The register reports that Motorola hurries release of 0.13µ G4

[Eric_Z]

Motorola appears to have brought forward volume production of the next major G4-class PowerPC processor, the MPC7457, from Q4 to Q3.

From http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/39/31424.html

The 7457 remains the leading contender for upcoming Apple PowerBooks. While some Mac users hoped IBM's 64-bit PowerPC 970, which Apple is calling the G5, would make it into PowerBooks, the chip's significant heat dissipation prevents it from taking on such a role.

When Motorola unveiled the 7457 back in February, it said the chip would sample in March followed by full production in Q4. Today, Motorola customer Synergy Microsystems, which produces motherboards for the embedded market, said it had begun shipping evaluation boards supporting single and dual 7457s.

Final 7457 boards will ship in Q3, says Synergy, "when production quantities of the [7457] become available".

The 7457 is Motorola's follow-up to the current top-of-the-line G4, the 7455. It not only doubles the G4's on-die L2 cache to 512KB, but expands its external L3 cache support to 4MB (though only 2MB can be used as cache per se; the rest is available as "private memory"). The clock speed will max out at 1.3GHz, but the extra cache sizes should improve performance even on the 1GHz version compared to current G4-based PowerBooks. So too will its 200MHz frontside bus, which paves the way for 400MHz DDR SDRAM support.

The 7457 will be fabbed at 0.13 micron, and Motorola claims the chip consumes just 16.6W at 1.3GHz, compared to the 0.18 micron 7455's 15W at 1GHz. By contrast the G5 consumes 42W at 1.8GHz. All three chips have a core voltage of 1.3V.

With new, 15.4in PowerBooks said to go into production during the second half of the year, the 7457 remains the most likely candidate for that machine's processor, possibly in dual-CPU configurations, if some rumours are to be believed.

Hints from a variety of sources that Apple might be refreshing the ageing Titanium 15.2in PowerBook this week appear to have proved unfounded. However, the machine is due an upgrade as it lacks not only the other PowerBooks' DDR SDRAM-based architecture but support of AirPort Extreme, Apple's second-generation, 802.11g-based wireless networking system and integrated Bluetooth.

[olegil]

200MHz FSB sure sounds like a plan, but even that is a bit behind the times :-)

Actually, it's a 50% increase, and coupled with 100% (or more) faster memory (so AGP and PCI won't take bandwidth from the CPU) it's gonna be noticable

Now the Marvell southbridge sounds even better, I must admit :-)

[Eric_Z]

Some additional PPC "info"

Quoted from:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30489

" I can only predict what Apple will do. I have sources on IBM production. I know the 970 is currently up to 2.5GHZ at .13, but it is running extremely hot. Gobi is ready and Apple has some, but not enough for any mass production. Mojave (750VX) is sampling soon. It is Mojave that has Altivec and a faster bus speed support. If Apple uses these, the earliest they'd introduce them is in January ... Gobi will feature a 200MHZ FSB w/ 1024KB of L2 cache (an improvement on the 750FX in my iBook and 4x the L2 in the G4s[remark/] 7455[/remark]). It is Mojave (750VX) that will introduce the FSB increases (450MHz) and will use Altivec. It will also scale to 2GHZ. Gobi and Mojave are fabbed @ .10micron. Gobi is ready to go, Mojave is being sampled by Apple right now. I thought it may be have been ready for mass production at the end of May, but it won't be ready to go until late October. I doubt the VX will appear in Apples until January, and by that time the G5s will be fabbing at .09 ...

[zee4]

Some additional PPC "info"

I think this is great news for several reasons.

 Mot and IBM battling it out should lead to at least some good fast hardware- look what AMD did for Intel, wheather AMD stole the low-end market or challenged the high-end, it brought-out some good competition.

Hopefully this will lead to some cheeper PPC hardware by lower the chip prices and/or there will be some pretty effective hardware for the kind of apps that Apple (and Amiga) shine in.

I know there's been some talk about Apple fudging some test results, but  I do buy that for specific applications (3D rendering, image processing, DSP-type things), AltiVec does the job better than similar Intel hardware.

Zoltan

[Elektro]

"So too will its 200MHz frontside bus, which paves the way for 400MHz DDR SDRAM support."

This could also simply mean a faster SDR support not DDR.

[takemehomegrandma]

Isn't the 7447 (the Pegasos G4) pretty much *exactly the same* CPU as the 7457, but without the L3 cache support?

[JoannaK]

Mass marketted SDRAMS topped at 133MHz.. all faster bus speeds are DDR or other technologies. (check fact's man!)

And  these high end 512Meg DDR400 memories are cheaper than those old Registered 133Mhz SDRams used on current systems.. So it's not only great step forward, it's also considerable cost saving.

[strobe]

This chip could be a prime candidate for the Pegasos II.

I'm sure that even if Apple doesn't buy these chips many Mac CPU upgrade manufacturers will. Maybe I can upgrade my 1Ghz TiPB :-D

[takemehomegrandma]

@ strobe

Again ;-):

"Isn't the 7447 (the Pegasos G4) pretty much *exactly the same* CPU as the 7457, but without the L3 cache support?"

-EDIT-

7457
7447

[strobe]

It's not the same if it's 130mn fab. The current G4s are 180nm. Big difference right there.

[takemehomegrandma]

@ strobe

Well, I follow the links ;-), and I see this:

The MPC7447 is manufactured on Motorola's 0.13-micron HiPerMOS silicon-on-insulator (SOI) copper interconnect process technology, enabling it to deliver superior performance over bulk CMOS technology. In addition to increased performance, SOI technology offers excellent low power capability, making the devices ideal for embedded applications in the wired and wireless telecommunications, networking and imaging arenas.

The MPC7457 is manufactured on Motorola's 0.13-micron HiPerMOS silicon-on-insulator (SOI) copper interconnect process technology, enabling it to deliver superior performance over bulk CMOS technology. In addition to increased performance, SOI technology offers excellent low power capability, making the devices ideal for embedded applications in the wired and wireless telecommunications, networking and imaging arenas.

When you continue to read those pages you will see that these really seems to be the same chip, except for the L3 cache support (I guess the key is the last "7" in the model number)! :-)

Very nice if you ask me! :-D

[Elektro]

"(check fact's man!)"

lol, temper, temper, youll get an ulcer...

also I said 'could' not that it wont have DDR support.