[gee308]

I pray to the mac god that at WWDC, they will release a ppc 970 powerbook 15.4 inches with bluetooth, firewire 2, and all the other new stuff.

[BKuchta]

That would be awesome.

However...

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=164389
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=164473
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=164400

[Jazzbozo]

Here's why the PPC 970 WILL happen in the 15.4" Powerbook:

The speech is just too good for Steve to pass up.

I can almost hear it now. The crowd will already be elated by the prior introduction of the Powermac 970. He'll start by talking about the year of the Powerbook - how well the 12 and 17 inch models have done and how well the iBooks continue to do. Then in typical Steve fashion, he'll have all 3 lines, the iBook, the 12" PB, and the 17" PB in a 4 pane slide with a question mark in the bottom right. But what about the 15" PB?, he'll ask. With the introduction of the aluminum enclosures in January, why not include the 15" in the fun at that time? Because they've been taking their time working on this - cut to a slide of the 15.4" Powerbook (ho hum, what's the big deal...looks the same as the 12 and 17"). But there's a difference: flash to a PPC 970 processor. The crowd goes nuts. What does this do to the PB hierarchy? Nothing, because the following month will bring the 970 refresh of the 17" to regain its flagship status, and a bump of the 12" to 1 ghz with L3 cache and a 970 processor refresh to follow in January. Mark my words (as foolish fanboy daydreams )

[The Placid Casual]

The point of this thread is?...



A 970 based 15" Alu at WWDC? Hmmm. Not a chance in hell.

[gee308]

Originally posted by The Placid Casual:
The point of this thread is?...



A 970 based 15" Alu at WWDC? Hmmm. Not a chance in hell.

To get people to ask pointless questions.

[rambo47]

I believe they're going with the MPC 7457 G4 from Motorola in the new PowerBook. And don't look for it to arrive intil the 2nd half of the year. Looks like Compal will be building it.

[gee308]

I forget, whats in the 7457 compared to current powerbooks?

Originally posted by rambo47:
I believe they're going with the MPC 7457 G4 from Motorola in the new PowerBook. And don't look for it to arrive intil the 2nd half of the year. Looks like Compal will be building it.

[Eug]

Originally posted by gee308:
I forget, whats in the 7457 compared to current powerbooks?

The current PowerBooks use the 7455.

The 7455 and 7457 should perform pretty much identically at the same speed, MHz for MHz. However, the 7457 is 0.13 um, and thus should use less power at any given MHz, and should scale higher.

There is rumour that a later 7457 might include DDR support too. (Currently, the 7455 and 7457 do not support DDR.)

But yeah, no chance in hell for a PowerBook 970 this soon.

[docholiday]

Originally posted by The Placid Casual:
Not a chance in hell.

How do you know that??

[BkueKanoodle]

Originally posted by The Placid Casual:


A 970 based 15" Alu at WWDC? Hmmm. Not a chance in hell.

Funny, thats what people were saying about a 17 inch powerbook rumor right before they announced it in january.

Not saying they will or won't, but the point is, nobody no what the hell apple is doing, and I wouldn't rule it out just yet.

Even if the 15 inch has the 970 the 17 inch will stilll have the key thing that sets it apart from the rest of the lineup, the 17 inch screen. I don't recall any one at Apple ever calling the 17 their flagship. Many companies "flagship products" are not their most technologically advanced products, but rather which one sells the best.

If Apple sold a 15 inch AI my money is that that system would be the one that fits the most portable users sweetspot.

[PeteWK]

I'm thinking that the 15 will be out within a month or so and there will be a freshening of the entire line. Maybe a 1 and 1.25 across the line. R&D just hasn't been there for the 970 long enough.

PeteWK

[hamiltondj]

Until the 23rd this is all just speculation...

But, if I had to place my bets - I would guess we'll see a desktop single CPU 970 and a 15 inch PB 970 either at WWDC or very soon after.

My reasoning... Panther (10.3).

Since it will be optimized for 64 bit, they need to get the 970's in the hands of developers soon so they can start taking advantage of 64 bit apps.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if - at least for now - only developers can buy these machines via ADC.

[The Placid Casual]

We won't see a 970 in a laptop before they have been seen in the Powermacs... Don't know about anyone else, but I havn't seen any 970 Powermacs lately.

I suspect 970 PMs will break cover at WWDC, but only behind closed doors to people under NDA, much like the introduction of the G4. If we follow what happened before, they will then go to the biggest developers,and then trickle down for a few months before an offical release around Late July/August time.

People forget that the WWDC is 'NDC' covered event, it is just not for the public nomatter how much we want it to be.

This would indicate shippping of a 970 based machine around September, probably complete with full 64b 10.3, not 10.2.7 or Smaegol or something...

Only when we have seen this do I believe that we will see a 970 Powerbook.

There is also rumor that the current 970 doesn't have Power Management to any degree sorted out yet. Obviously this is a draw back to the Powerbooks...

I would put guess at MWSF or soon after for them.

I am pretty sure, and have had some good info, that we will see a 15" of some type at WWDC, but I can in no way see there has been enough R&D time for a 970... I would guess that whoever mentioned a 7457 is on the money...

I would love to be wrong, but history suggests this kind of timespan.

Peace,

Marc

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by The Placid Casual:
People forget that the WWDC is 'NDC' covered event, it is just not for the public.

Actually, last year was the first time the WWDC was covered by an NDA, and the keynote was SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDED. Members of the media were invited along to see the product announcements.

[The Placid Casual]

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Actually, last year was the first time the WWDC was covered by an NDA, and the keynote was SPECIFICALLY EXCLUDED. Members of the media were invited along to see the product announcements.

Specific parts have always been covered, usually the good bits. I think of the initial behind closed doors G4 demo in particular.

[slider]

Yeah, I also don't expect a 970 in the new powerbooks. Probably a 1Ghz in the 12 and 1-1.25Ghz in the 15 and a 1.25 in the 17. Like 'The Placid Casual' mentions, I really don't believe we will see powerbooks with the 970 before the PowerMacs, in fact I would not expect to see them in PowerBooks until the end of the year at the earliest.

[docholiday]

Originally posted by The Placid Casual:
I am pretty sure, and have had some good info, that we will see a 15" of some type at WWDC, but I can in no way see there has been enough R&D time for a 970... I would guess that whoever mentioned a 7457 is on the money...

While the 7457 seems very likely, you can't ignore the PB for several reasons:

1) Not releasing a new 15" for over 7 months has given Apple ample time for R&D
2) The chip has pretty good power consumption (the 1.2Ghz processor)
3) Apple needs the power now. The PC world has P4-3.06Ghz Mobile chips out there that beat the crap out of our current fastest Powermacs and if Apple truly wants to compete in terms of performance in the notebook arena, they better be prepared.


IF the PPC970 Powerbook is released, upgrades to the 17" will follow shortly after.
Oh, and hey, didn't Apple release the G3 processor in Powermacs AND Powerbooks simultaneously? Just something to think about...

[mattyd]

please excuse my ignorance... but the main advantage of the 970 or G5 or whatever it will be called is the fact that it is 64 bit. i thought i read somewhere that the real advantage of 64 bit processing is that it can use more than 2 gigs of ram. does this mean that you'll need that much ram to see significant performance gains?

[kcmac]

Quote by Placid Casual

"We won't see a 970 in a laptop before they have been seen in the Powermacs... Don't know about anyone else, but I havn't seen any 970 Powermacs lately."

I agree. Jobs will announce the powermacs first and then the powerbook.

[gee308]

Don't forget PEOPLE, this is the "YEAR OF THE NOTEBOOK"

http://www.google.com/search?q=year+of+the+notebook

Someone please post the picture of the slide at MacWorld, I can't find it.

[tooki]

One thread about any given topic is enough, stop creating multiple ones.

tooki