blender benchmarks

[commodorejohn]

Which means, using the second core aswell....

Have they worked out how to do SMP reliably with AOS's lack of memory protection, then? I thought that was the limiting factor on why there's no multicore support...

Also, I'm not sure I understand the idea that older PPC hardware is inadequate. The 1.67GHz PowerBook G4 I had was at least as responsive as my Eee,* which I use with no trouble as my main daily-driver computer, and the MDD G4 that currently serves as my Mac machine is pretty well ahead of either of them. Even the Pismo PowerBook G3 I got in a trade handles things pretty well in OS9, and serviceably in OSX. I'm sure the same can be said for similarly-clocked non-Mac PPC boards.
* (Disk I/O and raw memory bandwidth were limiting factors, but then my Eee has its own different limitations, so it about evens out in the wash.)

[commodorejohn]

Or in other words -- when data no longer fits in L2 cache in G4 then 1682M is winner?

That's a good point, actually - neither the Mini nor the 1.67GHz PowerBook have an L3 cache. Wonder how a machine with an L3 cache would stack up?

[commodorejohn]

Nobody is building desktop/laptop motherboards using these CPU's, so they are completely irrelevant. For all purposes interesting to us, the PPC is dead. It's deader than dead. On its grave stone, it has the year 2005 cut in, and this is when Apple announced its migration to x86...

Nobody's building desktop/laptop motherboards with them at the moment. That's unlikely to change in the immediate future, but the industry can take surprising turns some times. In any case, the CPUs do exist.

Anyway, this from a guy with a MOS avatar?

[commodorejohn]

It will never happen. Never EVER *EVER* **EVER!**

And you know that...how?

If the industry will want something else than x86, it will be ARM. In fact, that process has already begun, and you will start seeing results of this during the current or upcoming few years...

Sure. And what happens when they get tired of ARM? Or is that going to be as indisputably eternal as x86 seemed five years ago?

[commodorejohn]

ARM is going forward on every fronts. Even DSPs and media processors include ARM core these days.

Indeed it is, and more power to it. But that doesn't mean it will reign forevermore eternal.

[commodorejohn]

Speak for yourself. I would rather spend 2500Euro than use a crappy macmini any day.

I don't get the infatuation with the Mini, myself...it's really pretty much just an iMac G4 minus the art deco lamp case, and frankly the iMac G4 is no great shakes in anything other than the aesthetics department as it is. Power Mac G4s can be had for chump change (or less, if you make a lucky find at your local recycle center,) any of them will best a similarly-clocked iMac/Mini, later models are commonly available in dual-CPU configurations, and they're infinitely more expandable. Unless you're extremely strained for desk space, I don't see why the Mini is worth the bother.