A Taiwanese company that builds/assembles computers for Apple received an order of 60,000 PowerPC 970s

[Random Variable]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=9495

 

[bendixG15]

So whats the question on General Hardware ????

 

[Sunner]

Great news, Apple needs the performance they will hopefully offer.

So whats the question on General Hardware ????

???
I must have missed the note where it said "GHW is for questions only!"

 

[benjamit]

so whats with the bmw, high quality bit with macs since they're still put together by some taiwanese company like pcs?

 

[pukemon]

Originally posted by: DEATH
so whats with the bmw, high quality bit with macs since they're still put together by some taiwanese company like pcs?

It's called "style over substance" :evil:

/me ducks and runs

 

[Eug]

While I wish it were true, neither looprumors nor the inquirer are accurate sources of information.

Furthermore, Foxconn apparently is more an eMac/iMac type of company. I dunno if they've ever made PowerMacs. Not that it matters much I suppose though.

It's called "style over substance"

Well, a dual 1.8 GHz PPC 970 would be a performance monster. If you're to believe SPEC numbers, a 1.8 GHz single processor is in the range of a 2.6 GHz or higher P4. However, unlike the P4, the PPC 970 is SMP-able (and to more than just two processors).

A rough estimate would be that a MHz for MHz, a PPC 970 is 50% faster than the P4 overall. Even if you were more conservative and said 25% more powerful, that's still 3.6 GHz x 1.25 ~ 4.5 GHz. And lets cut off some overhead = 4 GHz.

Some may argue that one should compare the PPC 970 to Xeons, but OTOH, people don't generally build dual processor Xeons for home use. The PPC 970 will compete against the P4 in that category.

Furthermore, the bus will supposedly run at 450 MHz x 2 - effectively 900 MHz. And it's a 64-bit chip no less.

We'll see when it comes out. Hopefully in a couple of months. IBM has said their PPC 970 blade servers would be out in Q3. Hopefully Apple will have PowerMacs or Xserves out around the same time with that chip.

2003 is going to be a VERY interesting year.

 

[Tab]

We should be comparing to the Athlon64 then

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: Tabb
We should be comparing to the Athlon64 then

Yeah, like I said, 2003 will be interesting...

 

[EdipisReks]

i personally think that 970 will be superior to Athlon64. and that isn't just because i want a 970 powerbook

 

[SONYFX]

Sony Play Station 2, iPaq, Dell note book and desktops are almost all made by Foxconn.

 

[CZroe]

Intel brand motherboards use Foxcon connectors and Foxcon cases were the first certified P4 cases (Though Inwin shipped first)

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: SONYFX
Sony Play Station 2, iPaq, Dell note book and desktops are almost all made by Foxconn.

Cool. Nonetheless, I'll believe the rumours only when I have a new 970 PowerBook in my hands...

Whoops... I hope I didn't offend my GHz G4 TiBook typing this message...

 

[scotoma]

What would the price comparison look like?

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: scotoma
What would the price comparison look like?

I suspect a dual PPC 970 1.8 GHz would be rather expensive, but then again Apples are traditionally expensive anyway (partially because they've always got so many other chichi doodads), and also, dual Opterons would also be expensive.

 

[EdipisReks]

Originally posted by: Eug

Whoops... I hope I didn't offend my GHz G4 TiBook typing this message...

mine kept biting me every time i typed "970" or "IBM".

 

[arcenite]

Originally posted by: Sunner
Great news, Apple needs the performance they will hopefully offer.

So whats the question on General Hardware ????

???
I must have missed the note where it said "GHW is for questions only!"

I was going to say the same thing...

Bill

 

[Eug]

GCC 3.3 now out. Updated for PPC 970.

 

[Go3iverson]

I'm extremely excited about the PPC 970 chip. I'll be at WWDC 2003 and I really hope they debut the chip there, in some capacity, even if they just talk about it. With Steve Jobs now giving a keynote address, I doubt it would only be for Mac OS 10.3.

Should be a great year for all types of computing!