Wow, it seems like it's been days since we dredged up that old chestnut about imminent Power Mac G5 revisions, doesn't it? It wasn't that long ago when we raised the issue at least twice a day; of course, that was back in March or so when the rallying cry of "They'll Finally Get Here Next Week-- For Sure!" was so popular in Macville it was the number one slogan on t-shirts and bumper stickers, finally edging out the long-held favorite, "You Use Windows So We Mock Your Pain." Eventually, though, people got sick of waiting for these 2.5ish GHz G5s that never materialized, faith collapsed, and the chances of ever seeing a Mac running faster than 2 GHz before Pauly Shore wins a lifetime achievement award from his peers seemed remote at best.

Legislation always lags the zeitgeist, however, and we're pretty sure if we let another episode or two pass without tackling the subject, we'll be in violation of some sort of federal statute. It's a good thing, then, that faithful viewer Mike Scherer informed us of a new development, of sorts: AppleInsider has fresh dirt on the subject, claiming that Apple has not abandoned its 2.5ish GHz G5 speed bump, and still expects to ship the units "this spring." Reportedly that supply problem with 90-nanometer PowerPC 970 FX G5s (which IBM has been struggling like mad to squeeze out in any reasonable quantity) is finally showing signs of abating, and "an AppleInsider source claims that Apple has just recently received a full two shipments" of the chips in question-- which we're going to assume is great news, while we blithely ignore the fact that we haven't the slightest inkling whether a "shipment" contains eight chips or 80,000.

Regardless, it was enough processors for Apple to cobble together "several new test units" and quietly seed them to important developers for testing purposes. While there's no reason to believe that the test systems are configured anything at all like what will finally ship, the fact that they're all running dual processors at "speeds from 2.2 GHz to 2.6 GHz" makes us feel kinda sunny inside. But then again, the fact that the source claims these speed-bumped Power Macs will ship "by the end of June" changes our internal weather forecast back to overcast with scattered showers.

See, the end of June marks Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, which is arguably now Apple's single biggest event when it comes to Stevenotes and Announcements of Momentous Import™. Given that it'll be taking place one year after Steve-o promised us all 3.0 GHz G5s in one year's time, well, you do the math; we kind of figured that Apple would ditch the whole 2.5ish GHz speed bump as a lost cause and just make the promised jump to 3.0 GHz and the PowerPC 975 all at once. Now, though, with Apple seeding 2.6 GHz test Macs slated to ship in final form at the end of June, doesn't that imply that the 3.0 GHz update will be late, late, late?

Well, not necessarily. Mac OS Rumors now concurs that Apple will indeed introduce 2.0-2.6 GHz 970FX-based Power Macs at WWDC-- and claims that Apple will lump their intro together with that of the promised 3.0 GHz revision, which will debut at the same time. Apparently while Big Blue has had all kinds of trouble churning out those 970FX chips, the company "hasn't experienced the same ramp-up problems" with the 975, and is "still on schedule" to ship 3.0 GHz chips "by September." So it sounds like maybe we should expect an all-new Power Mac lineup, with 2.0 GHz or 2.2 GHz at the low end, 2.6 GHz in the middle, and 3.0 GHz for the biggest bucks, with immediate availability for the entry-level and midrange models and shipments starting in September for the big guns.

That's all assuming you believe any of this alleged insider info, of course. From our perspective it's irrelevant; we talked about upcoming G5s, thus fulfilling our legal obligations. Now we just have to check the calendar to make sure we don't violate the Compulsory Biannual Disney-Buys-Apple Rumors Act and we'll be steering well clear of Johnny Law. Well, as long as no one tips off the feds about the Noodle Incident. Sshhh!