The 130 nm G5 is alive and well

In a previous article I wrote that Apple/IBM had retired the 130 nm G5 970, and was shipping new machines based on the 90 nm G5 970FX.

However, according to a recent poll, Apple is still shipping new Power Macs (PowerMac7,3) with the older 130 nm PowerPC 970 (0039020) chips, alongside machines with the new 90 nm PowerPC 970FX (003c0300) chips. The dual 2.5 GHz Power Macs do ship only with the 970FX, but that's because there is no such thing as a 2.5 GHz 970.

This suggests that IBM has not yet been able to produce enough 970FX chips cheaply, to support all the Power Macs and the new iMac G5 machines. Along with Apple's admission that 2.5 GHz 970FX machines will continue to be constrained throughout this quarter, this does not bode well for 3 GHz machines any time soon.