|
Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!! (2/7/00)
|
 
|
| | |
It's showoff time again: the semiconductor industry's equivalent of a monster truck rally. Welcome to the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, where chipmakers flex their megahertz muscles and square off in an alarming display of who can squeeze the most clock cycles out of their silicon. The PowerPC may be way behind when it comes to the clock speeds of processors that are actually shipping in purchasable products, but in the alpha-geek demo environment of the ISSCC, it can still hold its own.
For instance, while a Wired article claims that Intel is showcasing a Pentium III ridiculously overclocked to run at a full 1 GHz, IBM apparently doesn't plan to let those Intel punks get away with that kind of crap; IBM's "special" demo PowerPC is also running at 1 GHz. (Strange, but we seem to recall that IBM had a 1 GHz PowerPC for demo purposes at least a couple of years ago. So much for progress.) Motorola's demo PowerPC is running at only a scant 780 MHz-- seemingly puny, until you consider that it's actually going to ship someday. Whereas that 1 GHz Pentium III will more likely be used as the heat element in a forthcoming "Now With Extra Heat!" Easy-Bake Oven than in an actual shipping computer. (Not that Intel won't have another chip that will ship at 1 GHz and up, but that Pentium III is pure skunkworks.)
Better yet, Keith Diefendorff of the "influential" Microprocessor Report acknowledges that the 780 MHz PowerPC is "much more likely to reach the market this year" than the juiced-up Pentium III, and even notes that "the 780 MHz PowerPC would be roughly equivalent to a 1 GHz Intel chip." Woo-hoo, vindication from an independent outside source! Now if we could just convince the public at large of that fact. And if Motorola could only get the G4 past 450 MHz. Oy... with Athlons at 800 MHz out there, we've got a ways to go. For what it's worth, Motorola still claims that 500 MHz G4 chips will ship before the end of March, but we can't help feeling pretty far behind.
| |
| |
 |
SceneLink (2082)
|  |
 |
|
And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
| | | |
|
| |
|
 | | The above scene was taken from the 2/7/00 episode: February 7, 2000: All geared up for the AppleCare Technician Training program? Cool your jets until you get the facts straight. Meanwhile, Jeb Bush's "official Florida business" with Apple may have to do with AppleCare's exclusion of said state from its list of covered areas, and Intel's Pentium III may be running at a full gigahertz in "demo mode," but IBM can match that with the PowerPC-- and Motorola's 780 MHz version will actually ship someday...
Other scenes from that episode: 2080: Magic Aura Not Included (2/7/00) Hold the phone, Sparky-- don't go pushing your plastic at the Apple Store just yet. We're sorry if our discussion of Apple's new AppleCare Technician Training got you all juiced to rush out and join the ranks of the elite Apple-certified technicians, but several faithful viewers have since thrown a smidge of cold water on our enthusiasm... 2081: Offer Not Valid In FL (2/7/00) Since no horrendous fate has befallen us since our public speculation regarding governor Jeb Bush's "official Florida business" with Apple Computer, we'll have to assume that we may have been a little off the mark with that stuff about seismic control, tectonic extortion, and pulling strings in the Dubya campaign...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
|
|
