Speaking of faster G4 chips (hey, we did mention that briefly-- it's a valid segue!), the scuttlebutt on Motorola's latest progress in its year-long-and-counting struggle to punch through the 500 MHz ceiling hints that things may in fact be getting better. For instance, faithful viewer Russell Maggio notes an article in The Register which boldly announces that test runs of the upcoming "G4e" processor are finally bearing some sweet, sweet fruit. The good news? Motorola has apparently produced G4e chips running at 1050 MHz. The bad news? They've apparently only made, say, two of them-- the yields on these speedy new chips reportedly sucks rocks. (That's a technical term.)

The worse news? The Register's source for this information is none other than Mac OS Rumors, so take that how you will. Personally we ascribe more accuracy to MOSR's sources than we probably should, but it's important to note that it's entirely possible that the whole story is mere fabrication. And finally, the worst news of all: even if the story's true, and Motorola has been able to squeeze out a couple of GHz G4es, you certainly can't buy one of them to take home with you next week. (Unless, of course, some naughty Moto employee slaps them up on eBay.) No, regardless of how much progress Motorola has made on the clock speed front, odds are we're a minimum of four months away from seeing G4es in shipping Macs-- we say six. And until then, we assume we're going to be stuck at the unfashionably retro 500 MHz level. Perhaps by then it'll come back into style?

If you're looking for news on the G4e in the "legitimate" press, well, there's always MacWEEK. Sure, they used to be "MacLEAK," but remember, they canned Mac the Knife and now they're serious journalists. Anyway, it seems that Motorola is still planning to trot out the G4e for show at this October's Microprocessor Forum 2000, and an honest-to-goodness Motorola spokesperson is quoted as saying that the company's presentation "will be about what technologies are needed to operate G4 PowerPC processors at [more than 1 GHz]." Apparently silicon-on-insulator technology figures heavily, as does that old copper trick. In any event, we just can't see them shipping the G4e this calendar year if it's going to be Forum fodder in October. So our advice to those suffering from clinical Clock Speed Anxiety is this: gear up for a long winter, and keep thinking happy thoughts.