[slipjack]

I dunno, how is it that Micro$oft can get a game console out that has a faster base processor than Mac, and the same amount of RAM?

Ouch.

Don't get me wrong, I drool longingly over the new G5s, but I find it interesting that Xbox is going to be over 3 Ghz, when the Mac has yet to break that barrier.

[Randman]

Already a thread discussing this. And the XBoxes aren't G5s and they aren't out yet.

[hmurchison2001]

Well Slipjack you have to understand the design of microprocessor a bit more than the typical luddite if you are going to understand the what, where and why of this industry.

The more simplistic design of a microprocessor the better your chances of adding more cores and making it faster.

For instance if I have a PowerPC 970fx chip that runs at 2.7Ghz and queues up to 8 computer instructions per cycle and dispatches 5 of them I'm doing much better than a 3.4Ghz processor that only queues 4 computer instructions and dispatches 3.

It's the complexity of the processor design that determines the overall speed. You have to factor in all the registers, cache and branch prediction. All the best.

[OreoCookie]

Please use this thread.