PPC is better better better!!!!

[meerschaum]

I remember a long time ago I posted a thread with the title 'PPC is bad bad bad!!!' or something close to it and in that thread a said my piece about how come I thought PPC sucked... it was expensive I said, it was slow I said, it was non-standerd, its ratio was way off for consumers... etc etc etc...

well like the idiot I am PPC970 has me eating my hat and I'm glad for it!... I really like the looks of the new mac's I intend (money willing) to get one and make it my primary workstation for what I do (graphics and web development) for a long time...

what are your reactions to PPC970?... I personally think that apple did tweak the benchmarks and I still dont care... its only marginal differences...the main thing is its CHEAPER, and more competative... its definitlu within reason...I dont know the price of the chip but anything good for PPC is good for Pegasos  and Amiga... so It's a good day for all of us I think...

[XDelusion]

Oh ya, PPC rules, I just can't afford it right now. :/

[Samuar]

If only it were cheaper.

I look forward to the day in the future when I browse eBay looking for an old second hand 64bit PPC for under £/$ 100....

Until then, there is the dream...........

[HyperionMP]

Quite some time ago I posted here that I had seen the future of PPC and that I was impressed.

I was obviously referring to the 970 and the fact that Mai is working on the required chipset to support it as they have now revealed on the IBM PPC developer conference the other day.

The 970 is still somewhat slower that the very fastest x86 CPU's from Intel and AMD, at least in integer performance.

It does however have Altivec which is far superior to SSE2.

It also has far lower power-consumption despite being a Power4 derivative.

Top of the line 3.2 Ghz Intel CPU's consume a "mere 82 Watts".

It offers execution of 32 bit code without any significant speed penalty.

What it will also do  is to ignite competition between Motorola and IBM again as IBM is now clearly encroaching on Motorola's turf with the launch of the 750 GX, the prospect of a G3 with Altivec from IBM and now the 970 which gets them the Apple high-end business.

You can expect Motorola to react.

All of this is good for PPC.

[Jaruzel]

Whats the expected price for a Blizzard PPC603e then ?

And a BVision gfx add-on thingy as well ?  I'm tempted to hunt them out as the final add-on for my A1200D

-Jar.

[takemehomegrandma]

@ meerschaum

I too think the new Mac is really interesting! But remember that it's not only about CPU power alone, the most interesting part of this Mac is IMO the new chipset that provide this great bandwidth and the controller to shovel data around without bothering the processor or the CPU bus. http://www.apple.com/powermac/architecture.html

[Madgun68]

For myself, it was never about which hardware was better. You can find reasons to support any platform. I was just tired of what was available on the other systems.

I used Windows for years and never really liked it. Unlike AmigaOS, Windows feels like a tool. Sure.. It'll get the job done, but it's not something you get excited about. Linux? I've tried REAL hard to like Linux. I just can't. There are just too many issues with Linux.

Macs? Nah. I want a computer to use.. I don't want to pay for art that doubles as a computer. (The Apple designs have never appealed to me.)

The only thing left was hoping that the PPC would be better BECAUSE of the operating system. (And while my Pegasos is not faster than my PC in terms of clockspeed, it sure does remind me that Windows uses a lot of resources on junk that I wished they'd never included in the first place.)

[Damion]

For artists I think this system will kick a**.
Photoshop and Lightwave should get a great
speed boost, and perhaps OSX will finally
loose its sluggishness. I have a few designer
friends that moved on to dual and quad Xeon's
becasue PPC was just too slow...but now, I think
it's a definate player again.

I'm not an artist, but nevertheless I'm
certainly interested in a "test drive".

[mikeymike]

It's a step in the right direction by IBM methinks, though I wonder if they can continue to catch up with x86.

[takemehomegrandma]

@ HyperionMP

I was obviously referring to the 970 and the fact that Mai is working on the required chipset to support it as they have now revealed on the IBM PPC developer conference the other day.

How can you read "MAI is working" into:

* IBM is actively talking "to memory controller vendors with representatives in this room (Mai Logic and Marvell were exhibiting) and others, who will vend controllers supporting at least dual CPUs."? (Link)

Ah well, perhaps you have other information than the rest of us. But they would surely be fools if they don't look into this! But don't hold your breath, Mr Hermans!

I wrote this elsewhere:

So *if* there will come something out of this, it means real life end-user products ... when?

[Developing a new chipset, bugtesting that, make necessary modification and go back to the manufacturing plant, developing a new motherboard around this architecture, bugtesting that, making necessary modifications and start production ...]

In 2+ years from now?

Pegasos III ?  :-o  :-)

Well, I'm not holding my breath! The Peg I is here today, the Peg II in a near future ...

The IBM NB (only single processor support?) will possibly come earlier; IBM *should* have some lead, one thinks ... ;-)

Anyway, there will surely be some choice of chipsets for motherboard designers to choose from ... in some time. By then, the CPU will have matured and advanced even further, prices may have dropped, and things might be generally better. But that is then, and this is now. Perhaps we shouldn't be hyping some future technology, instead we should focus on what we have today and make some OS'es and software ready for this! ;-)

[Fot]

@HyperionMP

To be honest, I'm not sure if Motorola cares about the desktop processor market anymore.  Even if they released a new 64-bit CPU, who would use it since Apple's gone to IBM.

Sure, the 970 is a great step forward for the PPC desktop platform. But will sales from Apple alone be enough to ensure ongoing  970 development so it's competitive and on par with the x86 alternative in 6 to 12 months time?

Maybe things would have been different if Apple focused only MacOS, and the concept of PowerMac 'compatibles' existed?

[HyperionMP]

The 970 is not only intended for Apple, IBM also plans to sell it into the workstation and low-end server market and possibly even for certain embedded applications.

Writing off Motorola is a mistake. Sure, their CPU's are primarily intended for embedded systems but let's face it, a 1.3 Ghz G4 is nothing to sneeze at.

Especially not when it only consumes around 10 watts.

Ideal for multimedia embedded systems.

[takemehomegrandma]

@ HyperionMP

Good points!  :-)

[amigamad]

Around a £160 to £170 pound on ebay. :-)

[dammy]

by HyperionMP on 2003/6/25 7:03:46

Writing off Motorola is a mistake. Sure, their CPU's are primarily intended for embedded systems but let's face it, a 1.3 Ghz G4 is nothing to sneeze at.

For people paying the big bucks, it is.  Figure that A1 G4 is ~$950 USD, then add in the cost of RAM, mid to upper end GFX, case, CD/DVD, hard drive, modern sound card, the price jump to the low end 970 Mac is not that big of a financial jump for such a big tech upgrade.  That should be worrying Eyetech, alot.

Dammy