X1000 CPU is PWRficient PA6T

[zylesea]

It's actually not as fast as I would have thought:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructions_per_second

8800 MIPS at 2.0 GHz.

Look at the figures of some of the Intel CPUS.

Having said that, it blows away existing and available PowerPC chips that are currently running AmigaOS 4.

Divide that value by 2 - only one core gets used (at least initially). The G4 1500 MHz is slower, but optimized software probably fills that gap.
I am pretty curious of a real world usage comparision of OS4 on the X1000 vs. a Mac mini 1500 running MorphOS. Unfortunately we will have to wait until winter for that comparison (and who knows maybe we can compare it against a G4 1667 MHz by then)...

[zylesea]

What interests me, is how can it be a new off the fab line....PA6T.

I think there are rumours that Apple allowed another company to take production of the Pa6T for the contracted and warranted customers. Maybe they even were allowed to do some advancments like a die shrink with a transition to another process (45nm). But I don't know if there is any truth in those rumours...
Anyway the PA6T unfortunately (it actually is a nice processor) is a dead end and probably very expensive (well, it gets produced in low quantity and gets primarily sold to mil customers - who have a different approach to calculate costs).