Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

donny31 · May 1, 2003, 07:39 AM

When do you all guess the 970 towers will arrive for sale?

silvergun · May 1, 2003, 09:17 AM

they'll release them when steve jobs decides to stop wearing new balance trainers. That or some time in September. I myself hope they release em this month or the next. I need some serious power for my lightwave work..come on Apple!

Commodus · May 1, 2003, 12:30 PM

Assuming they do - and remember, this is not set in stone - the current rumours peg a likely announcement at the WWDC conference in late June. It's doubtful that such an announcement would mean immediate availability, but I suspect that their release would be timed so that they ship with OS X "Panther," which probably means August or September (remember, "Jaguar" was given a ship date of August 2002 at an announcement from the month before).

Leonis · May 1, 2003, 01:39 PM

I would prefer 970 with Jaguar for their initial launch.

Panther is new and the processor is new. Both do have problems.

I would rather the new hardware to run the older but more stable OS than a completely new but bug ridden OS.

superfula · May 1, 2003, 02:25 PM

While rumors are saying this year, common sense tell us nothing will be released until Jan 04

Commodus · May 1, 2003, 03:09 PM

Leonis:

How could one say that at the moment? I doubt that IBM will release a buggy CPU, and no one outside of the development team has even really seen "Panther," let alone seen a final copy). I also doubt that Apple will expand OS X 10.2.6 (or make a 10.2.7) just for the sake of PPC 970 chips, unless the OS is already prepared to handle the processors and we just haven't been told as much.

Hi I'm Ben · May 1, 2003, 04:57 PM

they come out tomorrow.

MindFad · 06:10 PM

Originally posted by Hi I'm Ben:
they come out tomorrow.

Edit: [/sarcasm] As if the big picture asking if he was stupid wasn't sarcastic enough.

superfula · May 1, 2003, 05:49 PM

Originally posted by MindFad:

I think that question needs to be asked about you. Ever hear of sarcasm?

MindFad · May 1, 2003, 06:10 PM

Yes, I have.

You obviously haven't. Here, I'll add my sarcasm tags. OK, little guy? *rubs head*

Leonis · May 1, 2003, 06:45 PM

Originally posted by Commodus:
Leonis:

How could one say that at the moment? I doubt that IBM will release a buggy CPU, and no one outside of the development team has even really seen "Panther," let alone seen a final copy). I also doubt that Apple will expand OS X 10.2.6 (or make a 10.2.7) just for the sake of PPC 970 chips, unless the OS is already prepared to handle the processors and we just haven't been told as much.

I really didn't mean the IBM chip has problem.

I just want to point out that having brand new hardware and brand new OS at the same time may not be a very good idea since both are untested.

The hardware will be fast but if the OS crashes fast it's counter-productive.

Commodus · May 1, 2003, 08:29 PM

Sorry, Leonis... thought you might have meant that, but there can be a difference.

Anyways, I don't think Apple would have the audacity to put out a new version of OS X with conspicuous bugs in it; if "Panther" is indeed being made with the PPC 970 as a factor, then Apple will almost certainly keep Panther in the works until they can release both it and new PPC 970 systems at the same time.

climber · May 1, 2003, 11:57 PM

It could also be that the 970 will require a new OS.

DrBoar · May 2, 2003, 04:21 AM

2H 2003 seem to be a safe bet. This is the time period when IBM will produce the 970 in qantity and Apple will have their new motherboard made etc.

If the previous history of CPUs is anything to go buy the G4 should have been replaced by G5 in 2001 or early 2002, to be followed by "G6" in 2003. The fact that the G4 has been used to long and to such a poor effect at least has the advantage that Apple is not dependent on IBM getting up to their top speed 970 right away. For marketing reasons I doubt that the top model will be at a lower clock speed than the current 1.42 GHz G4 even if a 800 MHz 970 is as fast or faster than a 1.42 GHz G4. So when ever IBM cen supply usable amounts of 1.5 GHz 970...

My guess is that the 970 will arrive ASAP and that Apple have a back up for any problem with 10.3 were they ship the 970 with 10.2.x. The last time they had towers that competetive with PCs speed and feature wise was the B&W G3 early 1999. After more than 4 years they sure would like to increase the impact by having both towers and OS updated at the same time. But they can not let the towers wait for the OS if they can release them with a patched 10.2

Things can go wrong in any complex project but I have more trust in current IBM and Apple than in what ever Motorola is now.