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fisherKing · Nov 18, 2005, 12:20 PM

right here, at macnn.

http://www.macnn.com/articles/05/11/...pb.g4.upgrade/

hmmm?
cost?
work with the 12"??

just interesting.
would love a faster pb,
but wonder about heat, battery life, etc.

discotronic · Nov 18, 2005, 12:31 PM

I can only imagine what the price will be.

fisherKing · Nov 18, 2005, 12:36 PM

"Daystar announces last stages of development for the XLR8
1.92 GHz upgrade for the 15" PowerBook G4 FW800 systems!"

oh well, no 12" upgrade.
guess i will save my $ (or go to the bahamas for a week, or something).

Sijmen · Nov 18, 2005, 12:48 PM

I hope they'll be making that for 17"ers too. From a 1.67 to a 1.9 is one heck of a speedboost. I guess battery life will go from 3 hours now to 1.5/2 hours then. Aah well, it'll be fast

t500 · Nov 20, 2005, 02:34 PM

That would have to be one cheap upgrade. 1.67 to 1.9 is nothing. I will not void my applecare for that... Do you think they will offer some sort of combo offer for vram? Thats the only reason I can see 1.67 powebook users upgrading...

Sijmen · Nov 20, 2005, 04:41 PM

going from 1.5 to 1.67 wasn't such a big deal as well. Apple hasn't done anything for the new PB's, so a 1.9 upgrade would be rather great.

mduell · Nov 20, 2005, 04:41 PM

No mention of battery life on their website... can you even unplug it?

miacomet · Nov 20, 2005, 04:59 PM

I hate these kinds of third party speed upgrades. My father got into them and he had a few systems totally fried because of it.

Kdog01 · Dec 3, 2005, 01:21 PM

Originally Posted by miacomet

I hate these kinds of third party speed upgrades. My father got into them and he had a few systems totally fried because of it.

Heck I have a 15in 1.5GHz powerbook now, but I would upgrade if the improvements are as good as they boast and the heat is decreased as their press release states.

Has anyone here done upgrades through daystar before? I have only been a mac user for just over a year now, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kdog01 · Dec 4, 2005, 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by Kdog01

Heck I have a 15in 1.5GHz powerbook now, but I would upgrade if the improvements are as good as they boast and the heat is decreased as their press release states.

Has anyone here done upgrades through daystar before? I have only been a mac user for just over a year now, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Bueller?

Anyone going to do this upgrade?

Asam · Dec 7, 2005, 12:48 AM

Maybe they'll use the new power management boards like on the new DDR2 PowerBooks. Have a maxed out new 15" 2Gb/7200 and the option to change from high/low performance settings don't appear in the Energy Saver control panel. Also if you use an app like CPU director you can see the processor is constantly changing speed, even when idle.

http://developer.apple.com/documenta...kG4/index.html

"Processor Power Management
To lower power consumption and heat generation, the 15-inch PowerBook G4 incorporates an automatic power management stepping technique. Stepping is designed to run at full, half, or quarter processor speed and voltage to meet the demands on the processor. The processor speed will switch between 1670 MHz and 833 MHz at 1.28 V for divide by 2 and between 1670 MHz and 417 MHz at .93 V for divide by 4. The memory bus speed is not shifted.

If the 15-inch PowerBook G4 detects a system temperature that is high, due to high ambient temperatures or other factors, it will immediately force the system to quarter speed mode.

The 15-inch PowerBook G4 meets all applicable safety standards, including UL 60950 and IEC 60950."

This is how they've gotten an extra hour from the battery - still trying to find a way to turn off these power management setting so if anyone has a clue email me off board - asam at mac dot com.

I guess the Daystar upgrade will feature these else battery life and heat will be unbearable for the 7447A at 1.92 Ghz - Unless they use a different G4. Wonder why Apple can't manage to do this. I've heard reports for people overclocking the 7447A and getting it to run ok at 1.8 Ghz +.

Anyway, think might get it done on my rev 1 17". Its with Applecare getting fixed up at the moment., why I had to get the new 15". Once it's back nice and fixed up then I'll be tempted to get the upgrade done on it. Its the rev 1, 1 Ghz 17" machine which was the only one with 1 Mb level 3 cache. If heat is a problem with the Daystar upgrade then it should bother the 17" least, it runs very cool as it is now. Applecare on it will run out in April as well so once its fixed up properely by Applecare then it will be an ideal canidate, only had some minor problems like a noisy fan but moaned about screen being dim and 4 white patches that have appeared so hopefull it will get a new screen. Not sure how well Daystar will deal with UK shipping though.

Apple gonna be in strange position though, with a daystar upgrade that's faster then any shipping PowerBook. Yeah yeah I've heard on the rumers that Apple might release an Intel PowerBook in Jan but doubt it. Would be too risky a move with not enough testing of the x86 Tiger version. If, as a recent Apple patents suggest, they're going to use vitualization technology which would allow a main OS to run as well as a secondary and tertiary OS, then there is no sign of it in the latest x86 10.4.3_dtk release. Including the virtualization technology would be the killer app that Apple has been looking for to increase market share. It's perfect for windoze switchers, they could cube into another virtualization core which is running Windoze, natively, and run all their Windoze programs there in a safe environment.

If I was Steve Jobs then Virtualization will be the hot topic at Mac World Expo. I'd release an updated 17" PowerBook, possibly using the dual-core G4's that Freescale made, maybe even maybe 17" G5 using the low powerchip that IBM finally farted out. Then I'd announce an Intel Mac Mini shipping from today - this is the perfect machine for switchers who wouldn't be too bothered that most third party apps (Adobe) will not be available as fat binaries. Switchers wouldn't care, they'll be able to use their windoze programs under virtualization but start getting familiar with iLife apps and the Mac way. Even hard core mac-heads might consider an Intel mac mini even if most third party mac applications won't be ready, they'd just use it as a media centre with the iLife apps . This would then pave the way to introduce Intel iBooks which have to ship before the April/May education buying season, and these will be 25% thinner then previous models and 13" wide screens. If I was Steve I would not release a PowerBook until the June Dev conference when Leopard 10.5 will be annouced and when the Napa chipset/dual core Merom will be available. Yonah would be ok in iBooks, so these will ship first. Thats why Apple would have to do something to the PowerBooks in that time and I'm guessing it will be dual-core G4's on a faster system bus.

Here my predicted time, or what I would do if I was Steve:

Jan Expo:

Announce Virtualization technology for x86 - ready in 10.5?
Announce an Intel Mac Mini with Yonah - shipping today with x86 10.4.5
Announce 13" 25 % thinner Yonah carbon fibre iBook with built in iSight, shipping soon --> translate to as fast as we can and before March/April education shipping season - so order now and get in a few months - maybe 13" wide screen Intel PowerBook, new form factor

Announce a 17"/15" PowerBook with dual-core G4's, or maybe maybe maybe low power G5, to save face and have a machine faster then the 1.92 Ghz Daystar upgrade

Announce quad-core G5 PowerMac at 2.7 Ghz or faster

June WWDC:

Announce Leopard is final - full virtualization technology - 10.5
Announce Intel 15'/17" PowerBooks with Napa and Merom
Announce Intel iMac with Sossman chip

Jan 2007:

Announce x86 64 bit Leopard
Announce Conroe based hex core PowerMacs

Anyway, just my predictions, what do I know he-he but this is what I would do as CEO of Apple. They make a lot more sence then what's going round the rumer sites.

Certainly not upgrading my PowerBook till one with Merom ships.

aSam..........

mduell · Dec 7, 2005, 01:18 AM

Originally Posted by Asam

If, as a recent Apple patents suggest, they're going to use vitualization technology which would allow a main OS to run as well as a secondary and tertiary OS, then there is no sign of it in the latest x86 10.4.3_dtk release.

The OS shouldn't need to be aware of hardware virtualization. With the virtualization done in hardware instead of software the machine should appear the same as any other to the OS.

Originally Posted by Asam

If I was Steve Jobs then Virtualization will be the hot topic at Mac World Expo. I'd release an updated 17" PowerBook, possibly using the dual-core G4's that Freescale made, maybe even maybe 17" G5 using the low powerchip that IBM finally farted out.

Even the PPC970FX power-optimized parts run way too hot to get a decent clockrate in the PowerBook. 1.6Ghz parts are 20W are ok, but 2Ghz parts at 47W are not going to work. I can't see a good reason to redesign the PowerBook for one G5 revision that doesn't offer a significant performance increase over the G4s.

Originally Posted by Asam

Announce 13" 25 % thinner Yonah carbon fibre iBook

I don't think carbon fiber is a good choice for the iBook case. Also, I don't see the sense in waiting for Merom to ship PowerBooks; Merom will be at about the same clockrate as Yonah with ~30% increase in performance.

Originally Posted by Asam

Announce a 17"/15" PowerBook with dual-core G4's, or maybe maybe maybe low power G5, to save face and have a machine faster then the 1.92 Ghz Daystar upgrade

As far as I know the dual core G4s still only exist in the dreams of a few folks at Freescale. See above about "low power" G5s.

Announce Conroe based hex core PowerMacs

Intel isn't planning on a 6 core consumer chip anytime soon, and it certainly wouldn't be Conroe.

Asam · Dec 7, 2005, 03:24 AM

Sorry, didn't mean a six core chip, mean't 3 x dual core.

What's wrong with carbon fibre? Hasn't some random PC vendor made a carbon fibre laptop? Can't remember who but saw something somewhere about carbon fibre laptops.

Considering Apple could have pushed the 7447A a bit faster there is a reason why they didn't. Maybe a G5 running at 1.8 Ghz and using the new processor management and stepping would at least allow it to go in a 17". Would be a special edition one off like the cube, allowing time to incorporate Merom into the new form factor 17" to ship in June. They must have designed the motherboard for a G5 PowerBook in the two years waiting for IBM to fart something out.

Expect the unexpected I say.

Asam......

Asam · Dec 7, 2005, 03:24 AM

Sorry, didn't mean a six core chip, mean't 3 x dual core.

What's wrong with carbon fibre? Hasn't some random PC vendor made a carbon fibre laptop? Can't remember who but saw something somewhere about carbon fibre laptops.

Considering Apple could have pushed the 7447A a bit faster there is a reason why they didn't. Maybe a G5 running at 1.8 Ghz and using the new processor management and stepping would at least allow it to go in a 17". Would be a special edition one off like the cube, allowing time to incorporate Merom into the new form factor 17" to ship in June. They must have designed the motherboard for a G5 PowerBook in the two years waiting for IBM to fart something out.

Expect the unexpected I say.

Asam......

Asam · Dec 7, 2005, 03:27 AM

Sorry, didn't mean a six core chip, mean't 3 x dual core.

What's wrong with carbon fibre? Hasn't some random PC vendor made a carbon fibre laptop? Can't remember who but saw something somewhere about carbon fibre laptops.

Considering Apple could have pushed the 7447A a bit faster there is a reason why they didn't. Maybe a G5 running at 1.8 Ghz and using the new processor management and stepping would at least allow it to go in a 17". Would be a special edition one off like the cube, allowing time to incorporate Merom into the new form factor 17" to ship in June. They must have designed the motherboard for a G5 PowerBook in the two years waiting for IBM to fart something out.

True the virtualization is hardware but still need some fancy GUI to make it look nice with Mac OS X. Something like fast user switching but fast OS switching.

Expect the unexpected I say.

Asam......

mrmister · Dec 7, 2005, 02:42 PM

Carbon fiber is strong but very brittle; given the abuse a typical laptop receives, instead of dents and scratches you'd have laptops which shatter, which is generally frowned upon.

mduell · Dec 7, 2005, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by Asam

Sorry, didn't mean a six core chip, mean't 3 x dual core.

What's wrong with carbon fibre? Hasn't some random PC vendor made a carbon fibre laptop? Can't remember who but saw something somewhere about carbon fibre laptops.

Having 3 chips is weird; I know the Xbox does it, but it's still weird. Given Intel's history, I'd guess they'll keep with the 2/3/8/16/32/64-way schedule.

It's expensive, it scratches easily, and it's not well suited to a laptop. Sony has a special version of their super slim X505 with a carbon fiber cover.