The rumors have been confirmed (or at least as "confirmed" as anything you read in MacWeek)-- Apple's new high-end Macs, code-named PowerExpress, are dead in the water. MacWeek reports that Apple pulled the plug on the beefy six-slot powerhouses because the existing G3 systems are handling the needs of the high-end users pretty darn well-- or, rather, they will, with some new options that Apple's making available.

The PowerExpress was custom-designed for digital video producers, but Apple thinks that a revised Power Mac G3 (with a 300 MHz processor, 1MB of backside cache, tons of RAM, and Wide Ultra SCSI) will fill those needs quite nicely. In fact, the only other serious advantage the PowerExpress had over the current Gossamer-motherboard-based G3's was the presence of six PCI slots, instead of the G3's three. And, as it turns out, Apple realized that most people that buy six-slot machines are doing so because they need the fastest processor-- not because they need the six slots. (That's certainly true in AtAT's case; we bought our PowerTower Pro for the 200 MHz 604e and the 1MB of L2 cache, but the only PCI slot we're using right now is for the video card.)

But what about the folks who really need a six-slot system? Well, first of all, Apple's new "personality card" architecture may allow the addition of some of the features that people would add via PCI cards. Secondly, Apple's moving some commonly-added-via-PCI features to the motherboard, such as Wide Ultra SCSI. And thirdly, there's always the option of buying a UMAX six-slot clone and popping in a G3 upgrade card, for those who just gotta have them slots. So is Apple leaving that segment of the user population out in the cold? To a certain extent, yes, but it certainly seems logical not to build a six-slot system if they're not going to make any money off of it.