Steve Bosell
Registered
forget altivec, is there faster than 1 ghz power4's yet?
Originally posted by Paragon
Just out of curiosity...how many programs actually takes advantage of the velocity engine anyway? I know that PS and Jaguar does, but is that it. Why is it that programmers don't use this, is it because it's hard to program to? Why would Apple stay with a chip design where no programmers optimize their products for it?
Originally posted by fryke
The Velocity Engine, or AltiVec, *is* being used by many applications. Even small ones. Your DivX encoder makes use of it, for example. iTunes makes use of it. Saying that Jaguar is 'only' the operating system here is a bit odd, since you'll be glad to have AltiVec when using it. QuickTime uses AltiVec. But okay, let's just say it doesn't _really_ provide us with real world advantages, since we could have 1.5 GHz G3s by now (which is _not_ true, the fastest G3 runs at 1 GHz at the moment, just like the G4). THAT would be hard to tell the market. We've just gone one generation back, erhm, to bring you those MHz you've been telling us about. Wouldn't look too good. What Apple _needs_ is a 1.8 GHz G4 *right* now. That would help a bit, although the P4 would still dance around our noses MHz-wise.
Btw.: Those numbers, 600-1000 MHz for the G5, they stem from a communications processor used in routers or mobile phones, we're not talking desktop computers there. The G5, would it arrive today as a processor for desktop Macs, would be something between 1.2 and 1.6 GHz. It wouldn't run Mac OS X very stable, but it would. Only: Apple doesn't want to sell you something that isn't stable.
For benchmarks and stuff, go to http://www.queru.com/articles/Benchmarks2.html and you'll find some interesting stuff.
...What you fail to realize that the G5 is 64 bit. Apple has enough to worry about than making its OS 64 bit clean, making developer tools to offer 64 bit Apps and have it worked out so you can have cooperation between running classic, 32bit carbon/cocoa apps on top of a 64 bit os and lets ALSO not forget that we already shucked out a chunk of money to Adobe and MS for native MacOS 10 apps, now we are going to have to buy all new apps that will be 64 bit clean to take advantage of the G5....
...I predeict 1.1, 1.3, and 1.5 ghz offerings of the G4 by September and 1.7, 1.9, and 2.1 ghz by Macworld SF. Apple will unveil plans for the first MacOS 10.2 update at MWSF. By May's developer conf, Apple will announce an all new 64 bit MacOS 10 that is in development based around.... ???chip??? this one is a mystery. Apple has 4 choices at that point. G5, Intel, AMD, or SPARQ. My hope is they move to sparq. [/B]
Originally posted by azosx
The G3 is a great chip. Apple should have never abandoned it. And yes, I am fully confident that it's ready to ship at a lot higher clock speeds than the G4. Apple is just holding it back. It's a conspiracy!
Originally posted by fryke
Okay now. Tell me what you've had for breakfast. It's a conspiracy, sure. And to whose profits? If IBM had 1.6 GHz G3s, it would surely want to sell them, too. And if Apple could have chips at 1.6 GHz, it would SURELY want to sell them, too. There's no SENSE in a conspiracy, here. Unless you're implying Intel & Microsoft are behind that one, which is complete nonsense, either.
IBM _does_ have the 1 GHz Sahara processor (G3), that's about it. It might be good for a TiBook, but as I mentioned before, it's bad marketing-wise to make a generation-step back! And Apple can't just change this, not even for you, azosx...
Originally posted by fryke
Well, maybe the 32 MB Cache is what makes this processor that expensive, but then again it's also what makes it that powerful. Could well be that investing in R&D could spill out a sibling of the Power4 that is well suited for further PowerMacs down the line, but then again why not team up with IBM (ditching Mot totally) and develop the next generation PowerPC processor for desktop machines?
Originally posted by fryke
You can download the PowerPC 750FX (Sahara) product sheet from http://www-3.ibm.com/chips/techlib/techlib.nsf/techdocs/2FF4861D6755A6CA87256BB1006B1DE6 ... You'll find a PDF there, laying out the chip. It's from 600 to 1000 MHz. Now go to www.chips.ibm.com yourself and prove me wrong. Somehow. Go find me a faster G3 from IBM and I'll say you're right.