PPC 970 in production

[wizlon]

Here's a snippet from http://www.macbidouille.com/

French text - Quick translation -

The PPC 970 in production - Lionel - 08:07:59 Until now, the processors PPC 970 which were manufactured were prototypes being used for tests. Yesterday, Peter Sandon, father of the PPC 970 gave his green light. The PPC 970 is now regarded as free from all bug and good for the production. As of April 15, it will be manufactured in series in the factories of IBM. The chips will be integrated as of the end June in the Blade waiters from IBM and of course in the APPLE machines. One can note the similarity of dates between the exit of machines IBM and the WWDC. Knowing APPLE, they probably negotiated the exclusiveness in the advertisement of the arrival of the PPC 970 with a margin of a few days.

Good news soon I hope!

[Beamtracer]

It is good news. There have been a lot of rumors that the IBM970 is running ahead of schedule, which is unusual for processors (they usually run late!)

I think that Apple will want to get these machines into the stores as soon as possible, regardless of expos like MacWorld or its replacement NY expo.

Just because IBM's chip fabrication plant has started churning out these processors doesn't mean there are sufficient quantities for Apple to use.

I'd still predict an announcement from Apple in June, and machines on sale in August.

[luka]

All I can say is Wwwhhhhooooo!
:)

[Beamtracer]

Also, the August time frame should coincide with the release of the 64-bit Panther OS.

I expect that Apple will release compiler software at the WWD conference in June, to assist developers to recompile their apps to 64-bit.

Will June-July-August be enough time for software developers to recompile their applications? Sure, you can still run 32-bit apps, but if you've got a 64-bit machine, you'll want to run some 64-bit apps.

Meanwhile, AMD is running late with its 64-bit processors, and at the mercy of Microsoft to give it a 64-bit OS.

[luka]

hey chck this out
lookin forward to siggraph (http://vbulletin.newtek.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3048)

[skippy]

Is there any chance that Macs could begin to get smaller in the future, or will heat dissipation requirements of the 970 mean same size or larger boxes?

be nice to have something the size of the Cube...if not an actual cube..

J

[Beamtracer]

Nobody bought the cube. I can't imagine Apple would make a similar machine after the dismal Cube sales. There was nothing wrong with the Cube. It was nice and quiet and small. You couldn't upgrade the graphics card, but most people with PowerMac G4s leave the original card in there anyway.

There have been some sightings of Apple's prototype motherboards with the 970 processor. Apparently the motherboard is longer and narrower than current motherboards.

Current Apple G4s are hot. I wouldn't imagine that the 970 is any worse. A cooler version of the 970 should appear in Apple laptops in mid-2004.