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Unsafe At Any Speed (3/20/00)
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Heads up, it's possible that Motorola isn't just standing still when it comes to PowerPC development. As you are no doubt aware, a European spokesperson for Motorola has "categorically denied" that the company is using certain clauses in the Altivec license to prevent fellow AIMster IBM from shipping faster, cheaper G4 processors. That's as may be. The fact is, Apple's Power Mac G4 only recently hit the 500 MHz barrier, while both AMD and Intel have processors running at twice that clock speed. If IBM really has 650 MHz G4 chips ready to go and Motorola's holding them back, well, it's time for someone to visit Motorola while swinging a sack full of doorknobs.
But as we said, hold off on that severe sack beating a second. You probably know that one of the biggest hurdles keeping Apple from higher clock speeds is the current G4 architecture's inherent limitations. It's the next G4 that's supposed to fix all sorts of problems, thus letting it get closer to those clock speeds we're currently seeing in the Wintel world, but originally we weren't expecting to see the "G4e" until fall. That may have changed; according to Mac OS Rumors, Motorola's got the "first fully functional G4e prototypes" off the line, and they're running as high as 700 MHz. Now, speculation's bad enough, and speculation based on rumor is about as out-there as it gets, but if all this is true, there's the slimmest chance that G4e-based Macs may debut as early as Macworld Expo this July.
As usual, though, don't hold your breath. The way these things usually go, we're not expecting G4e-based systems to appear before October or November. The only way we expect to see the G4 get past 500 MHz before then is if IBM is allowed to ship its alleged 650 MHz chip, or Motorola stops playing with cell phones long enough to eke a few more cycles out of the current architecture. Then, of course, there's also the rumored dual-G4 system Apple's got waiting in the wings...
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 3/20/00 episode: March 20, 2000: Optimists who were awaiting the PDF version of Stephen King's new book are sorely disappointed. Meanwhile, Epinions decides not to air commercial footage of a defenseless iMac being shot up by a gun-toting critic, and Motorola may be farther along than expected with development of the G4e...
Other scenes from that episode: 2165: Promised, Didn't Fix (3/20/00) Not that we're the doom-and-gloom poster children or anything, but no one ever accused us of being "too optimistic" or "not at all jaded" either. If you want consistently shiny happy commentary, you might want to look elsewhere, because as everyone knows, in soap operas you have to take the downs with the ups... 2166: Someone Call The ASPCi (3/20/00) We really wanted to stay out of this whole Epinions brouhaha, but being compassionate souls, once we finally saw the RealVideo footage of an iMac being shot to pieces by a neckless "computer expert" with a handgun and an axe to grind, well, we can't keep silent any longer...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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