MACWISPERS: 970 info from OEM
Here is more 970 info, as always with rumor sites take it with a grain of salt and if it does actually happen I may just wet my pants...
MORE INFO ABOUT THE 970 AS TO WHY IT WILL HAPPEN FOR SURE...(This is actually a good point if true)
Taken from: MacWispers
Quote:
With the entire Mac world abuzz with (often conflicting) reports of the Apple transition to the IBM PowerPC 970 processor family, we have decided to report a summary of all that we know at this time... not from regurgitated rumors obtained from other web sites, but from our own OEM contacts in the Apple supply pipeline.
We have no software information sources; all information we receive comes from people working in various positions in and around plants in Taiwan that actually supply parts or perform hardware assembly operations on Apple products. So, we have to leave the software speculation to sites such as Think Secret and, it now seems, eWeek.
What we know at this point is as follows:
- The IBM PPC 970 chips are now actually in volume production for only two specific end uses: IBM's own servers, and for Apple Computer.
- The plant contracted for assembly of the new Power Mac is now actually manufacturing production Power Macs with single PPC 970 processors.
- The plant contracted for assembly of the new 15.4-inch Powerbook has just now begun manufacturing production Powerbooks with the PPC 970 processor.
- The new Power Mac has a sister model with a 2-processor motherboard that is not yet in actual production, but that could be put into production at any time.
- The new Power Mac has a new case design with "metallic look plastics," and a front panel "mostly made with the same anodized aluminum surface" as the newest Powerbooks.
- The new Power Mac retains "handles," though not in the same form as the current design.
We have no sources or contacts within Apple Computer, so we cannot state that company's actual release plans for these products. However, we can say that both the new PPC 970 Power Mac and Powerbook will have substantial inventory already produced by the time of the upcoming WWDC keynote.
In closing, we want to address the performance of the new PPC 970 machines, as we do have direct information on this topic, and we consider that information to be highly reliable. Despite the recent flurry of confusing claims published by eWeek and others, we stand by our report that the new Power Mac and Powerbook have overall performance approximately 1.25 to 1.5 times that of a similarly clocked G4 on non-Altivec optimized applications. On Altivec optimized tasks, these machines have as much as 2 to 2.5 times the through performance as a similarly clocked G4. Our understanding is that this performance is occurring using bone-stock OS X 10.2.6 on pre-production single processor PPC 970 machines... an OS with none of the optimization now being rumored as being needed for supporting the PPC 970's performance potential.
With the entire Mac world abuzz with (often conflicting) reports of the Apple transition to the IBM PowerPC 970 processor family, we have decided to report a summary of all that we know at this time... not from regurgitated rumors obtained from other web sites, but from our own OEM contacts in the Apple supply pipeline.
We have no software information sources; all information we receive comes from people working in various positions in and around plants in Taiwan that actually supply parts or perform hardware assembly operations on Apple products. So, we have to leave the software speculation to sites such as Think Secret and, it now seems, eWeek.
What we know at this point is as follows:
- The IBM PPC 970 chips are now actually in volume production for only two specific end uses: IBM's own servers, and for Apple Computer.
- The plant contracted for assembly of the new Power Mac is now actually manufacturing production Power Macs with single PPC 970 processors.
- The plant contracted for assembly of the new 15.4-inch Powerbook has just now begun manufacturing production Powerbooks with the PPC 970 processor.
- The new Power Mac has a sister model with a 2-processor motherboard that is not yet in actual production, but that could be put into production at any time.
- The new Power Mac has a new case design with "metallic look plastics," and a front panel "mostly made with the same anodized aluminum surface" as the newest Powerbooks.
- The new Power Mac retains "handles," though not in the same form as the current design.
We have no sources or contacts within Apple Computer, so we cannot state that company's actual release plans for these products. However, we can say that both the new PPC 970 Power Mac and Powerbook will have substantial inventory already produced by the time of the upcoming WWDC keynote.
In closing, we want to address the performance of the new PPC 970 machines, as we do have direct information on this topic, and we consider that information to be highly reliable. Despite the recent flurry of confusing claims published by eWeek and others, we stand by our report that the new Power Mac and Powerbook have overall performance approximately 1.25 to 1.5 times that of a similarly clocked G4 on non-Altivec optimized applications. On Altivec optimized tasks, these machines have as much as 2 to 2.5 times the through performance as a similarly clocked G4. Our understanding is that this performance is occurring using bone-stock OS X 10.2.6 on pre-production single processor PPC 970 machines... an OS with none of the optimization now being rumored as being needed for supporting the PPC 970's performance potential.
MORE INFO ABOUT THE 970 AS TO WHY IT WILL HAPPEN FOR SURE...(This is actually a good point if true)
Quote:
We have received some tantalizing information over the past few days on the prices being given to Apple by IBM on the PPC 970 microprocessors now being engineered into Power Mac and Powerbook motherboards. We are in a delicate position as to what we may publish on this topic, but have decided that a very basic statement is permissible. Essentially, the PPC 970 family of chips is about 25% to 35% less costly to Apple than the latest family of Motorola G4 chips... a fact which, we believe, speaks volumes about the likely adoption of the new 970-based machine architecture in Apple's product line.
While the cost of the microprocessor itself is not the major expense in building a computer, it is certainly a significant factor in the overall cost of Apple's products. And, with the PPC 970 chip line offering some multiple of the G4 chip family's performance, and at one-third less cost, we believe that many of the speculative stories now making the rounds will prove out to be false; specifically, we see little or no future at Apple for any Motorola chip. In fact, several knowledgeable Apple OEM channel sources have hinted that Apple is aggressively reengineering every product in the lineup to adopt IBM chips as soon as possible. Word is that this across the board transition could be completed by as soon as Spring of 2004.
In other words, the idea that the PPC 970 (and soon to arrive 980) will somehow coexist with the G4 in a variety of Apple hardware lines just doesn't seem to be realistic. Everything we have been told points to a rapid adoption of IBM as Apple's sole chip supplier, with all models, from the lowly iBook to the top of the line pro machines using Big Blue's processors... 970's, 980's, Gobi's... possibly with every machine running some variant of the 970/980 family within as little time as the next 9 to 12-months.
It seems that in addition to beating Motorola's processor performance, IBM is demolishing Motorola's pricing, as well. And, from Apple's view, that makes for an offer too sweet to resist.
We have received some tantalizing information over the past few days on the prices being given to Apple by IBM on the PPC 970 microprocessors now being engineered into Power Mac and Powerbook motherboards. We are in a delicate position as to what we may publish on this topic, but have decided that a very basic statement is permissible. Essentially, the PPC 970 family of chips is about 25% to 35% less costly to Apple than the latest family of Motorola G4 chips... a fact which, we believe, speaks volumes about the likely adoption of the new 970-based machine architecture in Apple's product line.
While the cost of the microprocessor itself is not the major expense in building a computer, it is certainly a significant factor in the overall cost of Apple's products. And, with the PPC 970 chip line offering some multiple of the G4 chip family's performance, and at one-third less cost, we believe that many of the speculative stories now making the rounds will prove out to be false; specifically, we see little or no future at Apple for any Motorola chip. In fact, several knowledgeable Apple OEM channel sources have hinted that Apple is aggressively reengineering every product in the lineup to adopt IBM chips as soon as possible. Word is that this across the board transition could be completed by as soon as Spring of 2004.
In other words, the idea that the PPC 970 (and soon to arrive 980) will somehow coexist with the G4 in a variety of Apple hardware lines just doesn't seem to be realistic. Everything we have been told points to a rapid adoption of IBM as Apple's sole chip supplier, with all models, from the lowly iBook to the top of the line pro machines using Big Blue's processors... 970's, 980's, Gobi's... possibly with every machine running some variant of the 970/980 family within as little time as the next 9 to 12-months.
It seems that in addition to beating Motorola's processor performance, IBM is demolishing Motorola's pricing, as well. And, from Apple's view, that makes for an offer too sweet to resist.
Taken from: MacWispers
Comments
I think its a good read, though we'll see if it actually happens. And if it does I hope Apple passes the lower cost along to its customers, hehehe
And it's MacWhispers