“The 64-bit PowerPC G5 processor will undoubtedly be a fixture of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference. After all, it’s the basis of the company’s workstation and server lines. But Mac professionals, and even Linux programmers, will be waiting for word of a mobile version,” Mark Hachman reports for eWeek.

“According to officials of IBM Corp., the technology for a notebook version of the PowerPC G5, a k a the PowerPC 970 series of processors, may be at hand,” Hachman reports. “IBM’s PowerPC 970 family of microprocessors has quietly become a rarity in the computing world: a one-size-fits-all architecture used for notebooks, desktops and even low-end servers. The chip is based on the company’s longstanding POWER architecture, a dual-core processor used in some of IBM’s server lines.”

“Now, IBM is being asked to migrate those chips into the crucial notebook market while simultaneously designing an architecture that can be competitive in low-end servers,” Hachman reports. “Norman Rohrer, chief designer of the PowerPC 970FX chip used in Apple’s Power Mac G5 desktops and Xserve servers, said the same chip that IBM uses for its desktop machines can also be used comfortably within future PowerBook notebooks through a power-management technique called ‘PowerTune.’ Rohrer would not comment on the time frame for a chip incorporating PowerTune. Industry insiders said a PPC 970FX-based notebook is not expected to ship before the end of the year.”

Full article here.