what happened to all the G6 plans?
wow - 't was a long time since i last checked this board. had a hard time working on some projects that were very important to me. my nice little 12" helped a lot on my work 
anyway. my plan was to go and buy a powermac and to add another 17" tft to my desk to work with two displays at a higher speed rate than with my 12".
as i last looked at this forum, there were threads about a g5 at 3 GHz in summer and a G6or PPC980 - a.k.a. the little brother of the Power5 - in 2005. what happened to all that stuff?
seems to me that a 3 GHz G5 is not very likely? what about a dual core G6 or something?
thanks in advance for keeping me updated on this :-)
krassy
anyway. my plan was to go and buy a powermac and to add another 17" tft to my desk to work with two displays at a higher speed rate than with my 12".
as i last looked at this forum, there were threads about a g5 at 3 GHz in summer and a G6or PPC980 - a.k.a. the little brother of the Power5 - in 2005. what happened to all that stuff?
seems to me that a 3 GHz G5 is not very likely? what about a dual core G6 or something?
thanks in advance for keeping me updated on this :-)
krassy
Comments
Originally posted by Krassy
as i last looked at this forum, there were threads about a g5 at 3 GHz in summer and a G6or PPC980 - a.k.a. the little brother of the Power5 - in 2005. what happened to all that stuff?
seems to me that a 3 GHz G5 is not very likely? what about a dual core G6 or something?
Wow, you really haven't followed the Mac rumors for a while, did you? In my personal opinion, we can expect the G5 to hit 3GHz during this year and the G6 won't appear befode the second half of 2006...
Anyone else want to elaborate on this... ?
Originally posted by durandal
Wow, you really haven't followed the Mac rumors for a while, did you?
yeah i think it was sometime around august 04 when i last checked in ;-)
In my personal opinion, we can expect the G5 to hit 3GHz during this year and the G6 won't appear befode the second half of 2006...
oh sad that is. a year later than originally expected. is anything know about improvements of the graphics/bus/memory-architecture?
at least in my opinion
Originally posted by durandal
In my personal opinion, we can expect the G5 to hit 3GHz during this year ...
Although no one knows for sure, I think the 3 GHz target is still doubtful for this year. The situation will become more clear after WWDC 2005.
Originally posted by ThinkingDifferent
What advantages will the G6 have over the G5?
Obviously it's a whole G faster. In fact, I think that everyone should wait to buy another Mac before we have the G6. There's no point in buying such an outdated processor like the G5 when the G6 is right around the corner.
3.4GHz+
Ondie memory controller supporting DDR2/XDR
Dual Cores
Altivec2(don't ask, I don't know enough)
65nm
Virtualization- ability to run multiple OS simult.
SMT threading in each core.
I think we see this in 2007 MWSF.
Originally posted by hmurchison
My thoughts on what the G6 may be.
3.4GHz+
Ondie memory controller supporting DDR2/XDR
Dual Cores
Altivec2(don't ask, I don't know enough)
65nm
Virtualization- ability to run multiple OS simult.
SMT threading in each core.
I think we see this in 2007 MWSF.
why in 2007? it's way too long. i want this thing with 2.5 GHz now at 90nm - and i don't think that it should be a real problem for IBM to manufacture something like that... ?
what about graphics? X800 ?
I'm guessing because we'll need to see the further maturation of the 90nm process. I think from now until 2007 we'll see more efficient 90nm processes arrive with dual cores and strained silicon technologies. I'll be the first to admit I'm talking out my ass but I think we may finally see ondie memory controllers and enhanced Altivec once the process shrinks to 65nm allowing for the additional transistor space for OMC and SMT and perhaps a larger Altivec unit.
Cell processing is intrigueing but I'll have to see how it works in practice. Some things look better on paper than in reality *cough* Transmeta.
Scary as it sounds 2007 isn't that far away.
Originally posted by hmurchison
My thoughts on what the G6 may be.
3.4GHz+
Ondie memory controller supporting DDR2/XDR
Dual Cores
Altivec2(don't ask, I don't know enough)
65nm
Virtualization- ability to run multiple OS simult.
SMT threading in each core.
I think we see this in 2007 MWSF.
Aside from the 65nm and AltiVec2 we may see that by the end of 2005. In 2006 the 65nm will arrive, along with an alternative to AltiVec2 that will make your eyes pop out.
Of course, that's just my guess.
It'll still be called the G5 this year, however. The 2006 machines may be called G6, but that is an Apple marketing call.
Originally posted by Programmer
... just my guess... It'll still be called the G5 this year, however. The 2006 machines may be called G6, but that is an Apple marketing call.
The whole "G" thing has always been Apple Marketing's call. They could call a dual core Freescale processor a "G5" class processor if they wanted to.
Whatever comes, and when, will be up to IBM and Freescale's ability to deliver their future CPU roadmaps and volume production abilities.
IBM's roadmap ends with shipping products, an unusual situation for IBM which is usually more open with their product plans.
Apple's deep involvement with whatever follows the 970Fx might be reason enough for IBM to remain uncharacteristically quiet about what is next. I think this quote from the IBM roadmap link offers some clue:
"IBM's PowerPC strategic roadmap includes many milestones. Some are already met... and IBM is preparing to meet many more. These milestones include the application of new process technologies which are crucial to the development of processor engines that will meet the performance and power needs of next-generation applications. They also include the infusion of new IP... all directing us to our goal of providing industry-leading processor and system on chip (SoC) solutions."
Sounds to me like "milestones include the application of new process technologies ..." and "They also include the infusion of new IP ..." are referring to the next generation of IBM chip, a Power5 "lite" if you will.
By shrinking and stretching the silicon with their new SOI technology as well as other process technology improvements, not to mention a fresh chance to layout the circuit masks with positional improvements to spread out known hot spots.
The next, and as yet unseen, product on the roadmap will also incorporate IP (intellectual property) improvements. These are things like the hypervisor code from IBM's skunk works.
Taken from an interview in IBM PowerPC processor news with Bijan Davari, IBM Fellow and vice president, Next Generation Computing System and Technology, IBM Research Division is the following quote:
"In my view, pervasive computing consists of two things: networks and network-attached devices... PowerPC technology answers the needs on both ends extremely well, not only for regular computing tasks but also for high-speed graphics and real-time video ? that's where we fit into pervasive computing."
So I think that there are some very interesting things about to happen to push the next level of processor technology beyond the 970Fx. With both AMD and Intel scrambling to get dual core technology out ASAP I have to wonder what is pushing them. Perhaps they have more developed sources for their competitors plans than your average outsider like myself.
I can only speculate that something is about to be unwrapped from IBM that will take us to the next level of IBM's processor plans. I also think that this will still be called a G5 by Apple, and that we will hear about it at the WWDC this Summer.
And milestones to reach before I sleep
(with apologies)
Apple has always been slightly behind in processor speeds. Sure the G5 is sexier but in terms of snappiness (depends on lots of varibles) the fastest intel processor has almost always been faster than the fastest powermac. Intel can afford the investment.
Maybe Apple is just getting payback for the snail commercials (when Apple went to RISC, it was one of the few times I remember macs being faster)
Intel hit the same wall everybody else did. They may be good but they aren't magicians. Look forward to a year of thunder and not much lightning in the world of CPU GHz races.
Originally posted by webmail
Apple has always been slightly behind in processor speeds.
This is not true. There's always been something of a back and forth.
Nobody on the PC side had an answer to the 350MHz IBM 604ev, when that came out.
The PowerPC clock speeds have lagged a generation of Intel processors that were specifically designed to achieve high clock speeds, but this is hardly surprising given that the PowerPCs were not. Now Intel's back to an architecture that isn't, and they just hit 2GHz.
None of this is to say that Intel sucks, or IBM rules, or to apologize for the Great G4 Speed Dump. The point is simply that Intel, AMD, IBM and Motorola have all run into walls and suffered setbacks at one point or another in their chipmaking careers. It comes with the territory.
PPC: 1994
G3: 1997
G4: 1999
G5: 2003
And all of these, particularly the G4, went through lots of revisions and improvements along the way while still being called G4. What will the main difference with the G6 be? Dual core? I'd imagine whatever is based on the Power6 will be a G6, but who knows? If the Power6 ultralite is just a 65nm version of the G5, maybe it will still be a G5.
Originally posted by ian8
So when do you all expect dual core to come out. Because IMHO they will probably call the 2006 processor G6 just for the marketing, meaning the next major step for the processors will not be decided by whether they're G5 or G6 but whether they're dual core
Freescale have a dual core G4 on the roadmap, slated I believe for late '05 or early '06. The CPU would essentially consist of two 7448s with an onboard memory controller (and 1MB on-die cache per core, a standard feature of the 7448).
Although Apple can theoretically call anything a 'G5', they have bound the idea of 64-bit processing so closely to the name that I doubt they'd call any 32-bit processor a G5. Instead, they'd roll out 'the first dual processor notebook,' or something like that, which is close enough to true.
Any Freescale G5 would be based on the e700 core, a hybrid 32/64 bit core which is currently in development.