970 for sure but what about the Power4 as well?
lock it up if this has been pondered before... but what if they came out with more advanced powermacs say for the power series of processors too, and not just the 970 say for more pro stuff and less consumer application? I mean maya or shake would smoke on somethen like a 4 or 8 way on one of those. I was just daydreaming but still if they got the 970 who's to say they don't get a lot of other goodies from IBM as well?
Comments
I guess Apple could trick out some XServes to accomodate one Power4 module; hadn't ever thought of such before. I've only seen them in huge "eServers" with quite a few modules per unit. Or wait -- are there Power4 blades with just one module?
I'm outta my league here...
It be pretty darn expensive, but nice.
What WOULD be nice is if Apple, in its workings with IBM, opened up licensing on OS X to them (IBM), so that they could offer OS X-powered workstations and servers.
It would be enormous; Apple'd have the marketshare of graphics pros right there, but they wouldn't stand to make as much money as they'd like. So they wouldn't ever do that....guess we can dream.
Now, on the other hand, the 980 looks to be the POWER5 without the extra-thick gates and with an Altivec unit. The POWER5 won't be a beast like the POWER4, but it's probably going to end up in the same hardware (only without requiring a 700 pound press to place it on the motherboard). With the much higher bandwidth fabrics available now, the POWER4's close-knit MCM design won't be necessary.
The machines based on the 970 will be very nice indeed. The machines based on the 980 will likely be jaw-dropping.
I would see these machines most likely marketed to certain specialized creative and scientific markets. While I have to date thought of this as being 970 variants, conceivably it could be expanded to Power 4/5 type machines, if there is any indication off demand.
Of course this is just "wild" speculation.
Single processor models start at $16,000 and the top-of-the-line 1.45GHz 4-way costs $38,000.
Originally posted by kraig911
oh man thats not that bad if thats all they are...i mean a lot of real time video post equipment say avid symphony, digital dukes, anything from discreet easily runs into that amount with ease. And the problem with those are they are pretty much for one task... I think it'd be just so sweet to have a system that could do 3d incredibly fast, real time video editing, a fast compositor, and check my mail
The Power4 has no 3D edge over any other CPU. And actually has some disadvantages (no SIMD). You'd still need to spend about that much again for the real time digital video cards, software, etc.
So we're talking about $50-70k for a high end, real time, Power4-based video system.
Still interested?
I didn't think so.
Power5
Originally posted by kraig911
lock it up if this has been pondered before... but what if they came out with more advanced powermacs say for the power series of processors too, and not just the 970 say for more pro stuff and less consumer application? I mean maya or shake would smoke on somethen like a 4 or 8 way on one of those. I was just daydreaming but still if they got the 970 who's to say they don't get a lot of other goodies from IBM as well?
I highly doubt it. First of all, the POWER series is not a consumer-level chip; the cost of the modules themselves is out of the consumer price range, let alone the rest of the motherboard.
Morever, if Apple were to use a POWER series chip (which I don't believe will happen), it would be the POWER5, not the POWER4.
That's four chips in one module, with each dual-core chip having 2 processors. It looks mean because it is. And priced well beyond the range Apple sells in.
This doesn't sound like something Steve Jobs would feel comfortable with doing. But I have heard rumors that say "in order to convince IBM to develop the 970, Apple promised IBM the ability to license Mac OS X Server once the 970 machines hit the market."
I don't think it would undercut anything by Apple, since IBM servers tend to be quite expensive (remember, IBM is still selling 604e-based machines for over $5,000 in the year 2003.)
It does produce 2kW that need to be cooled off. I think the largest Krell amplifiers dissapate somthing like that without fans so it can be done. They do weigh something above 100 kg so it will be a "sturdy" cube
Originally posted by DrBoar
I read about the Power 4 with its multicore design and then several modules put together in a multicore module. A nifty little thing for the new Cube Macintosh
It does produce 2kW that need to be cooled off. I think the largest Krell amplifiers dissapate somthing like that without fans so it can be done. They do weigh something above 100 kg so it will be a "sturdy" cube
...sounds like a job for transparent aluminum case.
Here's the Insanely Great Mac story, and here's one of the boot logs from Linux on Power5.
Looks like developement is going foreward at steady pace at IBM, with the Power5 coming now and with the Power6 scheduled for around 2004-2005.
Dual PPC 970 will smoke any previous powermac in most applications and especially in 3D. The ppc 980 will have SMT capabilities, something that will not increase the SIMD performances, but will dramatically boost int and fp performances. PPC 9800 will have a dual core, and thus will beat any previous power 4 in all aeras. The future of the PPC chips is there, at least for the next 5 years (and who can predict the future of the pentium family for the next 5 years ? )