“Apple may have not hit the magic 3GHz mark, but moving to dual processors has given the lower-end Power Macs a serious speed boost. The computer maker has updated its Power Mac G5 desktop line with three dual-processor models, including its first low-end desktop based on the dual model,” John G. Spooner reports for CNET News.
“Although it had been offering dual-processors in its midrange and high-end G5 desktops, Apple on Wednesday began offering dual processors across its entire Power Mac G5 desktop computer line. The company also stepped up its top Power Mac to dual 2.5GHz processors,” Spooner reports. “As has been its practice in the past, Apple added features but kept prices on the three machines largely the same. The company last updated the Power Mac line in November, when it added a dual 1.8GHz option for its midrange model.”
“Tom Boger, Apple’s senior director of desktop product marketing, said the new machines’ prices are ‘basically the same, but with a heck of a lot more performance and a heck of a lot more value.’ But even though the dual 2.5GHz system represents the best of the best from Apple to date, the company had wanted more by the Power Mac G5’s first birthday, which is this month. At this time last year, Apple was shooting for 3GHz. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, who introduced the first Power Mac G5 models last June, said at that time that they would be available at speeds of up to 3GHz within 12 months. Problems with its IBM’s chip manufacturing hampered that goal, however,” Spooner reports.
Full article here.
I am so sad that Steve publicly promised 3Ghz, and now it’s been delayed. He must really feel like a schmuck.
Sorry, Steve!
Yes, I for one will hold off buying that next Mac until the 3GHz G5 is released – I am in solidarity with Steve. And wouldn’t embarrass him by purchasing anything less, sooner.
I wonder, is it pronounced “Boh-ger” or “Booger?”
“I am so sad that Steve publicly promised 3Ghz, and now it’s been delayed. He must really feel like a schmuck.”
A schmuck with billions in his bank account. Poor guy.
Damn that IBM! Of course there must be a conspiracy – That G5 contract with Microsoft for the xBox likely includes backroom secret deals to sabotage the Apple chips fabrication.
“A schmuck with billions in his bank account. Poor guy.”
Yes – for all his money, even he can’t get his hands on a 3.0 GHz G5!
Steve did not “promise” 3Ghz, it was an optimistic goal stated to add to the excitement generated by this promising new technology when it was first introduced a year ago.
Anyone who believes that the current line-up is insufficient and feel cheated by Apple (though it’s more IBM’s issue) obviously do not understand the pure speed and capabilities of this thing, which outrun most (95%) of the needs of the customers Apple is selling to.
Get over it.
“I am so sad that Steve publicly promised 3Ghz, and now it’s been delayed. He must really feel like a schmuck.”
I bet he’s pissed. And I bet someone is going to, or already has, paid dearly for it.
i had read that the move to 90 nms has been a challenge for everyone, including intel and athlon. intel’s move only gave a 6% speed increase and a 18% heat increase, while IBM pulled 25% increase, but i don’t know the heat increase. obviously, it must be pretty toasty in there, if they decided to go with liquid cool. Refrigerate the beast!
What makes u think that stevie doesnt have a 3Ghz G5 already? While there may not be enough of the chips to supply the general market I would expect that there are plenty enough at that rating to give his Stevieness a ramped up G5 prototype to sit on his desk if he wants one and we all know that Apples side of the equation is already attracting dust just waiting for it to be inserted.
Jobs stupidly DID promise 3.0, and lost lots of sales because of it. He is in a mhz war and wants to be the big kid on the block. if some intel or amd talking head had made the same promise, MDn would have tarred and feathered him. I am not going to get over it and upgrade from my 867 until apple offers something affordable that meets my needs, which isnt rendering at 4x the speed of sound, but doing things at least twice as fast as now, with vpc or something similar, and I already have a great monitor.
i dont think Steve listens to anyone but himself.
Just how many times can you beat a dead horse? Of course that never stopped CNET, unless of course it deals with the many dead horses lying around M$ these days. Whatever happened to Trustworthy Computing? Windows XP SP2? Longhorn? Yeah, we know M$ never misses a deadline and never lies about anything. The only “schmucks” I see are CNET, Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates…
It never ceases to amaze me that people are missing one of the key updates to the Dual 2.5Ghz G5 Powermac. Ignore the fact that it’s not 3.0Ghz for a moment and look at the bus speed. 1.25Ghz. People, that’s incredible! That alone allows the processors to hum along at a fantastic rate. Now factor in the 500Mhz jump on each processor and that’s something to be happy about.
As for the so-called ‘promise’ for 3Ghz in 12 months, can anyone say “hopeful speculation’? Fer Christ’s sake, there was never any official press release saying that would happen, and were it not for IBM’s yield problems with the 90nm process, we may already be over that mark, but first things first. Perfect the process as much as possible so you’re not spending billions on a chip manufacture that won’t net you enough profit to make it worth it. As with all things Apple, they will do it right.
i think intel promised that they would win the megahertz war, but now they don’t even use MHz numbers in their marketing schemes…
moo.
If I had a dual 2.5 Ghz (5.3 Ghz equiv) by my desk, I don’t think that I’d be too sad about not having a 3Ghz.
It is quite possible for him to triple or quad-up the 2.5 Ghz to make good, or even up, his promise. This is actually a BETTER idea because if one CPU poops out, the others will continue. The future of computing may be with multiple stable, smaller, CPUs rather than fewer larger ones. The speed will be in the busses and traffic controllers.
But, this would require a whole new line of thinking away from the Ghz myth which many of the Mac followers seem to have blindly (read as stupidly) adopted to the point of addiction, and would require a small level of intelligence to understand.
Gigaflops or Terraflops (processed instructions per second) should have been adopted more as a standard. This would automatically encompass any configuration of processor. Crays originally were measured this way; their clock speeds were actually quite low. Speed isn’t the RPM of your car (clock speed) but it’s in how fast it can transfer your cargo (data rate). I’d much rather have a fleet of slower and reliable trucks than one big experimental truck.
Um, yes he did promise 3ghz. It’s actually even posted on MDN under Nows the Time to Buy.
“Apple CEO Steve Jobs, at last year’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference, …excited the crowd when he said that Apple would release a 3GHz model within a year — with two weeks to go before that deadline, Boger said Apple will not meet the 3GHz promise,”
so, relax there guy…
Just a little reminder that if you know any think about Steve jobs this might be a plan. For all we know he could be tricking the Mac users. Remember when the G5 first came out and how the pics of the G5 high the web and then in the keynote he was like mmm I don�t know how they got leaked, Please. Jobs still has one month to get this thing out. Besides the fact that he could be getting us ready for the WWDC. From what I have heard and understand Apple still has some aces up its sleeve. Beside he needs to update the monitors and I think he might try and give wacom a run for it money.
I am sure he made his keynote estimate, not promise, based on knowledge given him from IBM’s speculation/estimation, not his own.
However, he should have thought about it and said something like, “If the ball rolls smoothly, we hope to be at 3ghz by next summer”. That would have been better and covered his butt in case of problems(which were not Apples fault anyway). But I defend him that he did not make any promises, he just spoke confidently about where he thought they should be next year, again, based on IBM’s estimates. The media, especially CNET, loves anything they can get to poop Apple.
Do I fill up my gas tank and travel somewhere solely based upon my estimate of gas mileage and not fill up until I reach my estimated destination? Maybe Thurrawthroat, Motley Fool, and CNET do this, but I think most of us fill up when we estimate we might be caught on the side of the road. I am still running a Powermac 7500 that came with a 132mhz processor. With the dual 2.5ghz speed bump, we have an equivalent of a gigahertz speed increase here…can the other guys claim this? We should all be amazed considering the speed increases a few years ago.
Besides, based upon Intels new marketing, mhz is no longer a measurement of speed anyhow. They, for years, have been adding extra pipelines onto their old core of their old processor technology and marketed the mhz myth.
Now, what are they gonna do? They are the ones who have fabricated and lied and exploited what is really something that will get so hot it will cook my lasagna for me. How are they gonna fool the consumers now…and they sure can’t rely on Longhorn marketing to save them any time soon.
Agree with Newmanstein….just spoke my mind.
i also just wanted to add one more point out that i have not seen one pic of the liquid cooling system… so something is up.
How many times M$ through Gates promised a better version of Windows? Every time it’s been the same Crap with a different name.
Apple delivered more than any High Tech has done over the last past year. Most innovations are now referred to as Apple’s product. Jobs missed his promised but that doesn’t make him a liar.
peace
What’s this all about?
2.5 GHz is just 16% short of the promised 3GHz.
Next time Steve should more cautiously state: “We’re hoping to…. .” I guess his time machine wasn’t working that day
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> At least Apple got the G5s to 2.5GHz, right?
This is all just a perception thing. I think the 2.5ghz sounds like a killer mac.
ARGH!!! For the last time, Dual 2.5 DOES NOT EQUAL 5GHZ!!!
With that said, I think liquid cool as the only option unless you want a tornado under your desk. To cool a chip like the G5 would surely warrant a much more powerful fan. No less a jet engine I might add.