PowerPC 970 Info Thread

This would more or less only get interesting if Apple would cooperate closely with IBM for the motherboard design. But we don't really want onboard graphics again, do we? I want to be able to replace a graphics card after a year without exchanging the whole motherboard or some processor/graphics board...
 
IBM has a fab with advanced technolgies (like Intel, TI, TSMC and others). They use the fab for their own products (like PPC), and for others products (like Motorola PPC, and why not Nvidia). Nothing to do with a design collaboration.
 
Originally posted by mindbend
Macworld.com is talking about IBM manufacturing Nvidia chips soon. I was wondering if there might be some tie-in with the IBM 970 and future Nvidia chips that would benefit us Mac users.
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Everyone needs to remember that one of IBM's major businesses is semiconductor manufacturing. This is a business onto itself and activities that they engage in don't necessarily have any bearing at all on what other units in the company do. This is ESP. true when they are simply signing on as second sourcers OR when companies need to take advantage of some advanced semi con manufacturing process (e.g. SOI, copper interconnects, etc).

If the article said that IBM would simply be manufacturing, then this is most likely all that it is. Now if they mention that IBM is helping in the logical design of the chip, then that's a different story altogether.
 
That reminds me of the impossible to upgrade PC's companies like Packard Bell and Compaq used to make- one card would be the sound card, graphics, and modem, and stuff like that. The problem is that you would try to add a good sound card, and the crappy one built in to the modem card or whatever would still take over the sound output. It is much better to separate these components out, IMHO.
 
For us under-informed people.../ non mac users

Who makes the G4 processor and why can't it keep up with the current clock speeds?
 
Motorola makes the G4 processor. Clock speed is not everything. And Motorola had some problems. There are enough resources on the web about it, though. :p

To sheepguy42: You only had to disable the onboard graphics and/or sound to work with the AGP/PCI cards. Not really a problem.

However, the PC boards with onboard graphics and sound pose a problem to the iMacs over here in Europe. If you need a 'cheap' computer for word processing, E-Mail and surfing the 'net, you can choose between an Athlon XP 2200+ machine with a 15" LCD for, say 599$ and an iMac for around 1399$ (yes, they're a bit more expensive over here). The eMac is disqualified for more than one reason. Let's just name the CRT monitor that is definitely sub-par. So: Those onboard stuff machines really made the PCs very, very inexpensive. And the fact that you can upgrade them the way you want (processor, graphics card, audio card, video recording cards etc.) make the customer feel more powerful (and they tend to forget that they also pay more if they buy more).

Apple definitely has a problem in the consumer market over here because of that, but it seems that Apple likes to sell us quality, and I think that's okay. It's only strange that the iBook is about the cheapest notebook you can get AT ALL in Switzerland. :p I hope it stays that way, but I also hope that Apple does something about the iMac's price over here.
 
Originally posted by fryke
Apple definitely has a problem in the consumer market over here because of that, but it seems that Apple likes to sell us quality, and I think that's okay. It's only strange that the iBook is about the cheapest notebook you can get AT ALL in Switzerland. :p I hope it stays that way, but I also hope that Apple does something about the iMac's price over here.
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Everything Apple is much more expensive than anywhere else around the world :eek:

The company here, Rainbow Computers (the closest thing to Apple here), keeps 2 prices: The European ones (which of course seems to be cheap) and the Greek ones... The European prices are 99% plasmatic because one cannot actually buy at that price level and the real world (the Greek ones) are too much for one to pay: 1350$ for base model of eMac :eek: :eek: :eek:
 
What do you mean... they make EUR prices but you can't actually pay in EUR? Wouldn't that be like... fraud?
 
Originally posted by fryke
What do you mean... they make EUR prices but you can't actually pay in EUR? Wouldn't that be like... fraud?
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If you INSIST on buying in european prices you DO NOT get greek support :eek: AND you get your Mac from anything between a month and up to 3 months :eek: and this is before we start to actually speak of new models :(

On the other hand with the greek prices you get all the above plus 1 or 2 "extras" like greek letters on the keyboard and a greek troubleshooting manual of 20-30 pages :confused:

And of course not even the advanced users prefer the NO-GREEK support models for obvious reasons :rolleyes:

The only solution to this mess is if and when Apple and other Mac companies go full Cocoa support where one can have Greek support AND buy from online Mac stores around the world... Or and this is a big OR, Rainbow Computers starts to play fair (yeah, right) :mad:

Here is the biggest "Apple" store here in Greece with the lowest prices:
http://netgr.com/applepiraeus/appleg4imac.html

And here is the "official" Rainbow Computers "online" store:
http://www.applestore.gr/cgi-bin/We...fLIjURlClmmxlM/2.0.5.17.5.4.1.0.1.1.0.1.1.1.1

The prices are in Euros and DO NOT include 18% VAT...

I'm saying "online" store about RC because you cannot actually buy online except if you go first in their actual store in the center of Athens in order for them to give you a code which enables you to buy from their "online" store :confused:
 
Okay. Got you. :(

Sounds terrible. Well, I guess if I were you I'd buy a naked PowerMac or something from outside Greece and then just replace the keyboard. Support may or may not be a problem (if you keep all the original stuff, you could still bring it for repair outside your country, sounds dumb, but why not...)... Or is the Mac OS X version you get when you buy at RC a specialised Greek version that you can't get elsewhere?
 
Originally posted by fryke
Or is the Mac OS X version you get when you buy at RC a specialised Greek version that you can't get elsewhere?
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With that specialized version of OS X you get the ability to write and read in Carbon apps as well as the Cocoa ones and you get in some areas greek menus (Finder), apps (TextEdit), etc. However, you still DON´T get greek Help and MANY other stuff but people over here prefer this not-even-half-baked greek solution because in the end this is what people here in Greece like: Computer which enable them to read and write greek AND other languages and not the other way around... :mad:
 
The change might not be, but Apple may simply be trying to promote the event. Mentioning the date change is probably just them using every opportunity the get to inform people. Kind of a "keep all bases covered" sort of thing.
 
What do you mean 'chooses to do nothing'? You mean if they stop improving the Macintosh? They die, of course. But the last time they stopped developing a computer (The Apple II), something new had already taken the place (The Macintosh).
 
Originally posted by Jack Hammer
well well


what are the ramifications if Apple chooses to do nothing?

i think we should all go here:
http://www.apple.com/contact/feedback.html

and let them know that you think that Apple should be offering a better computer
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Then they lose market share and eventually fade away like the Amiga (another superior computer with a superior OS) or Silicon Graphics. As many times as Apple has "died" before, things are getting more serious now as they are starting to lose their grip on their core ISV's (Adbobe being a major one). Can Apple really survive being it's own only major ISV? Their relationship with M$ has cooled and their starting to make their other ISV's upset because of the tools their releasing. These are interesting times indeed, the internet and subsequently the iMac has helped to revive the company, can they keep it going is the big question. One thing that having a bigger boost at the top end does is to allow cheaper computers on the bottom end. If your high end and low end are only separated by .4 ghz, then it's hard to either charge enough for the high end (because it's hard to justify the price) or low enough for the low end (because it really isn't that cheap for you to produce). If Apple had access to a 3ghz G4 right now, just think how cheaply they could sell a 1ghz machine.
 
Originally posted by binaryDigit
If Apple had access to a 3ghz G4 right now, just think how cheaply they could sell a 1ghz machine.
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Yep, and just think how they wouldn't, though, because they're Apple. ;)
 
I must say that with the last update the price/performance ratio has increased considerably ... Let's hope the trend will go on!
 
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