AppleInsider Reports - analysis

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
<a href="http://appleinsider.com/articles/0112/imac2002.phtml"; target="_blank">http://appleinsider.com/articles/0112/imac2002.phtml</a>;



I found this article believeable or at least well-thought out. Some questions:



1) I've lost track. Is IBM now the official producer of the G3, with Moto doing no production work nor research on the now-dated processor line? Is this why IBM's new "Sahara" is going to power the new iMacs?



2) Assuming it will cost less to miniaturize components as in the iBook, is a $999 bottom price tag reasonable? If the predicteed standardized clock speed is low (let's assume 800 MHz) then this possible.



3) Is the SuperDrive worth offering in a consumer computer?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 40
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    I looked for some more info on this Sahara chip, which IBM just introduced a few weeks ago at the Microprocessor Forum in October. Found these:



    <a href="http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0110/15.ibm.php"; target="_blank">http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0110/15.ibm.php</A>;



    And this is from IBM's own press release:

    <a href="http://www-3.ibm.com/chips/news/2001/1017_750fx.html"; target="_blank">http://www-3.ibm.com/chips/news/2001/1017_750fx.html</A>;

    [quote]Select customers are currently evaluating the hardware with general sampling available in January of 2002. The PowerPC 750FX is planned to initially debut at 700 MHz, with versions at speeds up to 1 Ghz later that year.<hr></blockquote>This doesn't make it sound like whatever Mac uses this chip will hit 1Ghz in the near future, certainly not January or March.



    [edit: Fixed a few of the 218 different spelling and UBB errors]



    [ 12-04-2001: Message edited by: BRussell ]</p>
  • Reply 2 of 40
    slackerslacker Posts: 127member
    <a href="http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-8065180.html?tag=pt.excite.cinews..ne8065180"; target="_blank">http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-8065180.html?tag=pt.excite.cinews..ne8065180</a>;



    That link pretty much sells me on the Flat-panel iMac, if they are sure of the component order of 100,000 per month (and I assume they meant the screens) then it's a done deal. Still just have to figure out if it's Jan, Feb, or Mar.
  • Reply 3 of 40
    max8319max8319 Posts: 347member
    i don't see a superdrive as a very likely addition to the imac
  • Reply 4 of 40
    The superdrive in an iMac still troubles me.



    We've previously been told that iDVD can compress MPEG2 in near real-time solely because of the altivec optimisations for the G4 chip.



    So will iDVD on an iMac create discs much slower in software (without altivec) or will the top iMac have a hardware compressor?
  • Reply 5 of 40
    steve666steve666 Posts: 2,600member
    A flat panel iMac would never survive in a school setting. Apple should keep one model of the current iMac around and sell it for $499.............................................. ......
  • Reply 6 of 40
    It [edit] the superdrive in an imac [/edit] seems quite feasable if consumers are willing to pay for it. I don't see anything wrong with having to wait longer for the encoding. Even if the encode time is 2x run length it would be fine with me, especially if it runs in the background.



    [ 12-04-2001: Message edited by: Mike D ]</p>
  • Reply 7 of 40
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    [quote]Originally posted by steve666:

    <strong>A flat panel iMac would never survive in a school setting. Apple should keep one model of the current iMac around and sell it for $499.............................................. ......</strong><hr></blockquote>



    But would Apple have more than one case design and model iMac?
  • Reply 8 of 40
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    [quote]The superdrive in an iMac still troubles me.



    We've previously been told that iDVD can compress MPEG2 in near real-time solely because of the altivec optimisations for the G4 chip.



    So will iDVD on an iMac create discs much slower in software (without altivec) or will the top iMac have a hardware compressor? <hr></blockquote>







    perhaps the 9.8mb/sec (or whatever it is specificially) has something to do with the "fast" encoding speed.



    [quote]A flat panel iMac would never survive in a school setting. Apple should keep one model of the current iMac around and sell it for $499.............................................. ......

    Mike D <hr></blockquote>



    give me a break. schools have thousands of laptops they give students but a stationary desktop machine with a much more durable LCD screen somehow won't hold up.
  • Reply 9 of 40
    bodhibodhi Posts: 1,424member
    The flat panel iMac will not hold up in schools....



    The G4 is too hot a processor for a portable....



    No way will Apple release a widescreen laptop....



    Funny how there are always Apple Urban Myth's.
  • Reply 10 of 40
    cdhostagecdhostage Posts: 1,038member
    CRTs are dangerous if you break them. So, people have learned not to touch desktop computers.

    A school setting, dangerous? Of course. But not so much as to prohibit Apple from selling the wonderful iMacs proposed. And it'll be much prettier, too!
  • Reply 11 of 40
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    I really would like to know the reason why everyone says that a LCD iMac wouldn't last in schools.
  • Reply 12 of 40
    Considering that a much thinner LCD seems to last in a very droppable package (iBook)



    ....



    sheesh.



    and Apple isn't into the 2-different models with the same name thing... The old form, if it stays around will be only for education, and it will be like 799.. not for sale to the public. People who are willing to spend 800 on a computer are equally willing to spend 999 for something as much cooler as an LCD iMac would be than the old iBubble...
  • Reply 13 of 40
    [quote]Originally posted by cdhostage:

    <strong>

    1) I've lost track. Is IBM now the official producer of the G3, with Moto doing no production work nor research on the now-dated processor line? Is this why IBM's new "Sahara" is going to power the new iMacs?



    2) Assuming it will cost less to miniaturize components as in the iBook, is a $999 bottom price tag reasonable? If the predicteed standardized clock speed is low (let's assume 800 MHz) then this possible.



    3) Is the SuperDrive worth offering in a consumer computer?</strong><hr></blockquote>





    1. IBM makes G3's. End of story. Sahara is the newest generation of G3.



    2. The Sahara G3 is *very* cheap. 999 is very possible, in my mind.



    3. Yes- note, iDVD is a *consumer* application, meant to be used on the *consumer* computer... Steve would love to tout being the first to bring a good dvd authoring solution to the public.
  • Reply 14 of 40
    reidreid Posts: 190member
    While I don't think there's any more danger in selling flat panel monitors to schools than to anyone else, I do agree that it would be wise to keep around an ultra-cheap CRT-based option. Even if they offer it only to the education channel, I bet that $799 Mac helps get a foot in the door for many school RFP's. If they could somehow knock it down to $499-$599, all the better.
  • Reply 15 of 40
    tcotco Posts: 87member
    The only thing that bothers me about that article is the mention of a GeForce 2MX. I had heard a couple of months ago that the 2MX was being sunsetted. Even if it were to be available for a month or two after launch, why would you launch a completely new computer with such a component? It doesn't make sense.



    The new computer would more than likely incorporate a Geforce 2/3 Ti 200, or the new nvidia mobile solution, the NV17 (I'm just wondering, if the new model is REALLY flat, would there be room for a conventional AGP card slot?)
  • Reply 16 of 40
    cooopcooop Posts: 390member
    [quote]Even if the encode time is 2x run length it would be fine with me, especially if it runs in the background.<hr></blockquote>A 733 MHz G4 could encode DVD data at 2x; does anyone think Apple could get a 1 GHz G3 without Altivec support to get this kind of performance? I don't think so, personally. But maybe Apple has cooked something up. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />



    [quote]A flat panel iMac would never survive in a school setting. Apple should keep one model of the current iMac around and sell it for $499 <hr></blockquote> I agree. I was pushing for a couple of G4s for my high school journalism lab but I was told I couldn't order an Apple flat-panel display for the department because my [cheap] school district thinks LCDs are too costly and not worth their weight in gold. Obviously a flat-panel iMac is somewhat different because it's an all-in-one unit but keeping around an excess of CRT iMacs for the education market couldn't hurt.



    [ 12-04-2001: Message edited by: cooop ]</p>
  • Reply 17 of 40
    tarbashtarbash Posts: 278member
    It will be interesting to see whether or not Apple will offer an older CRT model with the old design (similar to the 533 MHz G4 they offer now to education with the old case design) or if they will just sell a $799 LCD model with CD-ROM, 16 MB graphics card, and maybe a tad slower processor to drive down price.



    We shall see.
  • Reply 18 of 40
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
  • Reply 19 of 40
    [quote]Originally posted by cooop:

    A 733 MHz G4 could encode DVD data at 2x; does anyone think Apple could get a 1 GHz G3 without Altivec support to get this kind of performance? I don't think so, personally. But maybe Apple has cooked something up.

    <hr></blockquote>



    Not sure what you mean, I was trying to say that the performance would be acceptable if the encode rate was twice the run length of the movie/file whatever. I think my "2x" was a little misleading.
  • Reply 20 of 40
    I personally don't see them offering a SuperDrive in an iMac, especially if it's a flat panel display.



    First of all, I don't think that any drive manufacturer has produced a DVD-R in a low-profile form - if they had, I would think that you would have seen it first in the PowerBook G4, not in the iMac.



    Second, the reason that iDVD works as fast as it does is due to the Velocity Engine (AltiVec) in the G4. If the iMac stays with the G3 in an increasing clock speed, I don't see that it would have the muscle to be able to burn DVD's in any kind of respectable length of time.



    Third, currently the SuperDrive retails for $450... even given some significant price drops, I don't see Apple including a drive that (given that the price point remains around $1000, +/- $300) costs 1/3 to 1/4 the selling price of the entire machine.



    I personally would put money on seeing a Combo drive, not a SuperDrive, in the iMac. Those are very available, at a low enough cost, and in a low-profile form factor which would work in a flat panel style display.
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