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Tuesday, January 29 3:24 PM EDT
Good news for Powerbook fans: according to reliable Apple sources, the newly announced low-power version of the new 'Apollo' PowerPC 7455 SOI G4s (note these are not the long-awaited 7460s; they employ a .18 micron process instead of the 7460's .15 - the 7460 will arrive later with a 512k on-chip L2 cache, clock speeds up to 1.5GHz and lower power drain than current G4s) used in the new 933MHz and 1GHz PowerMacs will be making its premiere in Powerbook G4s perhaps as soon as Macworld Tokyo in late March. These new PBG4s would sport the new PPC 7445 processors at 667 and 800MHz, bringing the faster 133MHz main system bus to the low-end model as well. Other changes are expected to include faster hard disks, a new higher-performance/lower-power motherboard chipset, and possibly a next-generation RADEON Mobility 7500 graphics accelerator to replace the existing first-generation RADEON chip.
The processor upgrade market has been the subject of much discussion lately. Here's a question typical of the hundreds we've received on the topic:
From: Daniel Montoya < xxxxxx@shaw.ca >
Date: Tue Jan 29, 2002 11:46:06 AM US/Eastern
To: rumors@macosrumors.com
Subject: Re: Mac OS Rumors // The Future of the Macintosh
I have a question regarding the upgrade manufacturers..will there be new g4 upgrades anytime soon? I saw an article for the motorola 7455 for the semiconductor press claimed for $125 a chip(g4 800) or $295(g4 1000) in bundles of 10,000 is this affordable for upgrade manufacturers? And in turn us?
To answer your direct question, Dan, yes -- this is affordable in terms of individual chip pricing. However, when you realize that this is in volumes of 10,000 chips (in years past, most chip pricing was in volumes of 1,000), even the 800MHz G4s would cost well in excess of $1.2 Million just for a single lot of processors! Ouch.
Although smaller quantities may be available, the pricing will significantly increase in those cases. This means Motorola is intentionally making it difficult for smaller companies -- like third-party Mac CPU upgrade developers -- to acquire these processors at competitive prices. We've heard more than once from upgrade companies that this is a major reason why they have been so slow to market with PPC 7450-based upgrades, and the reasons undoubtedly continue to apply to these new chips as well.
Although we have heard whisperings along the grapevine that suggest the first 550, 600, 667, and 733MHz 7450-based upgrades may not be far from market, it will be some time before 800MHz+ G4s filter into the upgrade market as well. It will happen eventually, but Apple and Motorola are quite aggressively stacking the deck against upgrade makers because in the final analysis, both companies benefit more from sales of new Macs than they do from a healthy upgrade market.
Got something to say? Sound off.
Next Update: Mac OS X 10.1.3 and 10.2 (6B11, 6B26 and later) beta reports - if you've had the opportunity to play with these forthcoming system updates, drop us a line!
Tuesday, January 29 3:24 PM EDT
Good news for Powerbook fans: according to reliable Apple sources, the newly announced low-power version of the new 'Apollo' PowerPC 7455 SOI G4s (note these are not the long-awaited 7460s; they employ a .18 micron process instead of the 7460's .15 - the 7460 will arrive later with a 512k on-chip L2 cache, clock speeds up to 1.5GHz and lower power drain than current G4s) used in the new 933MHz and 1GHz PowerMacs will be making its premiere in Powerbook G4s perhaps as soon as Macworld Tokyo in late March. These new PBG4s would sport the new PPC 7445 processors at 667 and 800MHz, bringing the faster 133MHz main system bus to the low-end model as well. Other changes are expected to include faster hard disks, a new higher-performance/lower-power motherboard chipset, and possibly a next-generation RADEON Mobility 7500 graphics accelerator to replace the existing first-generation RADEON chip.
The processor upgrade market has been the subject of much discussion lately. Here's a question typical of the hundreds we've received on the topic:
From: Daniel Montoya < xxxxxx@shaw.ca >
Date: Tue Jan 29, 2002 11:46:06 AM US/Eastern
To: rumors@macosrumors.com
Subject: Re: Mac OS Rumors // The Future of the Macintosh
I have a question regarding the upgrade manufacturers..will there be new g4 upgrades anytime soon? I saw an article for the motorola 7455 for the semiconductor press claimed for $125 a chip(g4 800) or $295(g4 1000) in bundles of 10,000 is this affordable for upgrade manufacturers? And in turn us?
To answer your direct question, Dan, yes -- this is affordable in terms of individual chip pricing. However, when you realize that this is in volumes of 10,000 chips (in years past, most chip pricing was in volumes of 1,000), even the 800MHz G4s would cost well in excess of $1.2 Million just for a single lot of processors! Ouch.
Although smaller quantities may be available, the pricing will significantly increase in those cases. This means Motorola is intentionally making it difficult for smaller companies -- like third-party Mac CPU upgrade developers -- to acquire these processors at competitive prices. We've heard more than once from upgrade companies that this is a major reason why they have been so slow to market with PPC 7450-based upgrades, and the reasons undoubtedly continue to apply to these new chips as well.
Although we have heard whisperings along the grapevine that suggest the first 550, 600, 667, and 733MHz 7450-based upgrades may not be far from market, it will be some time before 800MHz+ G4s filter into the upgrade market as well. It will happen eventually, but Apple and Motorola are quite aggressively stacking the deck against upgrade makers because in the final analysis, both companies benefit more from sales of new Macs than they do from a healthy upgrade market.
Got something to say? Sound off.
Next Update: Mac OS X 10.1.3 and 10.2 (6B11, 6B26 and later) beta reports - if you've had the opportunity to play with these forthcoming system updates, drop us a line!
