<strong>Modular Mac: c'mon people, it may look nice, but what it adds up to is $500 CDRW drives and $1,000 HDs - it may have worked when a new Quadra was $10,000, but not today.</strong><hr></blockquote>
It's not about looking cool. What I had in mind was a way to augment the power and capacity of your primary Mac in a flexible, tidy and economical fashion. (I presume that Barto's motivations were similar.) Subsidiary units might contain little more than a hard drive, CPU, RAM, a PCI(-X ?) slot, and a very fast bus. Audio support, optical drives and USB/Firewire ports could all be dispensed with.
The big question about this schema is whether the processor interconnect bus would be fast enough to allow the subsidiary module to usefully augment the total processing power. I have no doubt that the technology exists to do this kind of thing, but the cost-effectiveness of it may be a different matter.
But until I am dissuaded, I'm quite taken with this image of a glowing honeycomb of mega-Macness sitting on my desktop. And I have to say that this idea has strong resonances with a number of our favourite mythological beasts: ApplePI, the return of the cube, and the Cell project.
Apple News: Relations with developers will get sticky, with Apple releasing more apps of its own.
Henry Bortman, Macworld Contributing Editor
Software: A Web browser from Apple.
Market News: The increased availability of Bluetooth-enabled hardware.
Adam C. Engst, Macworld Contributing Editor
Apple News: Look for Apple to increase support for wireless technologies in Macs in 2003. I expect to see AirPort cards and base stations that support 802.11b, 802.11a, and perhaps even 802.11g. Apple might even build Bluetooth support onto every Macintosh motherboard to eliminate cables, and that might allow them to switch to wireless keyboards and mice.
Glenn Fleishman, Columnist, Seattle Times
Software: iHub, a program that offers workflow tools for managing all kinds of digital inputs and outputs, from scanners, DV camcorders, and digital cameras to inkjet printers, digital video recorders, Web galleries, and other formats, replacing several stand-alone, non-integrated programs.
Shawn King, Host, "Your Mac Life"
Software: It will be a series of product upgrades ? Final Cut Pro 4, iTunes 4, iMovie 3, and so forth that will continue to extend Apple's industry lead in those sectors.
-------------
Well, up to 6 (and as little as 1 depending on how strict you are) predictions came true this MacWorld.
Keeping in mind what just happened at MacWorld, what will the rest of 2003 contain?
New 15" PowerBooks seem obvious now.
Will Keynote be the first in an Office killer package? (I know, it's not hardware).
AirPort Extreme and BlueTooth should sweep the product line.
1 gig for the iMac with better graphic cards and the 17 inch standard.
867 to 1 gig eMacs.
dual 1 to 1.4 gig 'power'Macs. GeforceFX/Radeon 9700 announcements to coincide.
iBooks have a case revision? (Do they need it? I tend to think it still looks very beautiful and fresh...) 800 to 1 gig G3s in before June.
A further iBook revision or surprise would consolidate Apple's 'Year of the Laptop'. But you'd have to question a superdrive/G4 iBook in light of the recent Powerbook 12 inch stunner.
Instead, perhaps further price cuts with an iBook moving further down the price ladder to hit Dell hard in education and win some more Maine school contracts?
2nd half 2003:
970 with 64 bit 10.3. Blows all away.
(Option for 1 gig and 1.4 gig G4 duals in low end towers priced several hundred lower than current prices? Leaving 970 to occupy current 'power'Mac prices...)
X-Raid...turns heads.
X-Serve starts to turn up the heat.
All of a sudden, Apple's in business...
Oh yeah. More software. Apple starts to turn the screw on M$.
'Final Cut Express' style version for eLogic for all those iPod/17 inch Powerbook groove masters...?
Lookee, Lookee at the subtle Unix/open source things they have done/are doing?
The proverb: 'Safari'. We'll more of this.
Answer: How to make your $4billio compete quite well with $44 billion.
<strong>Apple tried a concept similar to this stacking system befor they settled on the Quadra.
In was a series of black, slab-like modules you just stuck together in a row. Sideways though not on top of each other.
You'd start off with the basic PSU, Processor, and Ram modules, then stick extras on as and when you needed them.
Can't remember what it was called, but it looked amazing, It was shown in an early issue of T3 magazine.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I remember the issue of which you speak, and I think it was an extract from a "coffee-table" book describing Apple's industrial design - a book which I never see being written about Dell.
On a serious note, the arrangement in that Mac prototype appeared to be very heavily influenced by a Data General model family called Desktop Generation, which was available as Model 10, 30 and 30.
10 would run RDOS, CP/M and AOS, the operating system that - so legend has it - could have been the first-choice OS for the IBM PC had DG's executive management not realised the mistake they were making by practically throwing man in the blue suit out of their offices.
20 & 30 were quite similar and ran both RDOS & AOS (DG's 16-bit OS).
The problem with these things were the quite staggering numbers of pins on the connectors between the various modules. Anytime you wanted to replace a module, you were basically taking your life in your hands not so much on the separation, but when you tried to line the things back up again.
Hopefully, any such arrangement now would be reliant on less dense, more capable technologies such as HyperTransport which I believe is a more practical long-term mechanism for joining the modules together than Barto's proposed Gigawire concept, which in every other respect I consider to be an elegant and wholly beautiful means to create a segmented product range for a variety of customer groups and applications.
What's really exciting is that after that Killer Keynote (no pun intended...)
...we've still got the rest of 2003 to come! New iMacs, 'power'Macs, eMacs, new iBooks, a new DLD, more software, iPod and even Ten.3 and of course, THE new CPU!
Comments
How about a tablet with a laptop form factor.
The hard drive and battery reside in the base to bring stability to the machine (being the heaviest components), while the logic board is in the top.
Carry it around closed, use it halfway open like a laptop or fully open like a tablet.
A keyboard app means you can touchtype on the screen. Normally, you can use a stylus as a mouse.
USB and FireWire 2 for peripherals.
AirPort 2 and Bluetooth for wireless.
2.5" hard drive and large battery.
800MHz G3, optional combo drive, moving to 1GHz in the 2nd half 2003.
Barto
[ 01-06-2003: Message edited by: Barto ]</p>
<strong>Modular Mac: c'mon people, it may look nice, but what it adds up to is $500 CDRW drives and $1,000 HDs - it may have worked when a new Quadra was $10,000, but not today.</strong><hr></blockquote>
It's not about looking cool. What I had in mind was a way to augment the power and capacity of your primary Mac in a flexible, tidy and economical fashion. (I presume that Barto's motivations were similar.) Subsidiary units might contain little more than a hard drive, CPU, RAM, a PCI(-X ?) slot, and a very fast bus. Audio support, optical drives and USB/Firewire ports could all be dispensed with.
The big question about this schema is whether the processor interconnect bus would be fast enough to allow the subsidiary module to usefully augment the total processing power. I have no doubt that the technology exists to do this kind of thing, but the cost-effectiveness of it may be a different matter.
But until I am dissuaded, I'm quite taken with this image of a glowing honeycomb of mega-Macness sitting on my desktop. And I have to say that this idea has strong resonances with a number of our favourite mythological beasts: ApplePI, the return of the cube, and the Cell project.
[ 01-06-2003: Message edited by: boy_analog ]</p>
i like it.
Solve the hinge problem so that hte thing can lay flat and it's a winner...
MSKR
Apple News: Relations with developers will get sticky, with Apple releasing more apps of its own.
Henry Bortman, Macworld Contributing Editor
Software: A Web browser from Apple.
Market News: The increased availability of Bluetooth-enabled hardware.
Adam C. Engst, Macworld Contributing Editor
Apple News: Look for Apple to increase support for wireless technologies in Macs in 2003. I expect to see AirPort cards and base stations that support 802.11b, 802.11a, and perhaps even 802.11g. Apple might even build Bluetooth support onto every Macintosh motherboard to eliminate cables, and that might allow them to switch to wireless keyboards and mice.
Glenn Fleishman, Columnist, Seattle Times
Software: iHub, a program that offers workflow tools for managing all kinds of digital inputs and outputs, from scanners, DV camcorders, and digital cameras to inkjet printers, digital video recorders, Web galleries, and other formats, replacing several stand-alone, non-integrated programs.
Shawn King, Host, "Your Mac Life"
Software: It will be a series of product upgrades ? Final Cut Pro 4, iTunes 4, iMovie 3, and so forth that will continue to extend Apple's industry lead in those sectors.
-------------
Well, up to 6 (and as little as 1 depending on how strict you are) predictions came true this MacWorld.
Keeping in mind what just happened at MacWorld, what will the rest of 2003 contain?
New 15" PowerBooks seem obvious now.
Will Keynote be the first in an Office killer package? (I know, it's not hardware).
AirPort Extreme and BlueTooth should sweep the product line.
What else?
Barto
[ 01-09-2003: Message edited by: Barto ]</p>
1st half 2003:
iMac/eMac/'power'Mac revisions.
1 gig for the iMac with better graphic cards and the 17 inch standard.
867 to 1 gig eMacs.
dual 1 to 1.4 gig 'power'Macs. GeforceFX/Radeon 9700 announcements to coincide.
iBooks have a case revision? (Do they need it? I tend to think it still looks very beautiful and fresh...) 800 to 1 gig G3s in before June.
A further iBook revision or surprise would consolidate Apple's 'Year of the Laptop'. But you'd have to question a superdrive/G4 iBook in light of the recent Powerbook 12 inch stunner.
Instead, perhaps further price cuts with an iBook moving further down the price ladder to hit Dell hard in education and win some more Maine school contracts?
2nd half 2003:
970 with 64 bit 10.3. Blows all away.
(Option for 1 gig and 1.4 gig G4 duals in low end towers priced several hundred lower than current prices? Leaving 970 to occupy current 'power'Mac prices...)
X-Raid...turns heads.
X-Serve starts to turn up the heat.
All of a sudden, Apple's in business...
Oh yeah. More software. Apple starts to turn the screw on M$.
'Final Cut Express' style version for eLogic for all those iPod/17 inch Powerbook groove masters...?
Lookee, Lookee at the subtle Unix/open source things they have done/are doing?
The proverb: 'Safari'. We'll more of this.
Answer: How to make your $4billio compete quite well with $44 billion.
Whither 'iOffice'?
Lemon Bon Bon
<strong>Apple tried a concept similar to this stacking system befor they settled on the Quadra.
In was a series of black, slab-like modules you just stuck together in a row. Sideways though not on top of each other.
You'd start off with the basic PSU, Processor, and Ram modules, then stick extras on as and when you needed them.
Can't remember what it was called, but it looked amazing, It was shown in an early issue of T3 magazine.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I remember the issue of which you speak, and I think it was an extract from a "coffee-table" book describing Apple's industrial design - a book which I never see being written about Dell.
On a serious note, the arrangement in that Mac prototype appeared to be very heavily influenced by a Data General model family called Desktop Generation, which was available as Model 10, 30 and 30.
10 would run RDOS, CP/M and AOS, the operating system that - so legend has it - could have been the first-choice OS for the IBM PC had DG's executive management not realised the mistake they were making by practically throwing man in the blue suit out of their offices.
20 & 30 were quite similar and ran both RDOS & AOS (DG's 16-bit OS).
The problem with these things were the quite staggering numbers of pins on the connectors between the various modules. Anytime you wanted to replace a module, you were basically taking your life in your hands not so much on the separation, but when you tried to line the things back up again.
Somewhat sadly, someone has put up a page on them <a href="http://www.simulogics.com/nostalgia/DG/Desktops/DG_30_02.jpg"; target="_blank">here</a>.
Hopefully, any such arrangement now would be reliant on less dense, more capable technologies such as HyperTransport which I believe is a more practical long-term mechanism for joining the modules together than Barto's proposed Gigawire concept, which in every other respect I consider to be an elegant and wholly beautiful means to create a segmented product range for a variety of customer groups and applications.
[ 01-11-2003: Message edited by: Mark- Card Carrying FanaticRealist ]</p>
What's really exciting is that after that Killer Keynote (no pun intended...)
...we've still got the rest of 2003 to come! New iMacs, 'power'Macs, eMacs, new iBooks, a new DLD, more software, iPod and even Ten.3 and of course, THE new CPU!
I can hardly wait.
Now this DOES look like being Apple's year.
Lemon Bon Bon
"where we will be in a year..."
On top.
[ 01-12-2003: Message edited by: Lemon Bon Bon ]</p>