[mountainash]

And if you are involved with media /creation/ (the PowerMac's target audience) then surely you would have good reason to make many, many copies. Maybe you just finished a nice little film (or album) that you want to distribute, 10 or more copies is perfectly reasonable.

But still, a single SuperDrive does it all. And if you need multiple copies, you can use firewire or hire (buy, even) a burning tower of 10 drives, or send it to a bureau...

I think the question is how many of the target audience want/need dual (or more) bays to justify any possible extra cost or aesthetic issues...

[JRobinson]

Are these new Intel chips 64 bit? If not, wouldn't they be a bit of a step backwards from the PowerPC? Woudln't that limit how much RAM the new machines can have?

[hmurchison2001]

Originally Posted by JRobinson

Are these new Intel chips 64 bit? If not, wouldn't they be a bit of a step backwards from the PowerPC? Woudln't that limit how much RAM the new machines can have?

The new Core Architecture chips are indeed 64-bit.

[JRobinson]

Woo hoo! So these new Intel chips will be dual core and 64 bit and possibly faster than the current G5s? Excellent.

[Catfish_Man]

Originally Posted by JRobinson

Woo hoo! So these new Intel chips will be dual core and 64 bit and possibly faster than the current G5s? Excellent.

Why on earth would Apple put them in a PowerMac if they weren't more capable than the current chips?

[JRobinson]

Good point. I was just hoping that they wouldnl't put the same 32-bit Intel Core Duo chips into the new PowerMac that they put in the iMac. In the iMac's case, the new chips are less capable than there predecessors when it comes to memory.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by JRobinson

Good point. I was just hoping that they wouldnl't put the same 32-bit Intel Core Duo chips into the new PowerMac that they put in the iMac. In the iMac's case, the new chips are less capable than there predecessors when it comes to memory.

The last G5 iMacs supported 512MB (soldered in) + 2GB, for 2.5GB at DDR2-533.
The Intel iMacs support 4GB (2x2GB) at DDR2-533 or 2GB (2x1GB) at DDR2-667.

How is that in any way less capable?

Originally Posted by JRobinson

Woo hoo! So these new Intel chips will be dual core and 64 bit and possibly faster than the current G5s? Excellent.

Thread: Whoa! MacBook beats dual 2.0 G5 on Final Cut (and Motion)

[JRobinson]

Sorry, I meant just the CPU, not the entire computer. The G5 processor can access a max of 8 MB I believe, while the Intel Core Duo is limited to 4 MB.

[Catfish_Man]

Originally Posted by JRobinson

Sorry, I meant just the CPU, not the entire computer. The G5 processor can access a max of 8 MB I believe, while the Intel Core Duo is limited to 4 MB.

Even converting MB to GB, the G5 can handle a lot more than 8GB. Heck, the PowerMac can hold 16GB, and that's not hitting the processor's limits.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by JRobinson

Sorry, I meant just the CPU, not the entire computer. The G5 processor can access a max of 8 MB I believe, while the Intel Core Duo is limited to 4 MB.

Why is it relevant what the CPU is capable of, if the whole system imposes additional limitations?

Core Duo supports PAE for up to 64GB RAM, but that's immaterial since the chipset only supports 4GB. IIRC the G5s support 1024GB, but the current chipsets, number of slots, and densities available limit you to 2.5GB in a G5 iMac.

[jamesgrant]

Blu-Ray please!! Otherwise my Sony Hi-Def camcorder and Final Cut are a total waste of money when I can't burn it to a high volume disk.

[hmurchison2001]

Originally Posted by janzy

Blu-Ray please!! Otherwise my Sony Hi-Def camcorder and Final Cut are a total waste of money when I can't burn it to a high volume disk.

DVD Studio Pro 4 will burn HD content to Red Laser discs right now. Are you doing this?

[Chris_here]

Originally Posted by hmurchison2001

DVD Studio Pro 4 will burn HD content to Red Laser discs right now. Are you doing this?

No, he doesn't, but he does proudly own a Sony HD cam and Apple ProApps, he's wants to let you know.

[jamesgrant]

Chris_here is correct!
I have no knowledge of the Red laser discs, could you please enlighten me.
Thanks

[hmurchison2001]

Originally Posted by janzy

Chris_here is correct!
I have no knowledge of the Red laser discs, could you please enlighten me.
Thanks

Well until Blu Ray and HD DVD recorders hit you should be able to
author some of your HD content on standard DVD-R media. Let say you decided to compress your video down to about 10Mbps you'll only get like 40 minutes of HD content onto a standard DVD-R dual layer disc but you'll still have higher quality than Standard Definition.

The downer is that only those with Apple DVD Player 4.6.1 and above will be able to read the disc. But hey it beats waiting for expensive drives. You can start protoyping your HD stuff right now.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301484

This gives you a wee bit more info.

Thanks to the high efficiency of codecs like h.264 and VC-1 you can squeeze HD content down enough to fit on todays DVD-R.

[thingsthatgobump]

As far as I'm aware <3ghz Conroes won't be available in the beginning. I still think Apple will be among the first to release a computer based on Conroe, so the first ones will have lower clockspeeds.

Also quadcore won't come out before next year, but when it does there will probably be a dual quad core model available...

[eddiecatflap]

no way will it be called a power-anything

[AssassyN]

^ I tend to agree; "Power" may accidentally allude to "PowerPC" chips.

I cannot wait for these Intel towers to be released...if all goes well, it'll be my first new Mac since the Rev. A 17" AluBook.

[2009059]

Originally Posted by Catfish_Man

Even converting MB to GB, the G5 can handle a lot more than 8GB. Heck, the PowerMac can hold 16GB, and that's not hitting the processor's limits.

I heard 2TB of RAM, it's just that it would be unpractical.

[Catfish_Man]

Originally Posted by 2009059

I heard 2TB of RAM, it's just that it would be unpractical.

No, I mean the PMG5 can physically hold and use 16GB. No way in hell does it have enough slots for 2TB.

[2009059]

Originally Posted by Catfish_Man

No, I mean the PMG5 can physically hold and use 16GB. No way in hell does it have enough slots for 2TB.

What I meant was that if there were chips that could amount to 2TB, it could take it and use it.

[thingsthatgobump]

A 64bit processor can theoretically access 17,179,869,184 gigabytes or 16 exabytes of RAM compared to 4GB with a 32bit processor. The platform and operating system can limit the amount you can use (for example I don't think linux supports over 64GB). I don't know what the limit is in OS X, but I don't think it is really that important either...

While A64's are 64bit processors, they only use 40bits for accessing ram, which brings their limit to a mere 256 terabytes. The limit could easily be passed, but AMD does'nt think anyone will pass that for a while so they are not bothering.

The Conroe which will most probably be the cpu used in the replacement for the powermac is a 64bit processor, and will most probably have memory restraints somewhere in a similar field (in other words the platform / operating system will be the limiting factor by a long distance).