If not with the next G5 revision, I don't know when....
I would hope that Apple/IBM are ready with a speed increase for the PM in January. If that is the case then I would not expect PCI express to be in the next revision. I think that the earliest we will see it is at WWDC next summer, after all the current design has only had 1 revision in it's life cycle so far.
Personally I don't think we see a refresh in January. I think Macworld San Fran highlights some new non Macintosh hardware. More Tiger info and perhaps iLife 05. I'm really thinking that we see a more clear strategy surrounding the iPod. Hopefully a Home Pod is announced.
I think Apple will be refreshing the Powermac line around March. I do believe they will be moving to PCI Express. 18 months is about as long as you want to go with a motherboard design. PCI Express reduces the complexity of the motherboard (PCI-X isn't cheap to implement)and opens the doors for the new graphics from ATI and Nvidia(although they will also have AGP versions)
SLI support is really in the driver. It looks like you simply need a 16x slot and adjacent 8x slot for SLI so that's not a huge deal other than powering the cards(ouch)
I could actually see Apple keeping a AGP Powermac in the lineup. There are lots of peoople with high end PCI cards that don't want to be left out in the cold. I hope these high end companies are testing their cards and seeing where they can take advantage of PCI Expresses new features. The drivers don't have to change much but considering you now have full bandwidth to the CPU that could influence some driver design changes.
Apple's been updating their desktop hardware on a yearly basis now, I'm not putting any expectations before WWDC.
Yes that is a concern. Apple has got to get on the ball here. Waiting forever between updates is crazy and then when they finally come Apple still can't ship them on time. Can't blame lethargic sales coming from lethargic product cycles.
Comments
I'm hoping for inclusion of Nvidia's SLI technology too, but I have my doubts we're going to get it.
Originally posted by Placebo
If not with the next G5 revision, I don't know when....
I would hope that Apple/IBM are ready with a speed increase for the PM in January. If that is the case then I would not expect PCI express to be in the next revision. I think that the earliest we will see it is at WWDC next summer, after all the current design has only had 1 revision in it's life cycle so far.
I think Apple will be refreshing the Powermac line around March. I do believe they will be moving to PCI Express. 18 months is about as long as you want to go with a motherboard design. PCI Express reduces the complexity of the motherboard (PCI-X isn't cheap to implement)and opens the doors for the new graphics from ATI and Nvidia(although they will also have AGP versions)
SLI support is really in the driver. It looks like you simply need a 16x slot and adjacent 8x slot for SLI so that's not a huge deal other than powering the cards(ouch)
I could actually see Apple keeping a AGP Powermac in the lineup. There are lots of peoople with high end PCI cards that don't want to be left out in the cold. I hope these high end companies are testing their cards and seeing where they can take advantage of PCI Expresses new features. The drivers don't have to change much but considering you now have full bandwidth to the CPU that could influence some driver design changes.
Apple will probably give laptops a refresh in January ready to ship by the following January.
When ever they refresh the existence of that POS UPM they will undoubtedly skip on SLI. They will, and I have no doubts about that.
Originally posted by bborofka
Apple's been updating their desktop hardware on a yearly basis now, I'm not putting any expectations before WWDC.
Yes that is a concern. Apple has got to get on the ball here. Waiting forever between updates is crazy and then when they finally come Apple still can't ship them on time. Can't blame lethargic sales coming from lethargic product cycles.