IBM selling PPC 400

copprheadcopprhead
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
According to http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/46478 IBM is selling it's rights to the PowerPC 400 processor to Applied Micro Circuits Corp. That company will take over 70 IBM engineers and wants to use the technology for its own "network and storage systems".



Now what do we make of that, remembering what No9 wrote some time ago about future PowerBooks?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Copprhead

    According to http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/46478 IBM is selling it's rights to the PowerPC 400 processor to Applied Micro Circuits Corp. That company will take over 70 IBM engineers and wants to use the technology for its own "network and storage systems".



    Now what do we make of that, remembering what No9 wrote some time ago about future PowerBooks?



    IIRC, the PPC400 is a chip intended for embedded applications. This is a very good development for the PPC family. However, it means nothing directly for Apple's PowerBook or anyother general purpose computer.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    IBM's selling off all their PPC400 SoC designs (the complete solutions) and the rights associated with them.



    IBM will continue to design and sell 4xx series cores.



    This is good news for IBM on the embedded front, but IMO it reduces the (already slim-to-vanishing) likelihood that we'll see a 4xx series CPU in an Apple product.



    Now, on the other hand, Cell will be interesting...
  • Reply 3 of 8
    snoopysnoopy Posts: 1,901member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Copprhead





    . . . Now what do we make of that, remembering what No9 wrote some time ago about future PowerBooks?



    No9 was obviously wrong with his wild report about future PowerBooks. We don't know whether he was serious or deliberately misleading us. It made an interesting discussion, nothing more.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    willywalloowillywalloo Posts: 408member
    No9 had an interesting idea laced with some rumors I've heard.



    I still say that would be an excellent idea. Think I remember computing the power 4 chips (yes, a quad-processor laptop) and it was under 8 Watts.



    Why not? It's not like Apple COULDN'T do it.



    -walloo.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    I liked the idea that No9 started... it was interesting.



    I would like to see it manafest into something... I really would.



    ...but then again, cell looks interesting too.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    Maybe this will stop the "Powerbook with Quad 440s!!!" nonsense. Or was that an Apple PDA with a 440?
  • Reply 7 of 8
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    a 440 cored processor would be a great CPU for a PDA like device that can run a light version of OS X.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    There it is again... the OSX "light" thing.

    How light do you think OSX can get? to fit in an average priced (no hard drive) PDA? To run on a low (~32megs) amount of RAM? To be able to function as a PDA?



    Bottom line is, it would not be OSX, not anything neer it.

    Today's smallest Linux distros do not give you much to work with when in the embeded arena. They do their job (and well). But if you were to slim OSX down to their size, so you could fit it on a PDA, forget about useability.



    Apple had the right idea with the newton and newton OS. (Note, that I said "idea") If you want to make a PDA you will need to build it from the ground up, not OSX down.



    If Apple ever goes that route again, I would be pleased.
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