I hope this is real. We are running out of rope after all the lynchings we have had with idiotic posters with no real info. Which mod is in charge of purchasing around here? And this time, throw in a couple of gallons of diesel, just because these specs look somewhat doable.
Dorsal was so full of shit it was crazy. He would post about the boxes he supposedly received, and yet what came out was so vastly different. You can't say he was confirmed. Surprisingly (wink wink) he disappeared after the G5s came out, and they were 100% nothing like what he was "working" with.
That's closer to the Dorsal analogy I was making. Dorsal managed to include references to generic enclosures, reasonable specs, and to not write something that looks like a quagmire posting, so as to look just credible enough to be believable.
OK, I may be a crazed lunatic after struggling to get my taxes done but this don't sound kosher somehow. For one thing, WWDC is 2.5 months away so that doesn't seem like soon. The system controller stuff on the PM doesn't sound right or the reasons for the delays.
As for the iMac and other updates, I have no clue. Something will be announced at NAB but that's a pro crowd. We'll see.
Of course I wanna believe as well. About to sell my iBook and Cube and will be putting along on a Beige 266 until new Powerbooks are released. Hurry up Apple!
i always find these all-knowing insiders to be suspect. i think most inside information is just a small part of the puzzle. i was one of the first people to know that motorola wasn't going to supply the g5 (i posted it a looonnng time ago) because i knew for sure it was true. but i knew nearly nothing else about the g5 other than it was from ibm. i'd suspect most real inside information is just a small glimpse of the entire picture. there was one other person here who repeated nearly exactly the same thing that i heard about the failed project 11 g5 processor from motorola but that was it.
The last specimens I saw were all dual processors but this is something that may change. <snip/> Their motherboards are different, as they have a new main controller. the new controller has support for the DDR-2 SDRAM running at speeds of 266MHz. This translates to a 533 MHz part. One change will be that they will no longer need to be added in pairs on the low end motherboard. the high end motherboard will support dual channel memory however.
Making 2 different motherboards with different system controllers for very similar machines doesn't make sense, unless the MB for high-end ones is much more expensive. A little suspicious.
Quote:
Most systems I saw had ATI Radeon 9800 chipset on a PCI-Express card, but they (ATI) will not ship a PCI-Express version of the 9800.
Do you mean the cards you saw had ATI chipset but ATI isn't going to manufacture them? Or do you mean the cards were not made by ATI (only their chipset)?
Quote:
I believe the 9900 will be the first to use PCI-Express as the connection method.
Never heard of these. Do you mean ATI will merely have different model numbers for PCI-Express cards?
Quote:
PowerBooks are expected to be updated to the G5 at WWDC in June using the 970FXe, a lower power version of the 970FX. Speeds will be 1.5 GHz and 2.0 GHz using an advanced form of variable speed control that can throttle the CPU to one fourth it's rated speed one moment and run up to full speed a moment later.
Doesn't PPC 970fx support this feature explicitly?
Quote:
The system controller is a collaboration between ATI and Apple. It contains a 9800 core with 64 MB of VRAM (with pads on the board to support an extra 64 MB), a DDR-1 memory controller, and a HT controller to a secondary controller with the rest of the i/o.
I don't get this part. Do you mean the system controller has a GPU core?
Quote:
The motherboard has 512 MB of system RAM soldered on with 2 slots open.
Aaaahhhhhhh...good. We've got someone else to join our Quag bashing party. There's always room for more.
And you're right Lurker...quag does look like a total FT when he posts...(if you don't know what FT means, add a few more letters after F and a few more after T...you'll figure it out eventually, than you'll laugh, cause it's funny.)
The X800 was widely referred to as the Radeon 9900 until about three weeks ago.
2Ghz 970FX(e) in a PowerBook sounds fishy though. Currently, neither the system controller chip nor the CPU are exactly low-power in the 2Ghz versions, and I cannot see Apple delivering a laptop that will run at full speed in Antarctica only
1.2-1.4 and 1.4-1.6 Ghz seems much more likely currently.
I wouldn't consider a 1.5 Ghz G4 iMac an agressive update, especially given the price structure of the eMac almost certainly meaning that the next iMac update will be priced similar to its current pricing. Also Apple has updated most if not all of its products in a 60-90 day period before. I think that they have done it at the same trade show in the past so this time frame is not neccessarely agressive either.
I would agree that the iMac will most likely get an update rather soon. I would also agree with another poster that we are unlikely to see a major change in the design of the iMac untill the G5 version is released. Thre is the off chance that it might be worth it if they could get the price below $1000, but I don't see that likely with the eMac priced where it is at. I would also expect that if we did see a change in the case, other than adding color, we would not see a migration of the iMac to G5 for at least 12 months.
As to the 2 mother boards/controller set-ups. Apple has done it before. If they plan on doing it again I would hope, expect, that this was a return to a lower cost desk-top unit withine the reach of consumers. It makes sense to do this if they are going to move to a single channel memory set-up. Consumer's are more likely to build up their memory a little at a time than pro's, It is also similar to the differentiation between the high end and performa line. What doesnt make sense is where it would fit in the pricing structure. If the 1.5 Ghz G4 iMac is at $1299, and a low end 1.6-1.8 Ghz G5 tower (Cube/Pizza Box/Pyramid) is at $1299 then the iMac is not going to sell that well, and it will just get worse as you go up the iMac line. Worse yet, 2.0 Gzh might be the low end of the new chip, so even if the low end Cube/Pizza Box/Pyramid was $200 more it would still cut into the sales of the iMac.
Dorsal was so full of shit it was crazy. He would post about the boxes he supposedly received, and yet what came out was so vastly different. You can't say he was confirmed. Surprisingly (wink wink) he disappeared after the G5s came out, and they were 100% nothing like what he was "working" with (MOT G5s...PC2700...266MHz Bus...)
Even his old "info" was suspect. While he was fairly accurate about the speeds of the quicksilvers, his motherboard predictions didn't pan out. Dorsal's posts were always just vague enough to be true.
Dorsal was almost always right. Dorsal M was full of ...
Apple's update to the eMac may not be the update we were all waiting for, but there's some very telling signs within it:
1 - 8x SuperDrive (Up from 4x)
2 - DDR Memory (Up from PC133)
3 - USB 2.0 (Up from 1.1)
4 - Radeon 9200 (Up from 7500)
5 - G4 7447 w/512k cache (Up from 256k)
6 - 256 MB RAM Minimum (Up from 128 MB)
7 - 167 MHz Bus (Up from 133 MHz)
8 - ATA/100 HD Controller (Up from ATA/66)
The eMac is Apple's LOW-END machine! They just made a significant update to it, giving it speeds that exceed the low-end iMac and iBook, a SuperDrive that is the fastest in their entire lineup, and video that probably exceeds that of the PowerBooks.
All of that tells us that the entire line is going to be updated across the board in a very short time. And the specs that SPF Jeff mentioned seem to fit quite well with this eMac news...especially his predictions for the iBook/iMac.
- There is no Radeon "9900", the next graphics cards (PCI-Express) from Ati will be called the X800 Pro and the X800 XT.
We all assumed that this would be its new name. The X800 wasnt announced until today if im not mistaken. I never heard about this name before today... Remember, he's probably not an ATI insider.
Quote:
- When Apple sticks it's most stylish desktop computer into a generic case, Bush will be awarded the Nobel Prize for peacekeeping and people's faces will turn into butt-cracks just like in that South Park episode.
Not so sure about this one... The iMac AIO has stayed like this for 6 years now.. Its time for a change... Maybe a LCD that you can take off? Oh well.. That a whole other story..
Quote:
Another thing, I love it when the rumor-posters leave only one post!!! Come back and post more, lead the discussion. Don't WIMP OUT!!!!
Comments
Originally posted by kupan787
Dorsal was so full of shit it was crazy. He would post about the boxes he supposedly received, and yet what came out was so vastly different. You can't say he was confirmed. Surprisingly (wink wink) he disappeared after the G5s came out, and they were 100% nothing like what he was "working" with.
That's closer to the Dorsal analogy I was making. Dorsal managed to include references to generic enclosures, reasonable specs, and to not write something that looks like a quagmire posting, so as to look just credible enough to be believable.
Originally posted by FormerLurker
and to not write something that looks like a quagmire posting
As for the iMac and other updates, I have no clue. Something will be announced at NAB but that's a pro crowd. We'll see.
of course, now i know nothing about nothing.
Originally posted by SPF Jeff
The last specimens I saw were all dual processors but this is something that may change. <snip/> Their motherboards are different, as they have a new main controller. the new controller has support for the DDR-2 SDRAM running at speeds of 266MHz. This translates to a 533 MHz part. One change will be that they will no longer need to be added in pairs on the low end motherboard. the high end motherboard will support dual channel memory however.
Making 2 different motherboards with different system controllers for very similar machines doesn't make sense, unless the MB for high-end ones is much more expensive. A little suspicious.
Most systems I saw had ATI Radeon 9800 chipset on a PCI-Express card, but they (ATI) will not ship a PCI-Express version of the 9800.
Do you mean the cards you saw had ATI chipset but ATI isn't going to manufacture them? Or do you mean the cards were not made by ATI (only their chipset)?
I believe the 9900 will be the first to use PCI-Express as the connection method.
Never heard of these. Do you mean ATI will merely have different model numbers for PCI-Express cards?
PowerBooks are expected to be updated to the G5 at WWDC in June using the 970FXe, a lower power version of the 970FX. Speeds will be 1.5 GHz and 2.0 GHz using an advanced form of variable speed control that can throttle the CPU to one fourth it's rated speed one moment and run up to full speed a moment later.
Doesn't PPC 970fx support this feature explicitly?
The system controller is a collaboration between ATI and Apple. It contains a 9800 core with 64 MB of VRAM (with pads on the board to support an extra 64 MB), a DDR-1 memory controller, and a HT controller to a secondary controller with the rest of the i/o.
I don't get this part. Do you mean the system controller has a GPU core?
The motherboard has 512 MB of system RAM soldered on with 2 slots open.
This is normal for pre-production samples, AFAIK.
Very interesting indeed. Can anybody comment?
Originally posted by Jubelum
Aaaahhhhhhh...good. We've got someone else to join our Quag bashing party. There's always room for more.
And you're right Lurker...quag does look like a total FT when he posts...(if you don't know what FT means, add a few more letters after F and a few more after T...you'll figure it out eventually, than you'll laugh, cause it's funny.)
Rock me, Apple...
Originally posted by Cam'ron
DMBand0026, does it rhyme with drunken fool?
Methinks it rhymes with duck card.......
Where would I be able to purchase PCI-X cards?
Thanks
Brian
The X800 was widely referred to as the Radeon 9900 until about three weeks ago.
2Ghz 970FX(e) in a PowerBook sounds fishy though. Currently, neither the system controller chip nor the CPU are exactly low-power in the 2Ghz versions, and I cannot see Apple delivering a laptop that will run at full speed in Antarctica only
1.2-1.4 and 1.4-1.6 Ghz seems much more likely currently.
Overall I would be impressed, though I expected the next gen G5 975 would hit the 3 Ghz mark.
Originally posted by Chaser
Apple Store says "well be back soon, busy updating the store"
I would agree that the iMac will most likely get an update rather soon. I would also agree with another poster that we are unlikely to see a major change in the design of the iMac untill the G5 version is released. Thre is the off chance that it might be worth it if they could get the price below $1000, but I don't see that likely with the eMac priced where it is at. I would also expect that if we did see a change in the case, other than adding color, we would not see a migration of the iMac to G5 for at least 12 months.
As to the 2 mother boards/controller set-ups. Apple has done it before. If they plan on doing it again I would hope, expect, that this was a return to a lower cost desk-top unit withine the reach of consumers. It makes sense to do this if they are going to move to a single channel memory set-up. Consumer's are more likely to build up their memory a little at a time than pro's, It is also similar to the differentiation between the high end and performa line. What doesnt make sense is where it would fit in the pricing structure. If the 1.5 Ghz G4 iMac is at $1299, and a low end 1.6-1.8 Ghz G5 tower (Cube/Pizza Box/Pyramid) is at $1299 then the iMac is not going to sell that well, and it will just get worse as you go up the iMac line. Worse yet, 2.0 Gzh might be the low end of the new chip, so even if the low end Cube/Pizza Box/Pyramid was $200 more it would still cut into the sales of the iMac.
Originally posted by kupan787
Dorsal was so full of shit it was crazy. He would post about the boxes he supposedly received, and yet what came out was so vastly different. You can't say he was confirmed. Surprisingly (wink wink) he disappeared after the G5s came out, and they were 100% nothing like what he was "working" with (MOT G5s...PC2700...266MHz Bus...)
Even his old "info" was suspect. While he was fairly accurate about the speeds of the quicksilvers, his motherboard predictions didn't pan out. Dorsal's posts were always just vague enough to be true.
Dorsal was almost always right. Dorsal M was full of ...
1 - 8x SuperDrive (Up from 4x)
2 - DDR Memory (Up from PC133)
3 - USB 2.0 (Up from 1.1)
4 - Radeon 9200 (Up from 7500)
5 - G4 7447 w/512k cache (Up from 256k)
6 - 256 MB RAM Minimum (Up from 128 MB)
7 - 167 MHz Bus (Up from 133 MHz)
8 - ATA/100 HD Controller (Up from ATA/66)
The eMac is Apple's LOW-END machine! They just made a significant update to it, giving it speeds that exceed the low-end iMac and iBook, a SuperDrive that is the fastest in their entire lineup, and video that probably exceeds that of the PowerBooks.
All of that tells us that the entire line is going to be updated across the board in a very short time. And the specs that SPF Jeff mentioned seem to fit quite well with this eMac news...especially his predictions for the iBook/iMac.
Originally posted by macaddict74
Ok, sure it sounds reasonable but two things:
- There is no Radeon "9900", the next graphics cards (PCI-Express) from Ati will be called the X800 Pro and the X800 XT.
We all assumed that this would be its new name. The X800 wasnt announced until today if im not mistaken. I never heard about this name before today... Remember, he's probably not an ATI insider.
Quote:
- When Apple sticks it's most stylish desktop computer into a generic case, Bush will be awarded the Nobel Prize for peacekeeping and people's faces will turn into butt-cracks just like in that South Park episode.
Not so sure about this one... The iMac AIO has stayed like this for 6 years now.. Its time for a change... Maybe a LCD that you can take off? Oh well.. That a whole other story..
Quote:
Another thing, I love it when the rumor-posters leave only one post!!! Come back and post more, lead the discussion. Don't WIMP OUT!!!!
Makes them more reliable in my eyes...