The Modular PowerMac
I envision a foward looking computer system to be modular in the sence that when you need more processing power you add modular cards to the system. I'm not talking external modularity but internal. Presently we have a way of increasing power to our computer by giving it more RAM, or hard drive space, and some more functionality can be augumented with specialized cards (PCI/AGP slots). But CPU upgrades are lacking.
But what if we could increase the power of our systems by adding more processors as the need warrants (sort of like when you want to increase the speed of a super computer you add more nodes to the cluster)? This computer would need a motherboard that supports a highspeed bus and we have some to choose from today. RapidIO quickly comes to mind. Now take a motherboard and add a special CPU slot to it. But this isn't a normal CPU slot. It would be similar to the present socket Apple uses now. But the card that would go into it would have a corresponding slot on top. The card would also have only one CPU, and maybe 2 DIMM slots for dedicated memory. It owuld also have all the necessary controller chips on the card to make it almost a computer system in and of itself. The heatsink would need to be flat and wide because you will be able to stack another card on top. Between card you'll need about 1.5 inches of clearance or less if you can make the heatsink flat enough. maybe a creative heat pump would be the answer. The DIMM slots can be mounted flat and one on top while the other would be on the bottom of the card corresponding to the one on top. And if you start with a 2GHz G5 system, your next card does not have to be a 2GHz G5. It can be a 3GHz G5. With faster RAM. Or more L3 cache. Or 256bit Altivec II. The system would be able to make use of all it's compnents and it would grow with your needs.
Now the case would need to definately be redesigned. You would need space internally fo a tall column of processor cards. If you have a limit of 8 cards that will be 12 inches of clearance so about a total height of 14 inches would be sufficient. the opwer supply would be beside the column and there would need to be room for external drive bays toward the front. Hard drive bays can go under the power supply. All in all the tower would look like a building; like 2 cubes on top of each other.
The motherboard would have the shared peripherals on it like networking, Firewire, USB, IDE controllers. One AGP slot and maybe 3 or 4 PCI slots. By then though we might be using something else for connecting cards like 3GIO. No RAM slots since the RAM on all cards will be shared.
The beauty of a system like this would be parallelism. You can make yourself a highly parallel system. Markets that would make the most use of it would be 3D animation and modeling, 3D CAD, simulation, intense graphic manipulation, video editing and rendering, etc. A base system can start at about $1500 with modules costing $500 or so. If Apple was smart they'd let 3rd party developers make compatible cards with different features. Maybe 2 cases with the same motherboard would be necessary. One with room for less processor cards (maybe 2 or 3) only one external drive bay and limited amount of HD bays, but otherwise an equally competent system. Another would have room for 8 processor cards and more bays.
One major problem I could see with this set up is power (electricity). A power supply would either have to be sufficiently powerful enough to support all 8 possible processor cards or have one that can power 4 cards and if you need more than that you need to get the optional power supply. The latter method would cut down on initial costs.
This is my vision for future PowerMacs. Am I missing something glaring? And how possible would this be on an engineering standpoint?
But what if we could increase the power of our systems by adding more processors as the need warrants (sort of like when you want to increase the speed of a super computer you add more nodes to the cluster)? This computer would need a motherboard that supports a highspeed bus and we have some to choose from today. RapidIO quickly comes to mind. Now take a motherboard and add a special CPU slot to it. But this isn't a normal CPU slot. It would be similar to the present socket Apple uses now. But the card that would go into it would have a corresponding slot on top. The card would also have only one CPU, and maybe 2 DIMM slots for dedicated memory. It owuld also have all the necessary controller chips on the card to make it almost a computer system in and of itself. The heatsink would need to be flat and wide because you will be able to stack another card on top. Between card you'll need about 1.5 inches of clearance or less if you can make the heatsink flat enough. maybe a creative heat pump would be the answer. The DIMM slots can be mounted flat and one on top while the other would be on the bottom of the card corresponding to the one on top. And if you start with a 2GHz G5 system, your next card does not have to be a 2GHz G5. It can be a 3GHz G5. With faster RAM. Or more L3 cache. Or 256bit Altivec II. The system would be able to make use of all it's compnents and it would grow with your needs.
Now the case would need to definately be redesigned. You would need space internally fo a tall column of processor cards. If you have a limit of 8 cards that will be 12 inches of clearance so about a total height of 14 inches would be sufficient. the opwer supply would be beside the column and there would need to be room for external drive bays toward the front. Hard drive bays can go under the power supply. All in all the tower would look like a building; like 2 cubes on top of each other.
The motherboard would have the shared peripherals on it like networking, Firewire, USB, IDE controllers. One AGP slot and maybe 3 or 4 PCI slots. By then though we might be using something else for connecting cards like 3GIO. No RAM slots since the RAM on all cards will be shared.
The beauty of a system like this would be parallelism. You can make yourself a highly parallel system. Markets that would make the most use of it would be 3D animation and modeling, 3D CAD, simulation, intense graphic manipulation, video editing and rendering, etc. A base system can start at about $1500 with modules costing $500 or so. If Apple was smart they'd let 3rd party developers make compatible cards with different features. Maybe 2 cases with the same motherboard would be necessary. One with room for less processor cards (maybe 2 or 3) only one external drive bay and limited amount of HD bays, but otherwise an equally competent system. Another would have room for 8 processor cards and more bays.
One major problem I could see with this set up is power (electricity). A power supply would either have to be sufficiently powerful enough to support all 8 possible processor cards or have one that can power 4 cards and if you need more than that you need to get the optional power supply. The latter method would cut down on initial costs.
This is my vision for future PowerMacs. Am I missing something glaring? And how possible would this be on an engineering standpoint?
Comments
Aint gonna happen because Apple is too afraid to jeopardize any of their "hardware sells" by allowing too many 3rd party computer upgrades. Heck if you are running a 9400 and you need more power they'd rather have you buy a whole new Quicksilver than a bunch of cards.
I think that the next generation of PowerMac's will be even-less-legacy-parts. I am not sure about graphics, but if the rumors are true (and there are plenty of them) you will ony be able to use Apple solutions, probably onboard graphics or something the like instead of your own GeForce4Ti you bought someplace. The only thing you might add yourself could be ram and harddrives (bays? what drive bays? it looks cuter without bays..). Long live the ADConnector.
For "raw power" their answer _may_ be rackmount stackable G5 pizza sized boxes.
The consumers will be stuck with cheap-chap iMacs-type-machines with again only ram to upgrade. Noone that only spends 1750 us $ (low end iMac down here) on a computer needs a bigger screen anyway.
If I were an optimist I'd say;
Yes, please.
<strong>ONLY $1750? I spent that much on a G4 tower and 20" CRT screen.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Low end G4 tower with no extra RAM and no CRT is 2000 US $ here.
Strangely as much as there's a difference in the price with Apple computers there is hardly any between US and Europe x86 systems.
.xype
It's a possibility that doing this would elongate the life of people's computers--and hardware components--which would make Apple's hardware sales drop. It's also a possibility that third-party manufacturers could get in on the goods and produce better, cheaper, faster, alternatives that would also steal from Apple's profits. On the other hand, if things were more modular, as well as less expensive and more "open," people would be more willing and more able to upgrade, thus they might upgrade more. It could attract more people who want endless customizability without all of the hassle of IRQs and PCI slots and jumpers and all of that. It could give people a sense of having made more choices and "built" their own computer in a way, as with Legos for instance.
I think it would be cool for a Mac to be like big white semi-translucent Rubik's cube with pulsating lights and whatnot, each of the smaller blocks an individual component of the system (or systems..) which make up the whole.
<strong>But what if we could increase the power of our systems by adding more processors as the need warrants (sort of like when you want to increase the speed of a super computer you add more nodes to the cluster)?</strong><hr></blockquote>
It's already been done(Sorta). the <a href="http://www.supermac.com/s900/"; target="_blank">Umax SuperMac S900</a> series supported dual CPUs through two separate cards. you could buy any single CPU S900 model and <a href="http://www.supermac.com/knowledge/solutions.cfm?docs=KB00169"; target="_blank">add in another CPU</a> on a seperate card that fit in a separate, proprietary ASPD slot without having to throw away your primary CPU. you could even <a href="http://www.supermac.com/knowledge/solutions.cfm?docs=KB00172"; target="_blank">mix different speeds</a> of primary and secondary CPU.
There's also a <a href="http://xlr8.com/ProductInfo/machvelocity/index.php3"; target="_blank">set of CPU upgrade cards</a> made by <a href="http://www.xlr8.com/"; target="_blank">XLR8</a> with separately upgradable CPUs. the primary CPU comes on a standard ZIF card(Like the CPU cards that Apple puts in new Macs). while the secondary CPU comes on a proprietary LIF card. you can mix and match megahertz with these too.
I think Apple could fairly easily just add one or three extra ZIF sockets to their boards. this would allow the owners to draw from the massive reservoir of 3rd party ZIF socket upgrades.
And if all they wanted was just some CPUs that plug in through a local interconnect bus. they could just make something like <a href="http://www.transtech-dsp.com/powerpc/vqg4.htm"; target="_blank">this</a>.
[quote]Originally posted by bradbower:
<strong>I think it would be cool for a Mac to be like big white semi-translucent Rubik's cube with pulsating lights and whatnot, each of the smaller blocks an individual component of the system (or systems..) which make up the whole.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Me too. I imagine something like a combination of SGI's <a href="http://www.sgi.com/origin/300/numaflex.html"; target="_blank">NUMAflex</a> modular computer with Apple's Power Mac. which would allow you to independently add and remove power supplies, drive bays, PCI slots and even CPU slots!
It works by having all of these slots in modular "<a href="http://www.sgi.com/origin/3000/bricks.html"; target="_blank">bricks</a>" that attach to one-another. thus forming a whole computer. this allows you to buy a slim little tower to start off with. and then scale it up to a raging deskside machine later on. and when a bunch of these become obsolete. you can scavenge them for parts. and build a monolithic frankenstein of a computer out of an old Mac lab or something. to compete with even newer machines.
Probably the greatest benefit. is that if the modules were small enough. they could build minitowers. and maybe even all-in-ones(The monitor would attach to the other modules). out of the things as well as the immense full tower and deskside Macs. thus saving massive amounts of money in component manufacture. as well as increasing lifetime customer value(Imagine if you could turn a lab of old iMacs into a moderately powerful server after their useful time as end user machines had ended).
Eric,
[ 04-18-2002: Message edited by: Eric D.V.H ]
[ 04-18-2002: Message edited by: Eric D.V.H ]</p>
(just kidding.. well, mostly
That being said, I'm surprised no one has come up with a short white columnar "dock" for the base of the iMac that could hold extra harddrives and IO ports. The iMac has alot already standard but with the maneuverable screen their is alot more flexibility with what you could place it on.