Rackmounts a smokescreen?

2»

Comments

  • Reply 21 of 37
    allenallen Posts: 84member
    Anyone else think 3 hours is kind of long for a single product introduction? Isn't that longer than a MacWorld keynote?
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 22 of 37
    spotbugspotbug Posts: 361member
    [quote]Originally posted by allen:

    <strong>Anyone else think 3 hours is kind of long for a single product introduction? Isn't that longer than a MacWorld keynote?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    The inferrence that a 3-hour press release means more than just the rackmount is coming may be a good one, but another explanation is that, while Apple has the press, they'll talk about anything and everything they've got. They'll have to talk a lot about OS X, at the least, since that's what's going to be running on this new rackmount. It's all re-hash for us, but for the press people... well, they may learn something.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 23 of 37
    snoopysnoopy Posts: 1,901member
    In response to percolate about probabilities:



    You could make the odd very much in your favor if you included all products, even refrigerators and washers. However, the consideration here is about two products that benefit from a planned, simultaneous introduction. Video boards are not developed in a vacuum, and then dumped on the market hoping someone will buy them. There should be little doubt that Apple is fully aware of what Matrox has been doing, and Matrox would be very interested in having their board used in a new high end computer right at introduction time. When you get two companies that might benefit from announcing on the same day, it is very fair to ask what are the odds that these introductions were arrived at randomly. It would skew the results to include products without mutual benefit in the calculations. However, I will concede that just using Apple and Matrox may skew it the other way. That is why I avoided giving any numbers. If I were asked to guess, I'd say the the odds are ten to one that it is planned, and Apple will have a Matrox video board on May 14th.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 24 of 37
    sc_marktsc_markt Posts: 1,404member
    [quote]Originally posted by allen:

    <strong>Anyone else think 3 hours is kind of long for a single product introduction? Isn't that longer than a MacWorld keynote?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I agree. Seems kind of long for a server intro. I can see (in my optimistic mind) new G4 iBooks with better graphic cards and then the G5 being introduced! Of course, Apple has a powermac rebate that expires around the time of MWNY so logic says no G5 tomorrow (unless its in the server).



    Interesting that Matrox has something going on tomorrow. Osnews.com has a post about a new Matrox video card and the rumored memory bandwidth specs are around 20GB/s.



    [ 05-13-2002: Message edited by: sc_markt ]</p>
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 25 of 37
    [quote]Originally posted by Eugene:

    <strong>Maybe it's a compositing/real-time mixer/broadcast box...</strong><hr></blockquote>



    this might be completely wrong, but here she goes...



    last night on the x-files (geek), there was a shot of a cinema display using some video program in OSX. it looked extremely "appleish".
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 26 of 37
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    It's pretty clear that, while there might not be a "smokescreen," there will be a bigger picture. Apple is not going to let a rackmount server into the world without at least one purpose that has an infrastructure in place - e.g., streaming, or classroom management, or effortless clustering, or somesuch.



    It might well take three hours for Apple to lay out the strategy that the rackmount is part of, which will undoubtedly include some of their current products. They'll roll out a new iBook (for example) if it is part of this strategy; otherwise, it'll appear with a press release, like their last few product revisions have.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 27 of 37
    roborobo Posts: 469member
    ROTFL



    I just love it when people see a shot of a computer screen in a movie or TV show, and speculate that it's a leak of a top secret Apple skunkworks project.



    -robo
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 28 of 37
    spongemacspongemac Posts: 28member
    [quote]Originally posted by Amorph:

    <strong>It's pretty clear that, while there might not be a "smokescreen," there will be a bigger picture. Apple is not going to let a rackmount server into the world without at least one purpose that has an infrastructure in place - e.g., streaming, or classroom management, or effortless clustering, or somesuch.



    It might well take three hours for Apple to lay out the strategy that the rackmount is part of, which will undoubtedly include some of their current products. They'll roll out a new iBook (for example) if it is part of this strategy; otherwise, it'll appear with a press release, like their last few product revisions have.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Agreed!

    This will not be some mere server, they will have extended purposes like in the classroom/schools, labs, etc. One thing I see them having built-in Airport capabilities which makes the wireless network Apple's next major frontier. Revised iBooks and the new eMac will tie in closely with the server strategy.



    Steve will also plant the seed for the remaining line to also take advantage of the new server technologies. 2¢.



    "...Oh, and one more thing, iServerApps."
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 29 of 37
    gafferinogafferino Posts: 68member
    [quote]Originally posted by snoopy:

    <strong>In response to percolate about probabilities:



    You could make the odd very much in your favor if you included all products, even refrigerators and washers. However, the consideration here is about two products that benefit from a planned, simultaneous introduction. Video boards are not developed in a vacuum, and then dumped on the market hoping someone will buy them. There should be little doubt that Apple is fully aware of what Matrox has been doing, and Matrox would be very interested in having their board used in a new high end computer right at introduction time. When you get two companies that might benefit from announcing on the same day, it is very fair to ask what are the odds that these introductions were arrived at randomly. It would skew the results to include products without mutual benefit in the calculations. However, I will concede that just using Apple and Matrox may skew it the other way. That is why I avoided giving any numbers. If I were asked to guess, I'd say the the odds are ten to one that it is planned, and Apple will have a Matrox video board on May 14th.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    As nice as a legitimate 3rd option would be for a video card, I doubt that Apple will put Matrox cards in their machines any time soon. We are lucky enough to have the two big companies supporting Apple. If Apple tries to get greedy we could lose big. On the other hand maybe Apple is planning on dumping ATI or Nvidia in favor of Matrox. I am not anti Matox in any way. ATI and Matrox are two very good Canadian companies, and I am partial to Canadian companies
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 30 of 37
    cdhostagecdhostage Posts: 1,038member
    New Powerbooks! Never need charging! It runs on thermoelectricity! What's that? Where does the heat differential from? Oh, never you mind.



    Fine, I'll tell you. A little button of plutonium next to the hard drive. But never mind that! And don't beleive any rumors that you shouldnt ype weith it in your lap!
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 31 of 37
    wwworkwwwork Posts: 140member
    I think, given that this is the educational buying season, they might show off the new capabilities OS 10.2 (or whatever), PowerSchool and one of these servers could give the classroom.



    Think of the possibilities with iChat and rendevous and netbooting/netinstall. I'm sure someone can think of the specific ones. I'm sure there's lots. They could easily go on for three hours.



    - edit -



    Maybe the lack of progress by Motorola could end up as a blessing in disguise by forcing Apple to focus on the software possibilities rather than just boxes with chips. If you look at the computer as a tool for content communication it seems like Apple branded boxes are pulling way ahead of Wintel solutions. It is actually kind of exciting if you forget the G5 for a second.



    - edit 2 -



    In fact if you look at the future of computers the benifits of more speed begin to diminish at a faster rate. Once you get past real-time 3d rendering (and it will happen soon) what are you going to want? Even now, how many people really work their computers? Apple has huge possibilities ahead in hardware/software integration and that 90% Wintel market share.



    [ 05-13-2002: Message edited by: wwwork ]



    [ 05-13-2002: Message edited by: wwwork ]</p>
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 32 of 37
    percolatepercolate Posts: 14member
    [quote]Originally posted by snoopy:

    <strong>If I were asked to guess, I'd say the the odds are ten to one that it is planned, and Apple will have a Matrox video board on May 14th.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I'm not going to go on about the statistics but I'll say that I'd take 10 to 1 odds. Another graphics card option is always welcome, so here's to hoping I'm wrong...
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 33 of 37
    Wasn't there also talk of an updated product to the Matrox RTMac editing/effects hardware package. I thought I saw something about it a while back but I haven't heard anything on it for a while and seeing they did drop the price $400 about a month or 2 back as well.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 34 of 37
    Along with the server announcement will include a substantial order a la Maine iBook style. No evidence- just a reasonable conclusion.



    [ 05-14-2002: Message edited by: sjpsu ]</p>
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 35 of 37
    neutrino23neutrino23 Posts: 1,571member
    [quote]Originally posted by wwwork:

    <strong>- edit 2 -



    In fact if you look at the future of computers the benifits of more speed begin to diminish at a faster rate. Once you get past real-time 3d rendering (and it will happen soon) what are you going to want? Even now, how many people really work their computers? Apple has huge possibilities ahead in hardware/software integration and that 90% Wintel market share.

    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    My 867 G4 works pretty hard rendering Aqua. <img src="graemlins/embarrassed.gif" border="0" alt="[Embarrassed]" />

    But actually, I think you have it exactly right. Within a few years all of the things about computers we perceive as limits (speed, HD space, memory size, price) will recede to the horizon. The remaining differentiator will be the intellectual property - how nice does it look, how well does it work, what does it do for you. Many companies in many industries are facing this dilemma. What will happen to Dell when 10GHz peecees cost a dollar to manufacture? This is very much a time of transition.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 36 of 37
    timortistimortis Posts: 149member
    [quote]Originally posted by wwwork:

    <strong>

    In fact if you look at the future of computers the benifits of more speed begin to diminish at a faster rate. Once you get past real-time 3d rendering (and it will happen soon) what are you going to want? [ 05-13-2002: Message edited by: wwwork ]</strong><hr></blockquote>





    I promise, when that happens I'm not gonna want anything else. Though I wouldn't count on that happening very soon. The rendering time for Final Fantasy was 934,162 days on one processor (they used more than one processor, that's why they were able to finish it within this century )



    Moore's law states that processor speeds double every 18 months. You do the math...



    And Final Fantasy is nowhere near the limit of realism in computer graphics, there's a lot more advances to be made.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 37 of 37
    [quote]Originally posted by BobtheTomato:

    <strong>Sorry, as I glanced at the title of this thread i had the passing thought "Oh no, not another Powerbook 5300"



    I could just imagine the headlines:

    "Apple heats up server closets"

    "PowerMac toasts Pentiums....and everything else in the closet"

    "Apple's new server is white hot....literally"





    <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Sorry, IBM's Netfinity 3400 servers beat them to it. *cough cough*
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
Sign In or Register to comment.