PPC 970 on 90 nm process relaesed in november
Also from MacBidouille
Translation :
IBM should start to produce the PPC 970 on 90 nm process in november. They are working on debugging the last little problems of production on that process, and should be produced in large quantities in late january 2004. This chip will have two advantages among the current 970 :
- he should reach the maximum clockspeed of 2,8 ghz, before being replaced by the 980.
- it will be for almost sure, the first 64 bit chip to enter in a laptop. The agenda still continue to give us a powerbook G5 in february/march 2004.
This rumor do not seem to look much incredible. However they did not speak of a larger cache. If this rumor is true, it's seems that we will have to wait for the 980 before getting this new feature.
Translation :
IBM should start to produce the PPC 970 on 90 nm process in november. They are working on debugging the last little problems of production on that process, and should be produced in large quantities in late january 2004. This chip will have two advantages among the current 970 :
- he should reach the maximum clockspeed of 2,8 ghz, before being replaced by the 980.
- it will be for almost sure, the first 64 bit chip to enter in a laptop. The agenda still continue to give us a powerbook G5 in february/march 2004.
This rumor do not seem to look much incredible. However they did not speak of a larger cache. If this rumor is true, it's seems that we will have to wait for the 980 before getting this new feature.
Comments
Either way, I`m going to have to get a Rev A G5, I just cannot wait.. *Drool*
Originally posted by Mount_my_floppy
Correct me if I am wrong but hasn't AMD already demo`ed the althon 64 in a laptop?
Either way, I`m going to have to get a Rev A G5, I just cannot wait.. *Drool*
I guess you are right, but is it really a laptop ? or does it looks like more a pan for cooking eggs
Originally posted by Matsu
Whose eggs will you be cooking?
Not mine, they are more usefull for something else
Originally posted by Mount_my_floppy
Correct me if I am wrong but hasn't AMD already demo`ed the althon 64 in a laptop?
Either way, I`m going to have to get a Rev A G5, I just cannot wait.. *Drool*
Demos, bah. What matters is that it has been released and available to the public. Intel showed us a water-cooled P4 @ 4GHz over a year ago. IBM could probably show us a water cooled 3GHz G5 at WWDC, but you can bet that they've never gotten enough chips running at that speed to outfit a single decent-sized computer lab. What good is that? Good for showboating simply because you can, I suppose.
Apple doesn't like to demo products faster than what they sell, contrary to what Intel & AMD do on a regular basis. This is mainly because most PC buyers have accepted that there's always something new around the corner, and any time is a good time to buy. It seems harder to convince Mac owners of this. Even with the recent release of the G5, I know someone who is stupidly holding out because of what's next.
Have a look!
A PowerBook G5 @ 2 GHz would kick some serious SparcLE butt though..
We could get 1.6G PB's straight off the bat!, maybe have 1.33-1.42 7457's for now until the next update which will be 970!.
Originally posted by hasapi
We could get 1.6G PB's straight off the bat!, maybe have 1.33-1.42 7457's for now until the next update which will be 970!.
You are putting faith in Motorola, which is something I have completely given up doing.
Well, maybe Apple will just get fed up with Motorola and just skip this product release and do a big G5 release in time for Christmas sales!
Originally posted by Rhumgod
You are putting faith in Motorola, which is something I have completely given up doing.
Moto has so tainted how I view PPC updates that I find it difficult to believe that a die shrunk 970 will be available so soon. I know that IBM is competent in ways that Moto can only dream of, but I still want to think that IBM's roadmaps are nothing but pure marketing lies. Curse you Motorola for makig me such a skeptic
Originally posted by Powerdoc
- it will be for almost sure, the first 64 bit chip to enter in a laptop. The agenda still continue to give us a powerbook G5 in february/march 2004.
Hmm... did Macworld UK bite on this rumour?
Oh, we can have a Powerbook G5 now, it just seems Apple is unwilling.
This rumor do not seem to look much incredible. However they did not speak of a larger cache. If this rumor is true, it's seems that we will have to wait for the 980 before getting this new feature.
I'm still thinking Q2 04 is the absolute earliest we will see 90 nm parts from IBM, and plus 3 months for Apple machines using them. There's probably one last 130 nm revision coming for the 130 nm 970, a 2.4 or 2.5 GHz version assuming IBM will follow the "pipeline depth to clock rate" convention and produce a faster clocked 970 than an Athlon.
However, I think this could be really good if IBM ships a 512 KB L2 90 nm 970 chip along with a 1 MB L2 970. The 512 KB version would be perfect for low end Macs while a prospective 1 MB L2 970 would go into professional Macs.
Originally posted by Henriok
You can actually buy a 64-bit SparcLE powered laptop today frpn Tadpole, and it's not a frying pan. It seems like a great deal for folks who like Sun. They start at $3000.
Have a look!
A PowerBook G5 @ 2 GHz would kick some serious SparcLE butt though..
Hmmm... would it be surprising if an iBook or a PowerBook G4 kicks some serious SparcLE butt? In integer, it actually would be very likely, but in FPU, it may be pretty close.
970+ will enable PB's, the iBook G3's are 750's made by IBM, this chip may get Altivec.
The iMacs will continue with speed bumped 'cough' 7457's maybe till the 980's or even earlier with lower clocked 970+'s.
This is also unlikely, but come MWSF and SJ gets up and says that not only do we have the first 64bit G5 PB's, but also do you like our iMacs now that they have G5's as well!!!.
I suspect this plan was hatched the moment Moto canned its G5.
Hasta lavista Motorola!
Originally posted by hasapi
Hasta lavista Motorola!
Greg Jozwiak and Jon Rubinstein have both pointed out that Motorola's roadmap contains products that are useful to Apple.
I doubt we've seen the last of Motorola. Even their current lack of senior CPU designers isn't so much of an issue, because Apple has CPU designers on board (they worked closely with IBM engineers on the 970). Apple don't just take whatever they're given, and as far as I know they haven't since the 68k days.
Mot has been trying to turn around this year, and they've succeeded in unloading a lot of crap and streamlining things, and working around their chronic fabrication problems. I don't expect them to be transformed overnight, but if they are in fact on the rebound then Apple would be foolish to burn bridges with them. They've started talking about a "high performance PowerPC" scheduled for next year...
Originally posted by Yevgeny
Moto has so tainted how I view PPC updates that I find it difficult to believe that a die shrunk 970 will be available so soon. I know that IBM is competent in ways that Moto can only dream of, but I still want to think that IBM's roadmaps are nothing but pure marketing lies. Curse you Motorola for makig me such a skeptic
Comments have been said before about how IBM underestimates their product anouncements due to past legal problems. Case in point, the 970 was supposed to top out at 1.8 not 2.0 at initial release, and according to the anouncement about their blades that was pulled, they already have 2.5's on the 12 nm process. IBM stated that they would quickly migrate to the 9 nm process after the initial release of the 970. In my opinion, quickly in the microprocessor buisness is 1 to 2 quarters, 3 at the outset. The rumoured November time frame sounds about right, which puts them shipping chips by the end of the year.
As for Motorolla, who knows when they will get their fabs working. I wish they would just contract IBM to get 7457's out, but unless Apple has a contract that stipulates IBM as a backup supplier I would be willing to bet that Moto will just try to fab it themselves with as much luck as they have for the history of the G4...what a shame.
As for Apple, it would be nice to see them get a consumer Mac out there that could really pull some switchers over. They have the software and services, especially with iTunes Music Store. They have the press working for them in a lot of fronts. They have competative portables, though they are due for an update, and they have the G5's. Now all they need is a good, competative (price/performance) consumer computer out in time for Xmass (by Nov 25th) to go with the iPod, iTMS (for Windows as well), and Panther to really get some Buzz going for the Mac platform. Top it off with iChat VC technology and Quicktime adoption by AOL and we may see Apples stock prices double by year end....
Originally posted by Amorph
Mot has been trying to turn around this year, and they've succeeded in unloading a lot of crap and streamlining things, and working around their chronic fabrication problems. I don't expect them to be transformed overnight, but if they are in fact on the rebound then Apple would be foolish to burn bridges with them. They've started talking about a "high performance PowerPC" scheduled for next year...
I hear you, but do you expect Apple to state anything else, whilst they are still buying critical product from Moto?.
"They've started talking about a "<motorola>high performance PowerPC" scheduled for next year... "
I dont get it, Apple already has a REAL roadmap with SHIPPING 'high performance" processors from a plant that can provide the very best proesses with 980's (Power5's) on the drawing board. I agree with having a backup supplier, very prudent, but i very much doubt theyll be able to provide that service!
My speculative post looks like it will happen, only time will tell.
Sorry Amorph, ad me to the Moto skeptics list
IBM is providing Apple with a solid roadmap, but it leaves Apple with a single supplier (again). Having Moto back in the ballgame is a good thing.
Originally posted by Programmer
Motorola has had problems for a long time due to their fabs. Last year they announced that they are basically dropping their fabs and throwing their hat in with (IIRC) Philips and STI Microelectronics who are building a new advanced fab. When this happens its a whole new ballgame. Even an Olympic sprinter can't do great things with a ball & chain on his leg. I'm not saying Moto will suddenly spring to the top, but if they solve their biggest problem then the troubles of the last 5 years shouldn't be used to predict their future.
IBM is providing Apple with a solid roadmap, but it leaves Apple with a single supplier (again). Having Moto back in the ballgame is a good thing.
If Moto would contract out their fabs to IBM, who has proven processes I might feel better about a roadmap that they put out. But Moto dosnt just have a fab problem, it seams to me that they are yet to fully recover from the "brain drain" that I remember talked about a few years ago when Intel hired a bunch of their engineers away.
IBM dosnt seam to have suffered there, and they have a solid direction anounced with proven Fab track record. If anything IBM underestimates what they deliver....the biggest problem I see is IBM bieng able to deliver enough chips, yet to date I dont think FishKill is at capacity so we have some room to grow there.
What is more, they seam to have a vested interest, at least for now, in the success of the PowerPC in the server/desktop arena. Motorolla dosnt, and hasnt since Apple killed the clones. A worst case scenerio, IBM takes us through the 980, at which time Apple has a large enough adoption of OS X to have a truely "portable" OS, and development kit to automatically build FAT bionaries for multiple hardware platforms...The biggest problem that I see for Apple is keeping the momentum in the low end arena for the next 12 months....but we will see.
Originally posted by @homenow
But Moto dosnt just have a fab problem, it seams to me that they are yet to fully recover from the "brain drain" that I remember talked about a few years ago when Intel hired a bunch of their engineers away.
While its true that they lost many engineers, they didn't lose them all. We don't seem to be disagreeing here -- I'm not predicting that they're going to suddenly come out with a G5 class processor. They could, however, easily take the memory controller and RIO interface from their 8xxx series host processors and mate them to the 7457 on a 9nm process, and that would result in a fast low power processor.