Hey, when are the G6's coming out... should I hold out for one

[uoba]

http://212.100.234.54/content/61/31467.html

The Register's article on the IBM Power5 chip (or rather, IBM's marketing lit).

Will we see these in Macs?

 

[buggerit]

you, good sir, are a flibberty gibbett.

 

[dlloyd]

The new G5s aren't even shipping yet, and you are worrying about whether you should hold out for the G6?!
We got G4s five years ago, I wouldn't bother...

 

[MaC hAcKeR]

In the movie on the apple website:
"We have already built the prototypes of the next generation PowerPC processors."
And Steve Jobs said in the keynote that in 12 Months, they promise the'll be at 3 GHz Processos. Hmm...

 

[mr. k]

But I bet those 3Ghz are gonna be G5's too. Mabye by the time the dual 10Ghz G6's come out I'll be able to buy one! Haha that would be a tight computer ;^)

 

[Captain Code]

HAHAHA. In a freaking long time. Looks like a sweet proc though. Up to 4 times as powerful as the Power 4, which the G5 is based on.

 

[Randman]

Wait for the G7s.

 

[Cat]

The G5 is the PPC 970, which is based on POWER4. The G6, which would be the PPC 980, would be based on POWER5. POWER5 is just now in test stage, meaning that the design is almost completely done. Since IBM and Apple by now have already the experience of adapting POWER4 to PPC970, it should be easier to do it a second time. I do not think it will take long, maybe two years or so, before they could be ready. However, the G5 can quite easily reach 3-4 GHz on its own.

BTW. the G7 would then be based on the POWER6, which is currently under development. With this chip they could immediately take into account the possibility of adapting it to PPC 990 already now in the design stage. Who knows what the future will bring ...

 

[Geminis]

G7? Hmm I'd say wait for the GX

 

[Captain Code]

I wonder if IBM will now develop the PPC 980 along side the Power5 since they have the experience now. They chould just take the Power5 design and modify it before the chip is even made and make the 980 along side it.

 

[fryke]

Whether the PowerPC 980 will be named G6 or still G5 isn't known yet. Maybe Apple wants to keep the G5 name for a while...

 

[uoba]

IMO G4 overran by about 1 year (realistically)... it should now be established as the equivalent to what the G3 is to Apple at present (or should I say pre-G5 release!)

With the added competition of AMD's and Intel's 64-bit processors, I don't think Apple could hold onto the G5 for as long as 4 years (okay, we are all hyped about G5 but it will be old one day !)

 

[kendall]

The G4 came out about two years after the G3. The G5 will be out nearly 4 years after the G4 so I suspect we'll see the G6 sometime in 2012.

 

[Stridder44]

The G5 is pretty strong stuff, Im sure it'll last for a good 4 years, while keeping up with if not running ahead of the competition.

And ya know...I find it funny that Intel's chips are gaining Ghz speeds...but the PowerPC Chips are remaining at 2Ghz and there about, but are faster than each other. For example, the Power5 chip will run at 2Ghz, the same speed as the Power4 is running, however, the Power5 is gonna be 4 times faster than the Power4!

 

[hulkaros]

I want a Quad Power5 and I want it yesterday!

 

[spitty27]

how much faster can a computer get? soon the systems and the operating system will be able to write faster than the existing hd itself, and that will slow thigns down. but honestly...isnt a dual 2ghz enough?? what could possibly run slow on that

 

[ksv]

Originally posted by spitty27
how much faster can a computer get? soon the systems and the operating system will be able to write faster than the existing hd itself, and that will slow thigns down. but honestly...isnt a dual 2ghz enough?? what could possibly run slow on that

The RAM bus of the G5 does already copy data 200 times faster than the HD, so that's already a problem
Imagine a computer where everything was stored in RAM, booting, loading applications etc would be instant.
But hard drives are also getting faster, and I assume hard drive RAID arrays will become more common in the future.

Don't forget Bill Gates' statement - "Computers will never need more than 640 kilobytes of RAM".
Why do you think there are supercomputers with thousands of processors and servers with terabytes of memory and storage? I don't think a G5 would do the job for those as well

 

[GulGnu]

Originally posted by ksv
Don't forget Bill Gates' statement - "Computers will never need more than 640 kilobytes of RAM".

No fan of Bill, but no, he never said that. It was more along the lines of:

"640 kilobytes [of computer memory] ought to be enough for anybody."

Which was probably true for most users at that time. Of course, the 640 kB limit lingered for far too long, providing countless fun hours of autoexec.bat and config.sys modification to PC-users everywhere...

/GulGnu

-Stabil som fan!

 

[ksv]

Originally posted by GulGnu
No fan of Bill, but no, he never said that. It was more along the lines of:

"640 kilobytes [of computer memory] ought to be enough for anybody."

** Loads gun ** click **

Gah! Samme faen!

 

[Captain Code]

Originally posted by ksv

Imagine a computer where everything was stored in RAM, booting, loading applications etc would be instant.

You can almost do that now with the G5. You could make a RAM disk of maybe 6GB and have 2GB of free RAM for your apps(that should be more than enough for most people). Get a UPS for your computer and then you could store some apps on the RAM disk, or put some Photoshop images you are working on, on the RAM disk. That would scream!