PPC G5 On The Way -- And Fast

Sulka writes: "The Register has a report claiming the PPC G5 CPU is ready for production and will be launched by Apple in January. Initial batch would include a 1.6GHz version with 2GHz to follow. 64 bit architecture, 10 stage pipeline, Silicon-On-Insulator and other buzzwords are mentioned." Maybe this will mean cheaper G4s for those of us who buy computers somewhat lower on the food chain, too.

Re:OS X

[barryblack]

The problem is that mac os x uses display technology that is not easily accelerated by current graphics cards. A lot of screen drawing is done with vectors and bezier curves that are closer to the type of acceleration that a 3d card provides and not a 2d card. However, until recently, 3d cards weren't easily made to run custom routines. You had to rely on a set of standard calls. The geforce 3 changed this. I'm sure once those drivers mature, os x will really shine. On a side note, I run os x every day on a powerbook G4. While I wouldn't call the us fast, it is very usalbe. 10.1 will only improve on this.

Re:Wow, 2Ghz on a PPC

[Anonymous Coward]

E-Mail: There's a bundled application called Mail that handles email tasks well. It does POP, IMAP, and Unix accounts easily. I've actually been happy with the application.

Web browsing: IE 5.1 is bundled (final version as of 10.1, shipping later this month) but OmniWeb and iCab are two great alternatives that certainly hold their own. Opera is also being developed natively and is currently at beta 3, afaik.

I use BBEdit for my HTML editing, and you can't go wrong with it. It's one of the best text editors available for coders, with syntax coloring for any language, as well as built-in support for grep in the search/replace functions.

Games have always been a Macintosh weak spot, but with id doing near parallel development with Windows counterparts, and other game developers starting to see Macs as a real gaming platform, look for more and more games to be released in the coming months. I know Black + White and Max Payne are on the way, best sellers like The Sims, Unreal Tournament, Q3:A and Alice are all available now.

Re:Wow, 2Ghz on a PPC

[pressman]

Everything you'd really need to know you can find here [apple.com]. There is a surprisingly large number of apps out there for OS X. VersionTracker [versiontracker.com] has a really large and up to date database of apps coming over to OS X.

some good mac sites

[stego]

macosxhints.com, macosx.com, macobserver.com ... check out the forums on any of these for about anything you might need to know

Re:WOOHOO!!!

[Noer]

Nobody calls it the apple tax because Apple isn't charging licensing fees to another company that they pass off to you. Apple's per-unit cost for bundling Mac OS with a computer is zero, because they develop the OS and the hardware.

It'd be like trying to get a Palm without PalmOS.

Or it'd be like complaining that a Microsoft-brand PC came with Windows, if Microsoft sold its own brand of PCs.

You couldn't save any money by not having Mac OS bundled, because Apple doesn't have to pay a licensing fee to anybody for including Mac OS; thus no cost is being passed on to you.

On the other hand, Apple also doesn't make you type in annoying 25-character license keys to use the OS that came with your computer.

Re:puts Apple in a bind?

[Anonymous Coward]

Read the article

So claim sources said to be close to Apple, at any rate. The new CPU will be offered at 800MHz, 1GHz, 1.2GHz, 1.4GHz and 1.6GHz, and while the first two are nominally aimed at the embedded space - the others are aimed straight at the desktop, we hear - we can see Apple using them as to transition over from the top end G4, the PowerPC 7450.

Re:affordability

[dhamsaic]

I'm in the same boat as you. I'm a Linux guy, but I really wanted to play with MacOS X without dropping $2000. So... I bought one of the new iBooks.

I got the basic CD-ROM model - $1300 at the Apple Store in Tyson's Corner, VA. I ordered a 256MB SODIMM from Crucial. That was $150 at the time, but they're down to $49 now (Yeah, I feel like an idiot, but 64MB doesn't cut it these days). So for $1350 + shipping on the notebook, you could have a 500MHz G3 with 320 megs of RAM, 10 gig hard drive (small-ish, but definitely enough to play around on) and built in network, etc. It should come with MacOS X installed. Mine didn't, so I bugged the Apple Store until they gave me a copy. I installed it in a car ride up to Maryland - the install got done in the hour it took me to get up there (I forget exactly how long it took, I wasn't paying great attention).

MacOS X is *awesome*. I use that little laptop as much as I can. It's small, light, seems pretty tough (although I ripped off one of the feet on the bottom when it got caught on the edge of the desk and I pulled - I could have put it back in but I didn't realize it until later, after I had picked up the piece, thought "what the hell's this?" and then thrown it away). I love it. Funny thing is, I used to hate macs. *Hated* them. Now I'm about to get a Dual 800MHz G4 with a GeForce3 for graphics/audio.

I'd say that it's really worth it to drop the money on the iBook if you can afford it. If not, get the low end iMac - $300 cheaper, bigger hard drive, more stuff... It's not as portable, obviously, but it's still a Mac that you can play with. And it's running on a 100MHz bus instead of 66, like the iBook (my only complaint...)

Re:Database Servers, Oracle recompiles

[chainsaw1]

AS far as I know, Oracle doesn't compile for LinuxPPC. I have a StarMax that I have not been able to get anything running on as of yet. The best you would probably be able to do is use some AIX 32bit Oracle items (IBM RS6000's use PPC chips, sorta) and hope they work under Linux...

If anyone has even had success here, please let me know

I can tell you Oracle runs fairly well under Linux-Intel. I have a dev copy of 8.1.7.0.1 that ran smoothly as long as I used the distro & version Oracle said the product was compiled under. Otherwise there were issues during install or runtime.

Re:OS X

[melatonin]

The problem is that mac os x uses display technology that is not easily accelerated by current graphics cards. A lot of screen drawing is done with vectors and bezier curves that are closer to the type of acceleration that a 3d card provides and not a 2d card.

A few common misconceptions here. First of all, most of the drawing in OS X (which I'm using right now :) is done by blitting and compositing graphics. Quartz main claim to fame is its ability to composite graphics (which is how you get translucency). It's also capable of scaling and warping stuff, but those effects are used sparingly, and takes a CPU hit when you do. There's nothing there that a 3D card can't handle.

Quartz 2D does support creating vector graphics, but pretty much nothing you see on an average OS X screen is using vector graphics. The GUI is made up of a bunch of TIFF files.

So why is OS X slow? Because it's just ass slow. 10.1 addresses this. There were a LOT of changes in the last few months before release, and I'm sure making things fast was no where near as important as making things work (and complete!). Honestly, there are things that are just outright broken in 10.0 release (and still in 10.0.4).

10.1 is wickedly fast. But then, look at what you're comparing it too :) For example, top takes up 12% of this CPU (G3/400).

Re:WOOHOO!!!

[Planesdragon]

One of two places:

1) Buy used, and tell 'em to keep their OEM license.

2) Buy parts directly, build what you don't have, and sell the extra 999 you're not going to use.

Apple's an OS maker--but they're their *own* OEM. No one complains about their preinstalled OS, just like no one complains that Palm sells Palm OS equipped handhelds, no one complains about the X-Box having MS software on it, and no one complains when their VCR works.

"no one," of course, exempts the Open Source Zealots who do complain about this, and every other faucet of bundled hardware.

Overclock your iBook to 600MHz.

[willy_me]

Check out accelerateyourmac.com to find out how to overclock the iBook to 600 MHz at a 100MHz system bus. It appears to be very successful as Apple can't ship over 500MHz units for political reasons - they can't outdo their TiBook. As it stands, the iBook already comes with 100MHz memory - just ripe for some overclocking. Combine this with the fact that G3s can run at much higher speeds then the G4s used in the TiBook (just look at the 700MHz iMacs) and overclocking isn't as bad as it first sounds.

The guy that overclocked his iBook noted higher temperatures (of course) but they were well within CPU specs. However, because he also lowered the power-saving speed to 300MHz he found that battery life actually increased. Sounds very cool..

Willy