AMIGAONE.... isn't it an obsolete technology already?

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Dr_Righteous wrote:

You think the prices of AmigaOS4 boards are bad now?? Wait untill the real reprocussions of the death of ApplePPC hit. Far fewer PPC chips being used, far fewer being produced, supply will shrink, price will dramatically increase. It's inevitible.

I just hope we can get enough PPC boards, cheaply and quickly enough to beat this fate before OS4 completely dies.

Apple only use a few percent of PPCs made, production will fall slightly because of that but the fact that the console manufacturers are using PPC mean it's production will rise by a much larger amount.

Aside from that the fact IBM are opening up PPC means the market for PPC is growing these days.

Linux is also proving very helpful since it doesn't require legacy x86 binaries - e.g. the A1 micro was originally designed as a Linux machine.

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First of all Apple is basically the only user of the G5

Apart from Mercury-Momentum, Terrasoft, IBM (JS20s), I believe even Motorola sell them in blades.  Telcos probably find them useful.

and it is by far the largest user of the G4.

Actually Apple are not even the largest user of the G4.  If they were Apple would have been able to force Freescale into using a an updated FSB.

Just because G4+G5 is only a small portion of the PPC market doesnt mean that the loss of Apple won't severly impact new desktop speed PPC parts.

If the current trends had continued I'd agree but it's all changing now, AMD and Intel have effectively given up pushing clock frequency, IBM on the other hand looks like they will continue to push higher for sometime yet.

but for the next 18 months at least, every part that IBM can make of these 3 types are going to Nintendo, Sony & Microsoft.

Probably true for Microsoft and Nintendo but a similar core to the one they use (also the PPE in the Cell) will almost certainly appear from IBM as a separate PowerPC product.

The Cell on the other hand has never been a console only part, all 3 partners can make them and sell them to whoever they want.  You can already get them from IBM and it's looking like it'll turn up in a Mercury system before the PS3 ships.  Toshiba are also planning to ship their Cell reference system in April and put them in HDTVs later in the year.

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Mercury-Momentum = They have one shipping product (the development board), it appears two more on the way, do you honestly believe they are a major portion of the G5s sold?

Momentum alone have done quite a few 970 based boards but I don't think all of them are public.  Mercury sell to military, medical etc. type customers so we're unlikely to hear much of what they sell either.

My point it Apple are not the only people selling 970 based systems.  Apple are the only company selling them to the general public though.

Telcos probably find them useful. ---- G5 is a pretty expensive part for the that use, why exactly do you think that is true??

G5 is a very good DSP, Telcos (or suppliers thereof) can and do pay top dollar for that sort of processor, e.g. Ericsson signed a deal with Compaq to buy $1 billion worth of Alpha processors a few years ago, and they were sure never cheap.

IBM hasnt been able to ship enough G5's to its primary buyer Apple.

Ars technica forwarded a theory a while back that says the supply problems were due to Apple not ordering enough parts and expecting more to be instantly available - not a sensible move given it take 3 months to make a new batch.  IBM did admit to having yield problems in early 04 but never since.  They don't seem to have problems making millions of processors for Microsoft.

And of course you are still missing the point, which of these products use the fastest G5's (only apple), which of these use the dual core G5's (only apple).

IBM have already announced dual core blades...
I agree the really high end 970s are being driven by Apple and the pressure to push them will be off after Apple leave.  However with PA Semi appearing both IBM and Freeescale now have some pretty serious competition and will need to compete.  It could be argued that this is only an "embedded processor" but that doesn't mean it'll be a useless desktop chip or slow, it's looking like it'll be just as good as anything Intel will be producing.

IBM look like they want to get into the low end server market, they're getting pressured by AMD now and would probably rather have their own chip in their boxes.  AMD and Intel are giving up on clock speed, IBM are still pushing upwards so a cut down POWER6 could be just right for that market - Apple or not.

I disagree, who exactly in your opinion bought more then 2 million G4s last year to take Apple out of #1 G4 buyer in your opinion?? My info says Apple is number 1, if you think I am wrong, you are going to have to come up with a name and some facts.

So, you're saying you are right because, well, you just are?

I haven't heard who but I have heard they aren't the biggest G4 customer, given it is primarily an embedded part and that's Freescale's business this shouldn't be terribly surprising.  

I mean your Freescale comment is funny, but not alot of reason with it, even you agree Apple bought the most G5's yet they couldnt get one good enough for a laptop could they??

The lower clocked G5s have long run cool enough for laptop, the problem seems to have been the recently replaced Northridge, it ran both slow and hot.

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Besides, doesn't OSX use the GPU to speed up it's gui ?

Yes.
It does some fancy tricks but some of them are very useful and add to the functionality of the system.  Expose is immensely useful and is largely made possible by the 3D hardware, it would be much more processor intensive without it.  Transparent terminal windows can also be surprisingly useful.  In other cases the "eyecandy" is just visual cues - i.e. they are there to enhance usability.

Also, if you have the hardware why not use it ? Or should Amiga OS never have used its custom chips to draw the GUI but the CPU and only used the custom chips to play games ?

Exactly, if there's hardware make use of it.
There has been experimentation in 3D user interfaces but it's largely unsuccessful for the desktop itself or desktop apps (I think that's what the previous poster was complaining about).  I think they'll become more useful when we get real 3D displays - some of which on the market already.


If someone really doesn't like eyecandy, open a shell and kill the workbench.  On Linux (or other Unix) kill the X server.  If it's early 1960's* UIs that float your boat, have fun...


*Like most modern computer tech, GUIs originally started their life in the late 60's.