Thursday, June 30, 2005

IBM talks about the mobile G5, and of future Macs

In response to Apple's announced plans to switch to Intel, IBM has issued some statements to eWeek about its PowerPC lines and Apple.

Not surprisingly, IBM counters Apple's claims of Intel's superiority in terms of the power efficiency of future CPUs:
"Apple positioned it that way in the public," Adkins said in an interview with eWEEK.com. But "Obviously I have a different point of view, because there's nothing about power architecture that limits you in any way in terms of power management or power efficiency."
IBM also confirms that they were working on a mobile G5:
"They had Freescale primarily for the low-end and mobile solutions, and they really had IBM focus more on PowerBook, xServe and iMac. That's where we collaborated deeply with Apple," Adkins said.

...

Intel, as Adkins sees it, won out mainly based on its mobile chip technology and the way Intel chips fit into Apple's software planes, even though he maintains that IBM has the capability to deliver a product such as a mobile PowerPC 970 chip.
At this point I would be surprised to see a mobile G5 in a Mac. However, if Apple does release a G5 PowerBook, I'd consider buying it. If IBM can get its power utilization under control, it could be a reasonable chip for a laptop (at least in 2005).

In addition, IBM goes on to state:
"We still have a number of products we're doing with them," Adkins, who declined to elaborate on the exact ones, said. Thus "this is not a transition that's going to occur over night."
We already knew that Apple would continue to ship G5-based machines for quite some time, but the wording of this statement could suggest that the dual-core G5 970MP is still coming. The release of the 970MP by IBM and its utilization by Apple in Macs would make practical sense for both sides, especially in light of Apple's current transitions plans. Apple will not finish the transition until 2007, and still needs to release additional PowerPC desktops in the interim. IBM and Apple have a contract to work together until then, and the 970MP is the perfect fit.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"They had Freescale primarily for the low-end and mobile solutions, and they really had IBM focus more on PowerBook, xServe and iMac. That's where we collaborated deeply with Apple," Adkins said."

I think this is a typo. He means Power MAC, xServe and iMac.

Anonymous said...

The iMac is the first attempt to put the G5 into a small box. Take a look at "Macintouch":

http://www.macintouch.com/

read all the apparent heat problems that developed in the Rev A iMac computers even though they installed fans that can sound like a 747 at takeoff thrust when the G5 chip is taxed. Apple can't keep parts in stock for all the heat related problems.

I was going to buy a Rev B iMac until I read the above web site. I am considering a new eMac instead.

Eug said...

My 2.0 GHz G5 iMac version B works fine.

Glenn Gutierrez said...

Yeah, make sure you KEEP reading that page at Macintouch, down to the new iMacs with their different results. I've had a 20" 2.0GHz iMac for a few weeks, and it hasn't had a single problem. It's gorgeous, and an incredible value for a fast Mac.

As far as Adkins, too little too late. They've had years to accomplish something, but there is zero 'personality' or drive behind the PowerPC in 2005. Case in point: Previously unknown professionals whining in public.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your input, There have been less complaints about the REV B iMacs. However, it appears from reading the history, that either they have problems right out of the box, or they develop them after cooking their capacitors for a few months.

I would like to buy a new iMac instead of an eMac, but I am waiting for a couple of weeks.

Eug said...

My understanding is that the bad cap issue hit many different vendors, not just Apple. However, Apple does use well-respected capacitor brands.

(For the record, my iMac did get serviced, but that's because I had some stuck pixels. Apple replaced the screen under warranty. However, that had nothing to do with overheating or bad capacitors obviously. I betcha many people wouldn't even have noticed those stuck pixels, because I couldn't see them during normal usage. They were only visible on a black blackground. Furthermore, I had only a borderline number of stuck pixels, and I was surprised Apple agreed to the replacement. I'm sure a different phone support person wouldn't have given the go ahead for the screen replacement.)

Glenn Gutierrez said...

No dead or stuck pixles here, thank goodness. Mine even survived a voyage on UPS Ground from Kentuky to California. Also happy to report that, while upgrading the RAM, I spied a sea of the newer 'K' topped capacitors, which were replacing 'X' caps during service on the older models. And the only time I've heard the fans is when I ran hardware test after that.