Latest 970 Rumors

[mindbend]

970's boxed and ready to ship?

IBIWISI

I'm not ususally one to start rumors, but since I didn't see it yet:

http://www.macrumors.com/

http://www.macbidouille.com/niouzcontenu.php?date=2003-05-27#5645

(Translated using Sherlock)

Before arriving at the heart of the subject, remember that what
follows is a rumour, without tangible proof. However if we chose to
publish it, it is that it has very good chances to be true.

First Computers PPC 970 left the production lines and are even already
packed on pallets. Pallets are covered with the opaque and sealed
film. There are above stickers with following information:



"tamper proof seal, confidential property inside, prosecution may
result personal yew opened by unauthorized"

They will start to be delivered to the wholesalers of
confidence very soon with absolute command of not the défilmer before
June 23. APPLE had already used this method at the time of launching
of the Cube and more recently of the iMac G4.

 

[kendall]

this is hard to believe because Apple rarely has had anything ready by the time they announce it and certainly never ready a month in advance.

 

[Nummi_G4]

Originally posted by kendall
this is hard to believe because Apple rarely has had anything ready by the time they announce it and certainly never ready a month in advance.

Maybe they learned their lesson?

I think there will be a huge demand for the new PowerMacs...so Apple is planning ahead.

 

[Cat]

There's a huge hype all over the Mac sites ever since the PPC 970 was announced. If everyone, who stated he was going to be the first in line, will in fact be in line, Apple better be ready ...

Apple needs plenty of time for choreography: make the Macs, ship them to every Apple Store and authorised reseller, and then ... BOOM! the keynote

1) make PowerMacs with PPC 970
2) ???
3) Profit!

 

[mindbend]

I would buy the first 970 off the line had I not created a self-mandated two year rule. I am forcing myself to keep each machine for two full years, which means my next work box won't come until January 2004 (which should be a good time to buy) and the next home machine isn't until Fall of 2004 (ugh).

Additionally, I'm holding out for a DP 2 gig 970 system, which is part two of my two year rule, stating that each subsequent machine must be twice as fast in terms of CPU MHZ.

These rules are mostly enforced just so I can really feel the speed difference and really sense that I upgraded to a monster box instead of just a minor update.

I look forward to reading about everyone's new boxes and living vicariously for a few months (assuming they actually give us new boxes).

(Homer voice) "Stupid two year rule."

 

[kendall]

Originally posted by Nummi_G4
Maybe they learned their lesson?

I think there will be a huge demand for the new PowerMacs...so Apple is planning ahead.

doubtful. they didnt learn their lesson with the 12" PB nor 17" PB nor MDD PowerMac nor Xserve nor with many many past Apple products.

i dont necessarily think this is a mistake on the part of Apple but more to protect the secret. do you honestly think these 970s will sit for a month without someone opening one and taking pictures to smear all over the net?

i think Apple intentionally announces products weeks before they are actually ready so to keep them a secret so when they do start manufacturing them they dont have to worry about them actually being leaked.

 

[Ricky]

Originally posted by mindbend
APPLE had already used this method at the time of launching
of the Cube and more recently of the iMac G4.

I think that speaks for itself.

 

[thisbechuck]

Kendall, I believe you need more reliable sources than the ones you cited to disclaim this rumor. They probably didn't use the method in the powerbooks because there are five completely different laptop models (two of which were released simultaneously) so the demand is not as much. Also, although the demand for laptops is rising overall, it is still not as high currently as the demand for desktops. I know this is true at least in the M$ world. I speculate they did not need to stockpile the PowerMacs during their last update because they knew that pro users were getting rather fed up with G4 development and speed, and there would not be such a great demand. The X-serve is a server machine, very small market for that... so, along with the iMac, Apple is expecting quite a bang with the introduction of the 970 PMac. I wouldn't be surprised if this rumor is, in fact, true.

 

[thisbechuck]

More info from MacRumors.com
...something about 5 unidentified ports

MacBidouille details some features they claim to be on the upcoming motherboads.

The ports are described and include 2 FW800 ports, 1 FW400 port, 3 USB, 3 Audio Connectors, as well as 5 additional unidentified connectors (in a group of 3 and 2).

 

[binaryDigit]

Originally posted by thisbechuck
5 additional unidentified connectors (in a group of 3 and 2).

Perhaps component video for the group of 3? Other Macs have had svideo so this doesn't sound toooo far fetched. They mention 4-8 memory slots, which implies that the connectors being mentioned could either be on the mb (pin connectors) or external? So maybe the other 2 are SerialATA? Or maybe Apple is bringing back ADB and serial

 

[Rhino_G3]

There is a little discrepency from the above from what macosrumors is stating. For the most part I wholeheartedly agree with macosrumors (there's a first for everything right )

here's an excerpt of the article describing the hardware.

*Single 1.4GHz, Dual 1.6GHz, and Dual 1.8GHz processor configurations
*Twin banks of DDR400 SDRAM memory for a combined effective clock of 800MHz....thanks to the 970's impressive new frontside bus, the processor(s) can take full advantage of this -- unlike the present DDR architecture which is hobbled by a single-rate frontside bus. Total of six or eight DIMM memory slots; sources have most recently been suggesting six.
*AGP 8X slot, four PCI slots; PCI Express has often been mentioned, but there has been no firm confirmation of anything beyond the 64-bit/33MHz slots used in existing systems.
*ATA-133 storage bus - Serial ATA is possible, and we hope it will be included, but sources suggest S-ATA will have to wait for the next generation of systems due to technical issues and a surprising lack of demand from users according to Apple's market research.
*Two Firewire 400 ports and one Firewire 800
*Dual-channel USB 2.0
*Combo Drive or Superdrive, with support for two internal Superdrives
*Airport Extreme support, Gigabit Ethernet, 56k modem
*NVIDIA GeForce FX and ATi Radeon 9X00 series graphics cards
*New keyboard and mouse
*New audio-out options including support for digital surround sound. Dolby 5.1 or 7.1 have been frequently discussed, but details have yet to be confirmed by any source willing to speak to us.
*New connectors added to Apple Pro Speaker jack (reasons unknown) - but may be related to a second-generation iPod dock that would allow a new generation of Apple Pro Speakers to be used directly with a docked iPod, and would add other new features. *New enclosure which will continue to use the basic minitower with handles on all four corners that we have seen since the Blue G3 -- but the underlying concept will be all that we'll recognize. More angular handles, a narrower and smaller overall enclosure, lots of bare metal, and only a hint of transparent plastic to be seen....more on this soon, as we have seen some mind-blowing prototype enclosures on the grapevine recently.