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Waiting For The Plus (7/27/00)
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Call us nuts, but sometimes we miss those heady days of Apple back in the mid-'90s. Yes, those were the days of Copland and the failed cloning initiative and a zillion other Apple missteps that almost killed the company, but at least we still had our illusions about how the PowerPC was going to bankrupt Intel "any day now." Remember that classic spiel about how CISC was dead, and RISC would rule the world? How about that brief, shining moment when Power Computing's 225 MHz PowerTower Pro had a faster clock speed than Intel's zippiest Pentium Pro? Ah, memories...
Fast-forward back to the present, and sure, Apple's finances, product line, and overall strategy are orders of magnitude better-- but when it comes to the Megahertz Wars, the PowerPC is getting stomped like a grape. One year in the computer industry is like seven years in a dog's life (or something like that), and yet it was almost one year ago that Apple announced the G4/500. What do we have now instead? Two G4/500s. Sure, multiprocessing is cool, but the chip itself is unchanged (other than the fact that it's actually shipping these days). It still "languishes" at 500 MHz while Intel and AMD chips top the 1 GHz barrier. We haven't seen product development that stagnant since WordPerfect for Macintosh.
Meanwhile, the next PowerPC, dubbed the "G4+" and announced way back in October, is still nowhere in sight. The Register takes a little peek at this next iteration in the G4's development, and technologically speaking, it's all good news: more processing units, faster and larger cache, and a longer instruction pipeline to allow higher clock speeds-- starting at 700 MHz. The problem? No ship date. But Motorola has apparently hinted that the G4+ will roughly follow the same timeline that the G4 took, indicating a release "real soon now." Forgive us if we don't hold our breath. We'll just be happy if Motorola can ship in volume before the end of the year, so Apple can get the PowerBook G4 out in time for January's Expo.
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 7/27/00 episode: July 27, 2000: Shadowy details emerge about Apple's rumored new handwriting recognition software for the Mac. Meanwhile, Motorola's being awfully quiet about its upcoming G4+ processor, and Microsoft files its request that the Supreme Court kick its antitrust appeal back down to its good buddies in the Appeals Court...
Other scenes from that episode: 2443: A Future Of Blisters (7/27/00) Okay, we're all for a healthy dose of minimalism-- "Simplify, simplify" and all that-- but does anyone get the feeling that Apple may be taking the philosophy to some rather extreme ends? Take the Cube-- there are a lot of things it doesn't have compared to its less forward-looking brethren: there's no fan, no slots, no tools needed to open it up, no mechanical power button (it's an electrostatically sensitive proximity sensor instead), no visible ports until you turn the thing over, and darn near no space taken up on your desk... 2445: A Big, Stinkin' Mess (7/27/00) Hey, do any of you classic TV fans remember an old courtroom drama called "Redmond Justice"? It's been a long time, we know, but in the grand tradition of shows that churn on seemingly forever like some deranged Energizer Bunny, it's back and ready to rock...
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