That's expected to scale to 2Ghz when it's in production but it still only has a 200Mhz FSB and doesn't support DDR.

The G4+ (not to be confused with the 7450/7455) doesn't have a definate release date, it's just a proposed design as opposed to a design currently in execution. That's the one with Rapid I/O that will give us true DDR support.

Sorry to be negative but the best we can hope for this side of June is a G4 with a slightly faster FSB that should give us 1.6Gb/s instead of the 1.3Gb/s the top 2 towers offer at present. I just hope Apple have got a good system controller in there. Intel have married a 100Mhz x 4 FSB with chipsets offering PC2100 or PC2700 support so I don't see why the system controller in future tower designs can't handle using PC2700 and stepping it down to 200Mhz at the CPU end until motorola bring out the newer chip designs or apple start using the IBM PPC970 instead.

There was a PDF floating around, maybe it was linked here or on xlr8yourmac but that mentions the future plans for the 74xx family of cpus.

Personally speaking I'd like to think apple are going to bring out their last G4s sometime in early march or something and then make us wait till august or september time before they bring out powermacs based on the PPC970.

 

[arn]

Originally posted by zac4mac
I'm not so sure, Arn. Ryan has taken so much heat over the years, it seems he's getting a bit cautious about making wild claims. <caveat> I also think he's guessing here<end caveat>.

I agree - I think MOSR has toned down a bit... but it's still very hard to tell true rumors from speculation.

arn

 

[Falleron]

Originally posted by barkmonster


They won't have the 7457 (733Mhz -1.3Ghz) ready for production till Q2 of 2003. That's expected to scale to 2Ghz when it's in production but it still only has a 200Mhz FSB and doesn't support DDR.

The G4+ (not to be confused with the 7450/7455) doesn't have a definate release date, it's just a proposed design as opposed to a design currently in execution. That's the one with Rapid I/O that will give us true DDR support.

Sorry to be negative but the best we can hope for this side of June is a G4 with a slightly faster FSB that should give us 1.6Gb/s instead of the 1.3Gb/s the top 2 towers offer at present. I just hope Apple have got a good system controller in there. Intel have married a 100Mhz x 4 FSB with chipsets offering PC2100 or PC2700 support so I don't see why the system controller in future tower designs can't handle using PC2700 and stepping it down to 200Mhz at the CPU end until motorola bring out the newer chip designs or apple start using the IBM PPC970 instead.

There was a PDF floating around, maybe it was linked here or on xlr8yourmac but that mentions the future plans for the 74xx family of cpus.

Personally speaking I'd like to think apple are going to bring out their last G4s sometime in early march or something and then make us wait till august or september time before they bring out powermacs based on the PPC970.

Oh! I am sure I read that the next revision of the G4 would support DDRAM to its full potential! Anyway, any speed increase is good.