When it comes to the clock speed race, you've probably noticed that we generally focus on Motorola when talking about the PowerPC's current standing. That's because Apple decided to flog Motorola's AltiVec technology for all it was worth and market the G4 as a Pentium-killing supercomputer. Whether or not that's accurate from a technical standpoint, we can probably all agree that, marketing-wise, that may not have been the smartest choice. Sadly, when selling computers to the general public, clock speed is everything-- and since Motorola's G4 still tops out at an anemic-sounding 500 MHz, Apple's been prevented from even shipping faster-than-500 MHz G3 systems due to the all-important megahertz perception.

But Motorola's not the only company developing (or, at least, pretending to develop) PowerPC processors. Sure, IBM's development of the architecture usually focuses more on server-friendly designs rather than stuff like AltiVec which is handy for Macs. Still, though, for those of us who have been choking on the 500 MHz bone for the past year, word of a breakthrough from IBM still hits us like a nice cool breeze. Check it out: according to The Register, our buddies at Big Blue have just announced a new technology called "CMOS 9S" that can squeeze a transistor down to 0.13 microns in size. What does that mean to the megahertz issue, you ask? Well, try this on for size: PowerPC chips running at 10 GHz.

Hello? Hey, wake up! Breathe into a paper bag or something and relax. It's not like Steve is going to walk out on stage next month and announce 10 GHz Macs for sale at the Apple Store or anything like that. Odds are we won't see a PowerPC chip that fast for years-- though IBM is already starting to incorporate the technology into its Power4 processor, and The Reg thinks that the G3 may inherit some of that 0.13 micron goodness, too. Granted, IBM's transistors are still over four times the size of the ones that Intel claims to have made, but it's the sheer giddiness that comes from seeing the words "PowerPC" and "10 GHz" in the same sentence that's really got us jazzed. Ooooo, mama.