A few uncertain rumors floating around indicate that PowerBooks will see minor speed bumps to up to 1.42 GHz in the 17" High End come Feb 2nd. 15" PowerBooks are also reported to be increasing to 1.25 and 1.33GHz, while the 12" remain unchanged.
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PowerBooks on Feb 2nd?
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Originally posted by Sun Baked
Of course it's Motorola, and they occasionally put the tech machinery into reverse.
That's what I was afraid of.
Moto vs IBM
I know any speedbump is a good thing, but this really shows you the difference in manufacturing between Moto and IBM. This is really a very incremental speedbump. Moto has never redesigned it G4 to go much above 1.4GHz. Heck, Apple still has products that are sub-1GHz (e.g. G4 iBooks). If the rumors are true and there are speedbumped powermacs soon, the difference between high and low would be huge: 800MHz (Moto) vs. 2.4GHz(?, IBM).
I know any speedbump is a good thing, but this really shows you the difference in manufacturing between Moto and IBM. This is really a very incremental speedbump. Moto has never redesigned it G4 to go much above 1.4GHz. Heck, Apple still has products that are sub-1GHz (e.g. G4 iBooks). If the rumors are true and there are speedbumped powermacs soon, the difference between high and low would be huge: 800MHz (Moto) vs. 2.4GHz(?, IBM).
I've got some 2-speed DVD-Rs on order from the UK Apple Education online store. They were cancelled and autmoatically changed to 4-speed discs (which I don't want!!!).
Can't seem to get 2x discs from Apple now, only 4x (which only write at 1x on a PowerBook).
This must mean that Superdrive updates are on the way, if nothing else. Expect new PowerBooks with 4-speed DVD-R drives.
Can't seem to get 2x discs from Apple now, only 4x (which only write at 1x on a PowerBook).
This must mean that Superdrive updates are on the way, if nothing else. Expect new PowerBooks with 4-speed DVD-R drives.
well hopefully these PBs will be the last to have G4 next to their names, since steve's on record as saying they want a PB G5 by the end of this year...
My guess is these chips will be overclocked. Why? My understanding was the last batch from Moto had spec of 1.25 G4s. By last batch BTW, I mean LAST, as in these are the last in line of the 7XXX processors Apple will ever get from Moto. Next stop, all IBMs. Yeehaw!
PS I wouldn't mind a 1.33 G4 Powerbook 15" if someone, you know, gave me one.
PS I wouldn't mind a 1.33 G4 Powerbook 15" if someone, you know, gave me one.
Even though I just shelled out 2500 bucks on a new powerbook last septemeber, I sort of hope Apple releases G5 Powerbooks. It's good for them because they will sell tons of them.
In the meanwhile, I am enjoying my 1.25 mhz powerbook.
It's great for video editing and music.
In the meanwhile, I am enjoying my 1.25 mhz powerbook.
It's great for video editing and music.
No beating up on the dumb guy, but
What does it mean when a processor is "overclocked?"
Thanks.
BTW -- A processor bump to 1.25/1.33 GHz doesn't seem worth doing. Would rather see the exisiting processor at a lower price. Then again, I'd rather see a 1.5 or a 1.6 GHz G5 chip, but that may be asking too much for the next two weeks.
Does anybody know if Apple has corrected the display problems in the 15-inch PBs?
What does it mean when a processor is "overclocked?"
Thanks.
BTW -- A processor bump to 1.25/1.33 GHz doesn't seem worth doing. Would rather see the exisiting processor at a lower price. Then again, I'd rather see a 1.5 or a 1.6 GHz G5 chip, but that may be asking too much for the next two weeks.
Does anybody know if Apple has corrected the display problems in the 15-inch PBs?
those same g4s are being sold by owc in the mercury extreme. they state they are 1.25s but that they run stable at 1.4.
Re: No beating up on the dumb guy, but
according to apple CFO fred anderson in the analyst conference call last week, they did.
according to apple CFO fred anderson in the analyst conference call last week, they did.
Ya know what really fries my biscuits is that Moto isn't even trying anymore I think that they have realized that Apple doesn't want a damn thing to do with them. Their chips are showing this. Why put money into a horse that is going to the glue factory anyways?
I have to imagine Apple has whips to those hardware engineers at IBM, and to the hardware engineers at Apple to churn out a solid chipset, to get them something this summer or *sighs* fall.
They need something, actually, ANYTHING at this point to compete against the Pentium M. Performance and power consumption for Intel's mobile CPU kicks the crap out of the G4. And do NOT tell me the G4 is good enough for the PowerBook because you would be using the same excuse PowerMac users used prior to the introduction of the G5. Fact of the matter is that the G5 needs to come to the PowerBook line as soon as humanly possible because you have users like myself that WILL NOT shell out $3,000-$4,000 on a new PowerBook just to see it get *****slapped by a comparably equipped PC notebook. I kid you not guys. Id lick Jobs shoes right now for a G5 PowerBook.
Hey Steve. *does the phone gesture* Give me a call and we can setup a time.
I have to imagine Apple has whips to those hardware engineers at IBM, and to the hardware engineers at Apple to churn out a solid chipset, to get them something this summer or *sighs*
fall. They need something, actually, ANYTHING at this point to compete against the Pentium M. Performance and power consumption for Intel's mobile CPU kicks the crap out of the G4. And do NOT tell me the G4 is good enough for the PowerBook because you would be using the same excuse PowerMac users used prior to the introduction of the G5. Fact of the matter is that the G5 needs to come to the PowerBook line as soon as humanly possible because you have users like myself that WILL NOT shell out $3,000-$4,000 on a new PowerBook just to see it get *****slapped by a comparably equipped PC notebook. I kid you not guys. Id lick Jobs shoes right now for a G5 PowerBook.
Hey Steve. *does the phone gesture* Give me a call and we can setup a time.
brhmac: Overclocking is the practice of forcing a microprocessor to run faster than its factory-rated speed, usually by manipulating the bus multiplier and/or clock frequency. This is possible in some cases because chip manufacturers regularly factory-rate chips at speeds lower than what the chip could actually handle.
When Motorola announced the current line of G4s (7447 and 7457), they stated that they would be factory-rated up to 1.33GHz. However, in the first production runs, they had problems with getting many chips that were usable beyond 1.25GHz. They were also having problems with yields of the 7457 line, which differs from the 7447 only in that the 7447 can't support an external L3 cache. This is supposedly the reason why the Powerbooks dropped the L3 cache when they moved to the newer chips; rather than going with the 7457 in all Powerbooks, Apple has reportedly been using a mix of 7447s and 7457s.
The fact that PowerLogix is now selling several 1.42GHz 7457-based upgrades hopefully indicates that Moto is getting a handle on these production problems and is producing G4s in quantity at higher speeds. This would also mean that Apple may have access to higher-speed G4s now.
What may make a speed bump just a bit better than a 10% clock boost would be a move to 7457s across the board, with a reintroduction of a L3 cache. The 512K on-chip cache mitigated the effect of losing the L3 cache, but the G4 has always been starved for memory bandwidth, and I'm sure that adding the L3 cache back in would boost performance.
Note that in the past, Motorola has supplied Apple with G4s that ran significantly faster than the chip was originally designed to run. Hopefully that's not what they're doing here (shipping overclocked 1.25GHz 7457s), since in the past the extra factory-rated speed came at the cost of significantly higher voltages and heat dissipation. OWC (and Giga, and other upgrade vendors) are selling 1.3 and 1.4GHz G4 upgrades based on this older, hotter 7455 chip -- which, when announced, was never planned to ramp far beyond 1GHz.
In any case, I agree with brhmac -- a 10%, or even 20% (with L3 cache) speed bump isn't nearly enough to make the Powerbooks compelling. Hopefully Apple and IBM are on track to getting 65nm (or underclocked 90nm) G5's into the Powerbooks soon.
When Motorola announced the current line of G4s (7447 and 7457), they stated that they would be factory-rated up to 1.33GHz. However, in the first production runs, they had problems with getting many chips that were usable beyond 1.25GHz. They were also having problems with yields of the 7457 line, which differs from the 7447 only in that the 7447 can't support an external L3 cache. This is supposedly the reason why the Powerbooks dropped the L3 cache when they moved to the newer chips; rather than going with the 7457 in all Powerbooks, Apple has reportedly been using a mix of 7447s and 7457s.
The fact that PowerLogix is now selling several 1.42GHz 7457-based upgrades hopefully indicates that Moto is getting a handle on these production problems and is producing G4s in quantity at higher speeds. This would also mean that Apple may have access to higher-speed G4s now.
What may make a speed bump just a bit better than a 10% clock boost would be a move to 7457s across the board, with a reintroduction of a L3 cache. The 512K on-chip cache mitigated the effect of losing the L3 cache, but the G4 has always been starved for memory bandwidth, and I'm sure that adding the L3 cache back in would boost performance.
Note that in the past, Motorola has supplied Apple with G4s that ran significantly faster than the chip was originally designed to run. Hopefully that's not what they're doing here (shipping overclocked 1.25GHz 7457s), since in the past the extra factory-rated speed came at the cost of significantly higher voltages and heat dissipation. OWC (and Giga, and other upgrade vendors) are selling 1.3 and 1.4GHz G4 upgrades based on this older, hotter 7455 chip -- which, when announced, was never planned to ramp far beyond 1GHz.
In any case, I agree with brhmac -- a 10%, or even 20% (with L3 cache) speed bump isn't nearly enough to make the Powerbooks compelling. Hopefully Apple and IBM are on track to getting 65nm (or underclocked 90nm) G5's into the Powerbooks soon.