Dual-Core PowerPCs?

whitesaint

whitesaint

cocoa love
If Apple goes the dual core microprocessor way on its future Pro lines, which I assume most of us are expecting...wouldn't it be a disadvantage to using only one bus compared to two on the modern PowerMacs? We've all heard Steve Jobs making a big deal of how the two hypertransport buses making a big speed increase. I'm just wondering what you guys think because this is surely a huge advantage over Wintel PC's right now.

When do you guys think the dual core PowerPC's will come out? I've heard they might use a modified version of the POWER5 which sounds ridiculous. ThinkSecret says IBM has been readying a dual core PowerPC for ages now and their usually right on their predictions.
 
Why would going to a dual core processor necessitate having a single direction bus? The bi-directional bus should remain, but the ASIC would need to be modified, or replaced completely unless just a single dual-core processor is used. Or, does the processor (single, dual-core, multi-core, whatever) determine the bus through the ASIC? You're talking about a lot of computing power before the bus is considered. The bi-directional bus would still be used, maybe the Power5/G6/whateverPPC will require multiple buses :cool:
 
HaHa, best saving up that pocket money then...

The new Quad Processor Dual core Powermac GX,
Retailing at only £49,995
 
with 64gb RAM and a 2tb RAID array standard

*industrial air-conditioning unit not included.
 
i didnt mean a single directional bus, but one bi directional bus, like how the PowerMac now has 2 bi directional buses, but i would think that having one chip with two cores would limit the machine to having one bus, instead of how dual PowerMacs have 2 bidirectional buses now, because there are two PPC970fx's
 
The Power5 would have a bus that operates at the chip speed, through 2 128 bit unidirectional buses, rather than the 970s rather 'pokey' dual-32 bit bus :)

If the IBM derivative (980 or whatever) for Apple has anywhere near the performance level of the Power5, then it simply couldn't be punched into the existing chip-set. I think you could expect major enhancements on the logic board to support this, such as dual 64-bit buses throughout.
If the operating system is still stuck! at 64-bit programming, then that could be the biggest bottleneck, plus requiring memory sets in groups of 4 (you'll need lots more memory, so give me my 16 GB in 4 slots, please :D
 
Hopefully this will be easier for IBM than Intel because they went from their dual core POWER version to make a single core version which is the PowerPC since the beginnning, so hopefully it wouldn't be that hard to return the Second core to a PowerPC chip.

yea DJ like this thread is using some unheard of physical space somwhere (no pun intended) its prolly using a hundred kilobytes on someone's hard drive somwhere. Ive learned alot by reading others people's opinions because this has been on my mind for a while now...and im sure people have alot of questions regarding Apple and IBM's Dual-Core future...how is this a waste of a thread
 
Now this doesn't make _more_ sense exactly, jhawk. ;) ... Anyway: I think this thread is worth the space and bandwidth it uses. ;)

I sure _hope_ that Apple won't move from dual processor single core to single processor dual core and rather go dual processor dual core. Although they probably would. :(

We'll see soon enough. January? :) :) :)
 
I think there's no doubt we'll see a dual core Mac in the near future. From what I've read, I thought they were thinking of making dual, dual core Macs.
 
Now dual processor-dual core Macs would be very cool, almost like a dream come true. Then we would really have the better OS and hardware, it would be like us having 4 processors and all PC users using 2 processors (whenever AMD/Intel go dual-core)...it's very nice to see how good the architecture can be when you have a R&D giant like IBM backing it.
 
so you'd be in a situation where we have bassically "twice" the processing units of PC ppl.

WE ALREADY HAVE THAT.

I don't know anyone who even sees how two processors work, (they're like. So you have a 4ghz mac huh?) much less want one.

Just remember, the more cpus you need, the more chance for huge delays.
 
Captain Code said:
I think there's no doubt we'll see a dual core Mac in the near future.
Click to expand...

The only doubt I have is the "near" part. I suppose it depends on how you define "near future"
 
I would say within the next few years. We know that the major chip companies, IBM, AMD, Intel are all working on dual core CPUs.
 
Well, afaik IBM _is_ working on dual core PPCs and _not_ really working on scaling the 970FX. Basically, what happens now is that IBM says 970FX did not scale as expected and they're moving on. So I'd say we'll see dual core quite definitely in 2005.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top