Rumored PowerPC roadmap shows fast times ahead for Apple

17 Comments

Mac OS Rumors has laid out their version of the PowerPC roadmap with some interesting comments:

– The PowerPC 976, the first dual-core 97x chip based on the POWER5 architecture, will probably ship in mid-2005 and will also be the first PowerPC to use the VMX2 vector (“Velocity Engine”) instruction set; VMX2 will vastly increase the range of applications that will benefit from AltiVec/Velocity Engine-optimized code as well as the performance of that code. In particular, watch for Apple to tout VMX2’s impressive 3D graphics performance.

– The single-core PPC 980 will be Apple’s workhorse high-end processor beginning in early 2006 and variants will probably still be powering low-end Macs until nearly 2010.

– In late 2006, the PPC 985 will take over the high end of the Mac with a return to dual-core architecture based on POWER7. By this time IBM and Apple project that the cost to performance ratio of the PPC 9xx family will be no less than 5X that of any planned or otherwise likely competitor processor from Intel.

– Although processors after the 985 run so far into the future as to be impractical to speculate upon, one notable feature mentioned in internal Apple documents is “the ability to emulate Intel architectures with performance no less than 2X that of native solutions.”

Full article here.

17 Comments

  1. So let’s get this straight. Apple will go to a single-core POWER5 to a dual-core, then to a single-core POWER6, then to a dual-core, then they’ll go over the Galactic Rim and join the Elder races. MacOSRumors may have IBM’s plan right, but I think their analyis of how Apple will use the chips is a bit off centre.

    Reply

  3. This just blows my mind. Amazing!

    ———————————–

    G7 to be realistic….when Longhorn is released…if it ever is.

    And I am sure it will be mandated that we all have to have a chip implanted by that time.

    Reply

  6. But hold on until next year CyberGreg, and the miniStar will be out in five different colours, and be $50 cheaper ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />

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  7. It is stupid shit like this that makes all Mac users the brunt of jokes. This is the dumbest, most retarded, unfit to publish garbage that I have ever read.

    The roadmap makes no sense. The performance figures are nuts. His source is probably some pot smoking space cowboy.

    This is as pathetic as the idiot who (back in the day) insisted his Amiga 500 was faster than a PIII – I had intimate knowledge on the Amiga architecture, so don’t even go there.

    MacOSrumors needs a punch in the mouth.

    Reply

  12. Keep a record of the article. As time goes by MOSR will start changing the specs as information from other sources comes along. The site does this all the time. They have a miserable track record. One of the poorest of the rumor sites. Recent claims of “having the new G5 in front of me”, etc. before they were available were lies.

    Reply

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