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acadian · Sep 3, 2003, 08:35 AM

I think what matters most in all this hullabaloo over the G5 is "big blue's" ability to provide Apple with a consistent roadmap for it's development. A roadmap that IBM actually intends to maintain. This is what makes the G5 so promising for Apple's future, it may not be the fastest kid on the block but, with what we've suffered through with Moto, at least being able to keep up with the Jones' is what excites me the most.

nvaughan3 · Sep 3, 2003, 09:25 AM

I disagree. I think what matters most is heat control, both in the ability to bring out a mobile version and in the ability to roll out a non-crippled desktop version with sufficient internal expandibility.

KidRed · Sep 3, 2003, 10:14 AM

I disagree. Fine you get your G5 low heat in a pbook, that doesn't do diddly for Apple if IBM is stuck at the dual 2.0 for 2 years like moto was.

chrisutley · Sep 3, 2003, 10:26 AM

Originally posted by nvaughan3:
I disagree. I think what matters most is heat control, both in the ability to bring out a mobile version and in the ability to roll out a non-crippled desktop version with sufficient internal expandibility.

How is the current model crippled? Some people will always find something to complain about I guess. All of my pro friends and co-workers prefer external storage for design and video work. I cannot understand why people would get all bent out of shape regarding the number of drives you can shove in there.

bbt · Sep 3, 2003, 01:51 PM

the more external drives you have the more power cables you have to plug in and the more outlets you need

its fine when you have a couple but it gets out of hand when you have more than a few

jcadam · Sep 3, 2003, 02:32 PM

Originally posted by bbt:
the more external drives you have the more power cables you have to plug in and the more outlets you need

its fine when you have a couple but it gets out of hand when you have more than a few

You really ought to replace those 10 20 gig drives with a couple of bigger ones.

Hydra · Sep 3, 2003, 03:05 PM

You are all wrong! Just kidding. All the above are good points but the thing to keep in mind is that IBM is selling Apple a chip (PPC970) that is derrived from a flagship heavy iron product (the Power4) and plans on selling/using future flaghip spin-off's (Power5-> PPC 980?) as well. Their prestige is on the line here folks as well as the entire PowerX chip future for IBM. IBM is going to be selling blades with PPC970's for themselves as well. This is not Motorola selling chips for desktops but in reality caring only for the embedded chip market. IBM has to use/sell their own chips too. This makes a very big difference.

If the fact that IBM seems to have practically custom made the PPC970 for Apple with the inclusion of the Velocity Unit SIMD is lost on people there is the fact that IBM is releasing their impressive compilers for OSX too. IBM really is going the extra mile here. This is not something I ever expected. This should really be a wake up call that IBM has become far more of a partner with Apple than just a simple buyer/seller relationship would imply.

-Jerry C.

MusicalTone · Sep 3, 2003, 03:08 PM

Originally posted by acadian:
I think what matters most in all this hullabaloo over the G5 is "big blue's" ability to provide Apple with a consistent roadmap for it's development. A roadmap that IBM actually intends to maintain. This is what makes the G5 so promising for Apple's future, it may not be the fastest kid on the block but, with what we've suffered through with Moto, at least being able to keep up with the Jones' is what excites me the most.

Hullaballoo? You make it sould like a lot of noise over nothing. I think the most important thing about the G5 is that yet again Apple have come up with a ground breaking system that knocks the competition clean out of the water. It clearly is the fastest kid on the block - where have you been the past few months, Uranus?

DeathMan · Sep 3, 2003, 06:52 PM

Originally posted by MusicalTone:
Hullaballoo? You make it sould like a lot of noise over nothing. I think the most important thing about the G5 is that yet again Apple have come up with a ground breaking system that knocks the competition clean out of the water. It clearly is the fastest kid on the block - where have you been the past few months, Uranus?

Touchy, touchy.

I'm not worried about the mobile speed. The G5 is the only reason I'm still on this ship. Not this G5 tower, just the fact that we have a CPU that can take advantage of current hardware innovations. We have a future. The G4 had no future. The G4 was dead at dual 500.

The only thing the G4 had going for it is altivec, and some decent performance with power consumption, and the G3 does the power thing better than the G4. Die G4, Die. I'd like to see a G3 with altivec (call it G5m).

MusicalTone · Sep 4, 2003, 12:04 AM

" I'm not worried about the mobile speed."

And what is the "mobiule speed" when it is at home? By the way, the G4 is not dead - my 1Ghz system works just fine. Plenty fast.

DrBoar · Sep 4, 2003, 01:28 AM

The true test is when the IBM 970 AKA G5 is used and tested as a Linux blade server and tested against other linux blade servers fith CPUs from AMD and Intel. If they do well it bodes well for IBMs interest in the 970 and the 980 ..990 and so on.

We had news this spring about 970 servers reaching 2.5 GHz
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=2932
They were supposed to be demoed in CEBIT in Germany, but did not show up

It is still early days for the G5, by next summer we will know how the ramping up has been sorted out and all the rest. The G4 is the worst CPU in the Macintosh history beating the 68040 and 603 by a wide margin, thanks to Motorolas very consistent manufacturing quality