My point was that if it was going to be the 970, they could have done that already. If there was sufficient supply for it to be the 970fx, why would the G5 xserve still be backordered?
My point was that if it was going to be the 970, they could have done that already. If there was sufficient supply for it to be the 970fx, why would the G5 xserve still be backordered?
It's humanly possible that the Xserve could be back-ordered for other reasons than the processor. This is a very low-volume item to date, and Virginia Tech had dibs on at least the first 1100, if not more, of the dualies. Total Xserves shipped all of last year was <10,000. (I think-- it's not broken out in their annual statement.)
Kickaha and Amorph couldn't moderate themselves out of a paper bag. Abdicate responsibility and succumb to idiocy. Two years of letting a member make personal attacks against others, then stepping aside when someone won't put up with it. Not only that but go ahead and shut down my posting priviledges but not the one making the attacks. Not even the common decency to abide by their warning (afer three days of absorbing personal attacks with no mods in sight), just shut my posting down and then say it might happen later if a certian line is crossed. Bullshit flag is flying, I won't abide by lying and coddling of liars who go off-site, create accounts differing in a single letter from my handle with the express purpose to decieve and then claim here that I did it. Everyone be warned, kim kap sol is a lying, deceitful poster.
Now I guess they should have banned me rather than just shut off posting priviledges, because kickaha and Amorph definitely aren't going to like being called to task when they thought they had it all ignored *cough* *cough* I mean under control. Just a couple o' tools.
Don't worry, as soon as my work resetting my posts is done I'll disappear forever.
Kickaha and Amorph couldn't moderate themselves out of a paper bag. Abdicate responsibility and succumb to idiocy. Two years of letting a member make personal attacks against others, then stepping aside when someone won't put up with it. Not only that but go ahead and shut down my posting priviledges but not the one making the attacks. Not even the common decency to abide by their warning (afer three days of absorbing personal attacks with no mods in sight), just shut my posting down and then say it might happen later if a certian line is crossed. Bullshit flag is flying, I won't abide by lying and coddling of liars who go off-site, create accounts differing in a single letter from my handle with the express purpose to decieve and then claim here that I did it. Everyone be warned, kim kap sol is a lying, deceitful poster.
Now I guess they should have banned me rather than just shut off posting priviledges, because kickaha and Amorph definitely aren't going to like being called to task when they thought they had it all ignored *cough* *cough* I mean under control. Just a couple o' tools.
Don't worry, as soon as my work resetting my posts is done I'll disappear forever..
Hey man, I feel for you. I really do. It sucks that the G5 stalled after so many years of Motorola stalls. I hope it's a short stall, as it seems to be, and they're back on track with only a few months delay in their roadmap. I've got work money that runs out in August, so I'm going to buy whatever is released at WWDC. I hope Apple jumps from 2 to 3 Ghz, hell, I hope it's 4 Ghz. I also hope I win the lottery and that Iraq will turn into a liberal democracy in January. But common sense suggests those are unrealistic wishes.
How about this - let's have a bet. I bet no 3 Ghz Macs at WWDC. If you want to bet they'll be there, I'll take you up on it. We'll come back in a month, and whoever is wrong requests "I was wrong" for their AI title, and whoever was right gets "I was right."
Then IBM had problems with the G5, and so now they're obviously not going to hit 3 Ghz as quick as Jobs said. All these other "975 now" theories are just wishful thinking because people feel their egos are on the line.
IBM have no problems with the G5, they have problems with the manufacturing process. This have been stated several times in this thread already but these are actually two different things. The development of the successor to 970FX IS NOT halted by the problems in manufacturing, only the deployment. I don't think IBM is manufacturing 975 just yet so it's irrelevant for its deployment that the manufacturing process have been lacking in the past.
Hey man, I feel for you. I really do. It sucks that the G5 stalled after so many years of Motorola stalls. I hope it's a short stall, as it seems to be, and they're back on track with only a few months delay in their roadmap. I've got work money that runs out in August, so I'm going to buy whatever is released at WWDC. I hope Apple jumps from 2 to 3 Ghz, hell, I hope it's 4 Ghz. I also hope I win the lottery and that Iraq will turn into a liberal democracy in January. But common sense suggests those are unrealistic wishes.
How about this - let's have a bet. I bet no 3 Ghz Macs at WWDC. If you want to bet they'll be there, I'll take you up on it. We'll come back in a month, and whoever is wrong requests "I was wrong" for their AI title, and whoever was right gets "I was right."
I know your post wasn't aimed specifically towards me, but I'm going to add that I'm not arguing that Apple will announce 3GHz at WWDC. What I'm saying is if they have them (which I don't know) It's best they announce them at WWDC rather than this stupid stop gap 2,5GHz theory. If Apple has both 2.5 GHz, and 3GHz I think they will just put the 2.5GHz in the iMac, or PowerBook where it should go.
Actually - I think Apple does not have them, but it's not of their own fault. IBM was there last year when SJ said they would be at 3GHz in a year, and IBM agreed, and didn't seem to have a problem with that statement, and that seemed to be the assessment both companies were offering at the time. Much has gone wrong with the G5's in the last year that was not in either of their agendas.
Personally - I think all this wild speculation of PCIe, and an actual pro 3D graphics card is not going to happen, and neither is the 3GHz processors that were announced a year ago, but I sure like the thought of it, and Apple's PowerMacs would certainly do well this year if they had these recourses available in them.
Look people, it all boils down to one thing: what was the basis of Steve's 3GHz promise last year? Was it...
1) The 970/970fx scaling to 3GHz by June 2004
OR
2) A different processor all together (presumedly the Power 5 based 975) whose original development schedule called for full production at 3GHz by June 2004
If it's #1, I agree we're in trouble. But if it's #2, then the yield status of the 970fx, then, now or in the future is completely irrelevant.
Seeing as IBM has never indicated that the 970fx was ever even intended to reach 3GHz, and the fact that the 975 has had the luxury of being concurrently developed along side the Power 5 (a luxury the Power 4/970 development never had) I'd vote for #2.
[B]The 97x will be used by Apple, Microsoft and some even say Sony... If thats the case IBM has more than just Apple to worry about and if MS and or Sony wants or doesn't mind IBM 'talking up' the next great 97x CPU in its arsenal then I'm willing to bet IBM will start to do just that.
Wrong. We know, for example, that Sony is using Cell -- not 97x. If you look at the rumours on the net about what MS is building, it looks like a custom chip. This makes sense since IBM is flogging its customized chip design services. This means they are all using different chips and when IBM talks or doesn't talk about one, this has nothing to do with what they say about the others.
Look people, it all boils down to one thing: what was the basis of Steve's 3GHz promise last year? Was it...
1) The 970/970fx scaling to 3GHz by June 2004
OR
2) A different processor all together (presumedly the Power 5 based 975) whose original development schedule called for full production at 3GHz by June 2004
If it's #1, I agree we're in trouble. But if it's #2, then the yield status of the 970fx, then, now or in the future is completely irrelevant.
Seeing as IBM has never indicated that the 970fx was ever even intended to reach 3GHz, and the fact that the 975 has had the luxury of being concurrently developed along side the Power 5 (a luxury the Power 4/970 development never had) I'd vote for #2.
Or it could be that the two weren't completely independent. The "975" could have been delayed when the 970fx didn't get out when expected. Or the same problems that led to the 970fx delay could have led to a "975" delay.
It's just hard for me to believe that 1) these would be completely independent of one another and 2) that they would skip over a generation completely, going from 2 Ghz to 3 Ghz top-ends.
I know your post wasn't aimed specifically towards me, but I'm going to add that I'm not arguing that Apple will announce 3GHz at WWDC. What I'm saying is if they have them (which I don't know) It's best they announce them at WWDC rather than this stupid stop gap 2,5GHz theory. If Apple has both 2.5 GHz, and 3GHz I think they will just put the 2.5GHz in the iMac, or PowerBook where it should go.
Actually - I think Apple does not have them, but it's not of their own fault. IBM was there last year when SJ said they would be at 3GHz in a year, and IBM agreed, and didn't seem to have a problem with that statement, and that seemed to be the assessment both companies were offering at the time. Much has gone wrong with the G5's in the last year that was not in either of their agendas.
Personally - I think all this wild speculation of PCIe, and an actual pro 3D graphics card is not going to happen, and neither is the 3GHz processors that were announced a year ago, but I sure like the thought of it, and Apple's PowerMacs would certainly do well this year if they had these recourses available in them.
my 2¢
You're probably right. I'm just thinking that the high-end of a newly introduced chip might have constrained supplies, and if so, rather than announce them and then have them trickle in 3 months later, they could eke out another revision. Say, one in June and another in October. They'd probably make more money that way, and that, after all, is the goal.
But you're right, if they've got great supplies, and the future looks good, it makes absolutely no sense to sit on them, especially if that would cause a loss of confidence due to Jobs missing his prediction.
My point was that if it was going to be the 970, they could have done that already. If there was sufficient supply for it to be the 970fx, why would the G5 xserve still be backordered?
Pretty much what Chris already said. The X-Serve is a low volume item and there are a lot of factors that could impact its back-order status from Virginia Tech, to just unexpected high demand. The other consideration, is that even once IBM resolved their fabrication issues, it takes time to get the good chips out to the market-place to fill the backorders. The backorder status of the X-serve, does not logically reflect the end of the 970/970FX chip line. It is one possible explanation, but not an especially strong one.
* Maybe there is a 97X in the pipeline, and they are just keeping it secret.
* Maybe it will be a 970/970fx (who knows maybe they figured out how to extend that design, but doing so was the cause of the fabrication problems.)
* Maybe there is something so revolutionary on the horizon that we haven't even imagined it, and it is in IBM's and Apple's best interest to keep it secret until the last moment.
* Maybe, maybe, maybe.....
What we know is that Steve appeared to be confident that they could deliver something pretty impressive this summer, and a 50% performance increase in CPU power would be impressive.
What we do know is that IBM does have problems just like any other tech company, but that unlike Motorola they have the willpower and the resources to bounce back quickly and in surprising ways.
What we can surmise with relative confidence is that something is due to happen this summer. We just can't be certain what that something is.
Quote:
tfworld
Prepare to be amazed at what you will see at WWDC. Anyone think that maybe Apple did not miss Rev B of the G5?
I Really would like to be amazed. At this point though I will be happy to see them get close to the promised mark, and I don't care what the label is on the package.
Don't know what the plan was. Like most I was expecting something in the interim. Course Apple never said there would be something between last summer and this summer. That was just speculation from industry pundits and users. It seemed logical at the time. Maybe the whole plan was to get the 970 out while something real radical was being developed.
Dude, you just don't get it. IBM is already working on two families of follow up to the POWER 4, both the POWER 5 and POWER 6. Intel and AMD has several designs/revs in work at any particular point in time. It's ALWAYS after once you make the original introduction.
this is a good point that many people seem to forget or just not know. Intel really pioneered this practice in chip development. I think it was back during the end of 386 dev that they decided to start a seperate team on 486 dev. and as soon as the 386 was done, that team started work on the 586 (pentium), and so on. As apple folk, we've not been used to this kind of engineering effort, mainly because of the motorola morass. I don't have any firsthand knowledge of IBM's dev practices, but from everything I've read, they're hip to this kind of multi-teamed R&D approach. Personally, I wouldn't be too shocked if Apple announced a new chip soon. I won't be bothered with getting into guessing names or ghost specs, but there's no reason to think IBM isn't (and hasn't been for a long time) working on several different PPC chips of varying targets.
Also, I wanted to make a point regarding some statements made earlier in this thread...AMD is at 2.2GHz right now. Maybe 2.4 is about to be shipped? doesn't matter. The 3400+ and the FX53 are amazing chips in a lot of ways, and can easily pants the P4EE running at 3.4GHz in a lot of apps. And Intel is losing the GHz rating in all upcoming marketing sh!t. We (everyone) need to not focus on the numbers so much, and instead worry about what we can accomplish, and at what rate. Obviously a 2.5GHz 970fx is faster than a 2GHz 970fx, but to make statements like "If they can't release a 3GHz dual processor PowerMac by Sept. 1, Apple will go out of business!" is completely useless and immature. Apple does, and will continue to offer MANY compelling reasons for individuals, businesses, and institutions to use the Macintosh platform. If Apple releases a 3.2GHz DP PowerMac for $$2,999, yeah, the industry will take notice, and there will likely be more sales than if Apple announces a 2.5GHz DP PowerMac for $2,999. But in either case, Apple will sell units, make a profit, and be an 'ongoing concern'.
That said, I think it's also important for people to realize that there's a VERY strong incentive for Apple to offer the MOST COMPELLING platform (hardware AND software) that it can. And with the many recent pushes made towards enterprise platform technology, I fully expect that push to continue into (more)hardware.
From MacOSX 10.3.4's /System/Library/Extensions/AppleMacRISC4PE.kext/Contents/Info.plist
<key>PowerMac7,2</key>
<string>PowerMac7_2_PlatformPlugin</string>
<key>PowerMac7,3</key>
<string>PowerMac7_2_PlatformPlugin</string>
<key>PowerMac8,1</key>
<string>SMU_Neo2_PlatformPlugin</string>
<key>RackMac3,1</key>
<string>RackMac3_1_PlatformPlugin</string>
PowerMac7,2 is current PowerMac G5.
We haven't seen PowerMac7,3.
RackMac3,1 is Xserve.
What the *** is PowerMac8,1???
I thought the...
<key>PowerMac7,3</key>
<string>PowerMac7_2_PlatformPlugin</string>
had been talked about a few months ago? If you notice the format, it basically says 7,3 gets reported as 7,2. My guess for that would be PM Rev that wasn't. A PM with 970fx would still report being a G5? Who knows. But the
<key>PowerMac8,1</key>
<string>SMU_Neo2_PlatformPlugin</string>
is VERY interesting. Any guesses on what SMU_Neo2 is/stands for?
Comments
Originally posted by tfworld
Prepare to be amazed at what you will see at WWDC. Anyone think that maybe Apple did not miss Rev B of the G5?
Well I'm a tough cookie. I will NOT be amazed unless I see
1. Dual 3Ghz Powermac with PCI Express
2. Quicktime 7 announced and totally revamped
3. Xcode 2 "kickin ass"
4. A new Digital Lifestyle Device based around QT7 or a scaled back OSX lite.
5. OSX Tiger with fantastic features that rock our world. People need to be salivating and begging apple to take their $129
6. iMac G5. Enough of the G4. Shouldn't be in any Desktop over $1k
7. A clear Enterprise Strategy where Apple grows some balls and stops kowtowing to Microslash.
8. New partnerships with powerful companies. Oracle, Nvidia etc.
That'll keep me smiling.
My point was that if it was going to be the 970, they could have done that already. If there was sufficient supply for it to be the 970fx, why would the G5 xserve still be backordered?
Originally posted by SeanL
shaktai,
My point was that if it was going to be the 970, they could have done that already. If there was sufficient supply for it to be the 970fx, why would the G5 xserve still be backordered?
It's humanly possible that the Xserve could be back-ordered for other reasons than the processor. This is a very low-volume item to date, and Virginia Tech had dibs on at least the first 1100, if not more, of the dualies. Total Xserves shipped all of last year was <10,000. (I think-- it's not broken out in their annual statement.)
At least, one can hope.
CV
Originally posted by tfworld
Prepare to be amazed at what you will see at WWDC. Anyone think that maybe Apple did not miss Rev B of the G5?
Now tell us, do you like to tease people here or do you know something?
Now I guess they should have banned me rather than just shut off posting priviledges, because kickaha and Amorph definitely aren't going to like being called to task when they thought they had it all ignored *cough* *cough* I mean under control. Just a couple o' tools.
Don't worry, as soon as my work resetting my posts is done I'll disappear forever.
Now I guess they should have banned me rather than just shut off posting priviledges, because kickaha and Amorph definitely aren't going to like being called to task when they thought they had it all ignored *cough* *cough* I mean under control. Just a couple o' tools.
Don't worry, as soon as my work resetting my posts is done I'll disappear forever..
Originally posted by AirSluf
I
Hey man, I feel for you. I really do. It sucks that the G5 stalled after so many years of Motorola stalls. I hope it's a short stall, as it seems to be, and they're back on track with only a few months delay in their roadmap. I've got work money that runs out in August, so I'm going to buy whatever is released at WWDC. I hope Apple jumps from 2 to 3 Ghz, hell, I hope it's 4 Ghz. I also hope I win the lottery and that Iraq will turn into a liberal democracy in January. But common sense suggests those are unrealistic wishes.
How about this - let's have a bet. I bet no 3 Ghz Macs at WWDC. If you want to bet they'll be there, I'll take you up on it. We'll come back in a month, and whoever is wrong requests "I was wrong" for their AI title, and whoever was right gets "I was right."
Originally posted by BRussell
Then IBM had problems with the G5, and so now they're obviously not going to hit 3 Ghz as quick as Jobs said. All these other "975 now" theories are just wishful thinking because people feel their egos are on the line.
IBM have no problems with the G5, they have problems with the manufacturing process. This have been stated several times in this thread already but these are actually two different things. The development of the successor to 970FX IS NOT halted by the problems in manufacturing, only the deployment. I don't think IBM is manufacturing 975 just yet so it's irrelevant for its deployment that the manufacturing process have been lacking in the past.
Originally posted by BRussell
Hey man, I feel for you. I really do. It sucks that the G5 stalled after so many years of Motorola stalls. I hope it's a short stall, as it seems to be, and they're back on track with only a few months delay in their roadmap. I've got work money that runs out in August, so I'm going to buy whatever is released at WWDC. I hope Apple jumps from 2 to 3 Ghz, hell, I hope it's 4 Ghz. I also hope I win the lottery and that Iraq will turn into a liberal democracy in January. But common sense suggests those are unrealistic wishes.
How about this - let's have a bet. I bet no 3 Ghz Macs at WWDC. If you want to bet they'll be there, I'll take you up on it. We'll come back in a month, and whoever is wrong requests "I was wrong" for their AI title, and whoever was right gets "I was right."
I know your post wasn't aimed specifically towards me, but I'm going to add that I'm not arguing that Apple will announce 3GHz at WWDC. What I'm saying is if they have them (which I don't know) It's best they announce them at WWDC rather than this stupid stop gap 2,5GHz theory. If Apple has both 2.5 GHz, and 3GHz I think they will just put the 2.5GHz in the iMac, or PowerBook where it should go.
Actually - I think Apple does not have them, but it's not of their own fault. IBM was there last year when SJ said they would be at 3GHz in a year, and IBM agreed, and didn't seem to have a problem with that statement, and that seemed to be the assessment both companies were offering at the time. Much has gone wrong with the G5's in the last year that was not in either of their agendas.
Personally - I think all this wild speculation of PCIe, and an actual pro 3D graphics card is not going to happen, and neither is the 3GHz processors that were announced a year ago, but I sure like the thought of it, and Apple's PowerMacs would certainly do well this year if they had these recourses available in them.
my 2¢
1) The 970/970fx scaling to 3GHz by June 2004
OR
2) A different processor all together (presumedly the Power 5 based 975) whose original development schedule called for full production at 3GHz by June 2004
If it's #1, I agree we're in trouble. But if it's #2, then the yield status of the 970fx, then, now or in the future is completely irrelevant.
Seeing as IBM has never indicated that the 970fx was ever even intended to reach 3GHz, and the fact that the 975 has had the luxury of being concurrently developed along side the Power 5 (a luxury the Power 4/970 development never had) I'd vote for #2.
Originally posted by DaveGee
[B]The 97x will be used by Apple, Microsoft and some even say Sony... If thats the case IBM has more than just Apple to worry about and if MS and or Sony wants or doesn't mind IBM 'talking up' the next great 97x CPU in its arsenal then I'm willing to bet IBM will start to do just that.
Wrong. We know, for example, that Sony is using Cell -- not 97x. If you look at the rumours on the net about what MS is building, it looks like a custom chip. This makes sense since IBM is flogging its customized chip design services. This means they are all using different chips and when IBM talks or doesn't talk about one, this has nothing to do with what they say about the others.
Originally posted by Ensign Pulver
Look people, it all boils down to one thing: what was the basis of Steve's 3GHz promise last year? Was it...
1) The 970/970fx scaling to 3GHz by June 2004
OR
2) A different processor all together (presumedly the Power 5 based 975) whose original development schedule called for full production at 3GHz by June 2004
If it's #1, I agree we're in trouble. But if it's #2, then the yield status of the 970fx, then, now or in the future is completely irrelevant.
Seeing as IBM has never indicated that the 970fx was ever even intended to reach 3GHz, and the fact that the 975 has had the luxury of being concurrently developed along side the Power 5 (a luxury the Power 4/970 development never had) I'd vote for #2.
Or it could be that the two weren't completely independent. The "975" could have been delayed when the 970fx didn't get out when expected. Or the same problems that led to the 970fx delay could have led to a "975" delay.
It's just hard for me to believe that 1) these would be completely independent of one another and 2) that they would skip over a generation completely, going from 2 Ghz to 3 Ghz top-ends.
Originally posted by onlooker
I know your post wasn't aimed specifically towards me, but I'm going to add that I'm not arguing that Apple will announce 3GHz at WWDC. What I'm saying is if they have them (which I don't know) It's best they announce them at WWDC rather than this stupid stop gap 2,5GHz theory. If Apple has both 2.5 GHz, and 3GHz I think they will just put the 2.5GHz in the iMac, or PowerBook where it should go.
Actually - I think Apple does not have them, but it's not of their own fault. IBM was there last year when SJ said they would be at 3GHz in a year, and IBM agreed, and didn't seem to have a problem with that statement, and that seemed to be the assessment both companies were offering at the time. Much has gone wrong with the G5's in the last year that was not in either of their agendas.
Personally - I think all this wild speculation of PCIe, and an actual pro 3D graphics card is not going to happen, and neither is the 3GHz processors that were announced a year ago, but I sure like the thought of it, and Apple's PowerMacs would certainly do well this year if they had these recourses available in them.
my 2¢
You're probably right. I'm just thinking that the high-end of a newly introduced chip might have constrained supplies, and if so, rather than announce them and then have them trickle in 3 months later, they could eke out another revision. Say, one in June and another in October. They'd probably make more money that way, and that, after all, is the goal.
But you're right, if they've got great supplies, and the future looks good, it makes absolutely no sense to sit on them, especially if that would cause a loss of confidence due to Jobs missing his prediction.
Originally posted by SeanL
shaktai,
My point was that if it was going to be the 970, they could have done that already. If there was sufficient supply for it to be the 970fx, why would the G5 xserve still be backordered?
Pretty much what Chris already said. The X-Serve is a low volume item and there are a lot of factors that could impact its back-order status from Virginia Tech, to just unexpected high demand. The other consideration, is that even once IBM resolved their fabrication issues, it takes time to get the good chips out to the market-place to fill the backorders. The backorder status of the X-serve, does not logically reflect the end of the 970/970FX chip line. It is one possible explanation, but not an especially strong one.
* Maybe there is a 97X in the pipeline, and they are just keeping it secret.
* Maybe it will be a 970/970fx (who knows maybe they figured out how to extend that design, but doing so was the cause of the fabrication problems.)
* Maybe there is something so revolutionary on the horizon that we haven't even imagined it, and it is in IBM's and Apple's best interest to keep it secret until the last moment.
* Maybe, maybe, maybe.....
What we know is that Steve appeared to be confident that they could deliver something pretty impressive this summer, and a 50% performance increase in CPU power would be impressive.
What we do know is that IBM does have problems just like any other tech company, but that unlike Motorola they have the willpower and the resources to bounce back quickly and in surprising ways.
What we can surmise with relative confidence is that something is due to happen this summer. We just can't be certain what that something is.
tfworld
Prepare to be amazed at what you will see at WWDC. Anyone think that maybe Apple did not miss Rev B of the G5?
I Really would like to be amazed. At this point though I will be happy to see them get close to the promised mark, and I don't care what the label is on the package.
Don't know what the plan was. Like most I was expecting something in the interim. Course Apple never said there would be something between last summer and this summer. That was just speculation from industry pundits and users. It seemed logical at the time. Maybe the whole plan was to get the 970 out while something real radical was being developed.
I look forward to WWDC.
<key>PowerMac7,2</key>
<string>PowerMac7_2_PlatformPlugin</string>
<key>PowerMac7,3</key>
<string>PowerMac7_2_PlatformPlugin</string>
<key>PowerMac8,1</key>
<string>SMU_Neo2_PlatformPlugin</string>
<key>RackMac3,1</key>
<string>RackMac3_1_PlatformPlugin</string>
PowerMac7,2 is current PowerMac G5.
We haven't seen PowerMac7,3.
RackMac3,1 is Xserve.
What the *** is PowerMac8,1???
Originally posted by AirSluf
Dude, you just don't get it. IBM is already working on two families of follow up to the POWER 4, both the POWER 5 and POWER 6. Intel and AMD has several designs/revs in work at any particular point in time. It's ALWAYS after once you make the original introduction.
this is a good point that many people seem to forget or just not know. Intel really pioneered this practice in chip development. I think it was back during the end of 386 dev that they decided to start a seperate team on 486 dev. and as soon as the 386 was done, that team started work on the 586 (pentium), and so on. As apple folk, we've not been used to this kind of engineering effort, mainly because of the motorola morass. I don't have any firsthand knowledge of IBM's dev practices, but from everything I've read, they're hip to this kind of multi-teamed R&D approach. Personally, I wouldn't be too shocked if Apple announced a new chip soon. I won't be bothered with getting into guessing names or ghost specs, but there's no reason to think IBM isn't (and hasn't been for a long time) working on several different PPC chips of varying targets.
Also, I wanted to make a point regarding some statements made earlier in this thread...AMD is at 2.2GHz right now. Maybe 2.4 is about to be shipped? doesn't matter. The 3400+ and the FX53 are amazing chips in a lot of ways, and can easily pants the P4EE running at 3.4GHz in a lot of apps. And Intel is losing the GHz rating in all upcoming marketing sh!t. We (everyone) need to not focus on the numbers so much, and instead worry about what we can accomplish, and at what rate. Obviously a 2.5GHz 970fx is faster than a 2GHz 970fx, but to make statements like "If they can't release a 3GHz dual processor PowerMac by Sept. 1, Apple will go out of business!" is completely useless and immature. Apple does, and will continue to offer MANY compelling reasons for individuals, businesses, and institutions to use the Macintosh platform. If Apple releases a 3.2GHz DP PowerMac for $$2,999, yeah, the industry will take notice, and there will likely be more sales than if Apple announces a 2.5GHz DP PowerMac for $2,999. But in either case, Apple will sell units, make a profit, and be an 'ongoing concern'.
That said, I think it's also important for people to realize that there's a VERY strong incentive for Apple to offer the MOST COMPELLING platform (hardware AND software) that it can. And with the many recent pushes made towards enterprise platform technology, I fully expect that push to continue into (more)hardware.
Originally posted by tad44
From MacOSX 10.3.4's /System/Library/Extensions/AppleMacRISC4PE.kext/Contents/Info.plist
<key>PowerMac7,2</key>
<string>PowerMac7_2_PlatformPlugin</string>
<key>PowerMac7,3</key>
<string>PowerMac7_2_PlatformPlugin</string>
<key>PowerMac8,1</key>
<string>SMU_Neo2_PlatformPlugin</string>
<key>RackMac3,1</key>
<string>RackMac3_1_PlatformPlugin</string>
PowerMac7,2 is current PowerMac G5.
We haven't seen PowerMac7,3.
RackMac3,1 is Xserve.
What the *** is PowerMac8,1???
Definitely something that is not listed in 10.3.3
Hopefully something that will exceed our expectations when it is released at WWDC
Judging by the historical precedent shown here...
http://www.theapplemuseum.com/index....bpage=newworld
...the change to 8 might indicate a fairly significant change to the system over all, if not the chip inside.
Originally posted by tad44
PowerMac7,2 is current PowerMac G5.
We haven't seen PowerMac7,3.
RackMac3,1 is Xserve.
What the *** is PowerMac8,1???
Good question. I would've guessed 7,3 to be the next faster chip. Same question as you though... What is PowerMac 8,1?
Speculation? 7,3 is the 3ghz G5 -- 8,1 is a G5 iMac.
Or maybe it is the other way around, or maybe....
Aaaaaggghhhhh!
Originally posted by tad44
From MacOSX 10.3.4's /System/Library/Extensions/AppleMacRISC4PE.kext/Contents/Info.plist
<key>PowerMac7,2</key>
<string>PowerMac7_2_PlatformPlugin</string>
<key>PowerMac7,3</key>
<string>PowerMac7_2_PlatformPlugin</string>
<key>PowerMac8,1</key>
<string>SMU_Neo2_PlatformPlugin</string>
<key>RackMac3,1</key>
<string>RackMac3_1_PlatformPlugin</string>
PowerMac7,2 is current PowerMac G5.
We haven't seen PowerMac7,3.
RackMac3,1 is Xserve.
What the *** is PowerMac8,1???
I thought the...
<key>PowerMac7,3</key>
<string>PowerMac7_2_PlatformPlugin</string>
had been talked about a few months ago? If you notice the format, it basically says 7,3 gets reported as 7,2. My guess for that would be PM Rev that wasn't. A PM with 970fx would still report being a G5? Who knows. But the
<key>PowerMac8,1</key>
<string>SMU_Neo2_PlatformPlugin</string>
is VERY interesting. Any guesses on what SMU_Neo2 is/stands for?