[Ken_F2]

Silicon Strategies and EETimes have coverage of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) this week. During the conference, it is customary for major cpu vendors to present papers on new technologies; new processors are also frequently unveiled during this conference. Intel is presenting papers on technologies in its next-generation Itanium and "Prescott" Pentium, while Motorola announced their long-awaited G4 7457 microprocessor. Articles are linked below:

Silicon Strategies article on 7457
EETimes article on 7457

The G4 7455 is the first Motorola PowerPC processor built using the .13um SOI manufacturing process. It features twice as much L2 cache as the G4 7455 used in current Apple systems (512Kb L2 vs 256K L2), which should provide about a 4% to 6% performance boost at identical clock speed. The new 7457 is also the first Motorola G4 processor that is officially rated to operate at speeds up to 1.3GHz. The current G4 7455 used by Apple is only rated for 1.0GHz, but Motorola has been able to supply Apple unofficial, premium parts that will clock at higher speeds.

The G4 7457 @ 1.3Ghz will offer average (not max) power consumption of only 10 watts, which is about half that of the current G4 7455 @ 1.0GHz, and less than 1/5 the heat of the upcoming IBM PowerPC 970 at 1.8Ghz. The 7457 will begin sampling in March, with mass production planned for 4Q 2003. The 7457 @ 1.0GHz will cost $187.

Assuming Motorola continues its current trend of supplying Apple with premium parts capable of running higher speeds, we could see PowerPC G4 systems at 1.5GHz to 1.6GHz late this year or early next year. These processors should easily permit 1.3GHz Powerbooks with improved battery life. Even if Apple is able to adopt IBM 970 processors early next year, the new 7457 will almost certainly continue to be used in Powerbooks and low-end consumer Macs (iMacs, etc).

[docholiday]

This is great news. I could see these chips easily making their way into future iMacs, Powerbooks and even iBooks - their power consumption levels are amazing! I think that the 1Ghz version will make it into the upcoming 15.4" AlBooks, removing the necessity of a loud fan like in the 15" Titaniums.

I doubt the Powermacs will utilize these chips at their current frequencies but I am sure that if the PPC970 is released in January Apple will use these chips in the Powermacs a few months from now.

There was were two things that weren't quite mentioned in the articles:
1) Do these new G4s take full advantage of DDR ram?
2) Will their motherboards have/support faster FSBs?

[Eug]

No support for DDR as far as I can tell. Maybe Motorola truly is following that game plan of waiting until the 7457-RM before DDR support is included. That would mean mid 2004 or later.

A 13 Watt 1.3 GHz CPU will be very nice for the iMacs and PowerBooks, but I'm still hoping the PowerMacs will be PPC970.

I'd consider replacing my TiBook with an AluBook 15.4 when the 7457-RM makes an appearance. Or possibly the 1.3 GHz 7457 non-DDR, if the TiBook's fan noise gets to me, or if Apple comes up with some other whiz-bang upgrade.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

the one thing about the G4 is that whoops ass in terms of low power consumption (compared to some other notebook chips anyway)


i hope the g4 sticks around for Apple portables but i think the Powermac should be cutting edge. Full DDR and all the other latest tech (and tech that is coming down the road). Something the 970 can provide.

so i guess this is good news. that is if motorola has the ability to even provide apple with any in a timely manner. bunch of losers probably can't even do that.

[Eug]

Motorola 7457/7447 press release.



One wonders how many of these will actually see the insides of a PowerMac, given the speeds.

That said, the 0.13 u 7457 should scale up quite nicely.

[galarneau]

So what is the spec on heat/wattage for the current 1GHz chip used in the TiBooks?

10 and 13 watts sounds great for the 1Ghz and 1.3GHz chip, but is that much less than the current beasts?

[Eug]

Originally posted by galarneau:
So what is the spec on heat/wattage for the current 1GHz chip used in the TiBooks?

10 and 13 watts sounds great for the 1Ghz and 1.3GHz chip, but is that much less than the current beasts?

Around 30 W peak for the 1 GHz. I'd bet the 10 W for the 7457 is typical, not peak though.

[CheesePuff]

Well, it now has 512k L2 cache which is great.

And of course now the new PowerBooks will be so much cooler. I think sometimes my TiBook will catch on fire.

[Superchicken]

anyone see a Dual processor 17 inch PB on the horizon
hahaha that'd be insane!

But If these can clock faster I think we'll see at least one more revision of the power mac with em in.

[Eug]

Around 30 W peak for the 1 GHz. I'd bet the 10 W for the 7457 is typical, not peak though.

Hmmm... It seems I misread the page. More like 15-22 W for 7455. Perhaps the 1.42 is 30 W.

[Eug]

It features twice as much L2 cache as the G4 7455 used in current Apple systems (512Kb L2 vs 256K L2), which should provide about a 4% to 6% performance boost at identical clock speed.

"Motorola has benchmarked... using the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium (EEMBC) out-of-the-box certification type: automotive/industrial, consumer, networking, office automation, and telecommunications."

7455 Bench at 1 GHz:

Automotive/Industrial: 889.3
Consumer: 122.6
Networking: 30.4
Office Automation: 1238.6
Telecommunications: 27.2


7457 Bench at 1.3 GHz:

- Automotive/Industrial: 1128.8 (+27%)
- Consumer: 172.2 (+40%)
- Networking: 39.5 (+30%)
- Office Automation: 1531.2 (+24%)
- Telecommunications: 37.7 (+39%)

Average boost is 32%, which is pretty much in line with the 30% clock speed bump, despite the extra cache. One would have hoped the extra L2 cache would have resulted in a much larger boost.

The good news is that (as expected) it's a direct pin-compatible replacement for the 7455.

[BenRoethig]

Originally posted by Eug:
Motorola 7457/7447 press release.



One wonders how many of these will actually see the insides of a PowerMac, given the speeds.

That said, the 0.13 u 7457 should scale up quite nicely.

I think it really depends on the availability of the 970. Personally, I hope the 7447/57 will only show up in iMacs, eMacs, and Powerbooks.

[Eug]

Originally posted by BenRoethig:
I think it really depends on the availability of the 970. Personally, I hope the 7447/57 will only show up in iMacs, eMacs, and Powerbooks.

I'm hoping for iBooks too, although that probably will not come until later.

[rambo47]

I could easily see G4 processors in the portable line and 970s in the desktops. Of course that would be the end of the G3 processors as I don't see Apple using a 3-chip line up.

[Peder Rice]

Originally posted by Eug:

Average boost is 32%, which is pretty much in line with the 30% clock speed bump, despite the extra cache. One would have hoped the extra L2 cache would have resulted in a much larger boost.

The good news is that (as expected) it's a direct pin-compatible replacement for the 7455. [/B]

C'mon! You actually think we'd see more than a 32% boost?!? A 32% increase, which is in line with the 300MHz jump, is insanely great. The jump from the 800MHz iMac to the 1GHz iMac is very likely not 25% on benchmarks (we don't have the official benchmarks yet), so this improvement is tremendous.

Plus, the new chips will likely clock to 1.8GHz or so, based on the capability of the .18micron G4s to clock to 1.5GHz (overclockers have done well at Arstechnica).

[Eug]

Originally posted by Peder Rice:
C'mon! You actually think we'd see more than a 32% boost?!? A 32% increase, which is in line with the 300MHz jump, is insanely great. The jump from the 800MHz iMac to the 1GHz iMac is very likely not 25% on benchmarks (we don't have the official benchmarks yet), so this improvement is tremendous.

Plus, the new chips will likely clock to 1.8GHz or so, based on the capability of the .18micron G4s to clock to 1.5GHz (overclockers have done well at Arstechnica).

Actually, 1.8 GHz is the supposed slated speed for the sequel of the 7457, which is the 7457-RM. Thus I would not at all be surprised to see some chips hitting 2.2 GHz.

And yes, I was hoping to see more than a 32% boost, considering that the L2 cache size has been doubled. I wasn't counting on it, just hoping though... Some benches had the new iBook 700 at nearly 25% faster than the old iBook 600 (which had a smaller cache).

[Superchicken]

they said it'd only provide a 6% max boost why were you hoppin for more? Heck 32% over a 1Ghz G4 is pretty darn spiffy.that's like a third more power which is pretty big considering the G4 1Ghz is already quite powerful.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Superchic[k]en:
they said it'd only provide a 6% max boost why were you hoppin for more? Heck 32% over a 1Ghz G4 is pretty darn spiffy.that's like a third more power which is pretty big considering the G4 1Ghz is already quite powerful.

6% boost MHz for MHz.

Thus, one would expect a 38% boost over 1 GHz, in a 1.3 GHz machine.

But this is all getting down to minute irrelevant details. We just want the chip now in our PowerBooks dammit!