The'yre coming .... the end of the G4 is near .... very near ... 23rd of June kinda near.

So has has pics, specs ... info etc etc.


I know IBM is providing the processors now and that the smallest modell will be a 1.4 Ghz.


More please.... How do they work, are they compatible with ProTools yet? heh

http://www.macosrumors.com/
http://www.macrumors.com/

Some people are convinced it's going to be a 970.

Other are more pessimistic.

The 970 may appear first in an XServe or something similar, not neccesarily in a tower. So don't get too excited (although I remain optimistic)

40,000 pcbs were shipped a few weeks ago to make 20,000 computers of some description, so they're probably all dual

One of the rumors says that the boards take DDR RAM in sets of two (kind of like dual processor - think dual memory)

Also there may be new specs to do with the built in audio of the macs, bringing them up to speed with pcs boasting 5.1 out of the box

As we all know, Panther (10.3) will be 64 bit. Things will be faster under that OS, but apps will need to be recompiled to take advantage of the 64 bit architecture.

The 980 chip will b coming out in about a year at speeds of 4.5 -5mhz

By the end of next year I think without a doubt, Macs will be 10 times faster than they are now. Wierd.

REGARDING PRO TOOLS AND ALL THINGS HARDWARE

Back to the old computers catching up with hardware boxes debate, and Pro Tools vs. Native

My take on this whole thing is that if you thought that 1 new release every 5 years from digi on the hardware side is enough to keep ahead of the relentless pace of computing power, think again. The increases we're going to see in the next 2 years are going to make this years computers look positively feeble.

Dual 5mhz 980 running Panther 11?

All those intensive plug ins will be pretty happy on one of those machines with room to spare. Sony Plug Ins will run native, as will most other things.

I have a dual 867, and in seems capable of pretty much doing anything I throw at it. Having a dual 5mhz is SIX TIMES FASTER. Running at 64 bit could nearly double that. Running on the new 970 could increase it firther. Running on the next gen 980 even further still. Running with the new memory even further still.

The next two years are going to be possibly the most interesting for a decade concerning this stuff. The very platform that Digi and the like rely on may eat them whole. That coupled with the sonic limitations of the ear.

I think we will be seeing a large amount of 192 stand alone boxes coming out..running on firewire 800 into fw 800 drives.

****, I'm starting to sound like 'Crisco' from Ed Wood. Better shut up now.

For instance , you're going to be seeing a lot more of this

http://www.insidemacgames.com/reviews/view.php?ID=362

wow! im glad i bought a dualGIGAhz and not have to go BACK to MEGAhz heh

--pissing myself

Me, I'm still on my 1hz G.0001 with a circuit board made from plasterboard and copper pipes

Smartass

I said it twice too.

I was told towers only at the beginning and possibly quadruple engines very soon to follow.

As for hardware vs native .... hardware better get they're butts in gear and come up with something pretty spectacular soon.

Where is there to go?

There are three thresholds:

1. Computer speed (soon they will all be 'fast enough' to do anything without special 'extra' hardware)

2. Format threshold - even if there was 'xyz' format for us to work on, will it fit on an iPod..which brings me to

3. We've all only got one pair of ears and can only hear so many frequencies. So what if you go more than 192k. We've already had the music vs. production debate.

Even stranger times ahead than before if you ask me. Quite exciting though.

The revolution is upon us.

BTW chris, Stravinsky is one of my favourite composers ever and the first piece of music I ever got into was Rite Of Spring. It was the only record my mum had when I was 4!

I heard that Apple might switch to a new PCI bus . Does anybody know if current PCI cards will run on the new machines?

Agree on the even stranger times ahead of us. I refuse to believe that the end of hardware is near though. One could imagine more powerfull DSP cards to start with. More powerfull chips which will allow plugin development to improve. A lot of work is to be done there. The sony's and massenburgs prove that it is possible to provide powerfull, high end quality plugins.

To be honest, I don't care to be able to have 256 EQ's and 389 compressors on my HD3 system. I'd rather have 48 of each ... high end quality. Even better then they are now.

Or how about the difference between running a processor (native) at 5% or 95% of its capacity. Like someone said over on the DUC.... my DSP cards couldn't care less if there's 1 chip in use or all of them. As long as processors are not capable of doing the same there's going to be room for hardware.

Or another thing I care about .... running 64+ tracks at 192KHz. That's what I care about. The sound improvement is definately there ... the power not yet. I think it's going to take more then a dual 5Ghz to make that happen as smooth as 48K session run today with large track counts.

I know ... ipod and the music vs production debate. Well, I for one will not resign by the argument that my music is going to be turned into an MP3 or an Mpeg4 or whatever. Even if I'm going to end up the only one apreciating higher quality formats ... I'll keep on doing it ... be it to just sit down and listen to it myself. Screw the ones who are satisfied turning it into an mp3 ... I'll take the royalties on those too though.

I do want the rite of spring recorded in surround at 192Khz.

i only need 32 tracks at 384khz.

C.Lambrechts: "I was told towers only at the beginning and possibly quadruple engines very soon to follow.

I hope your source is better than mine*...

*

My Source

The PCI-X spec you are hearing about is already reality on server level boards.

It's supposed to be fully backwards compatible with existing PCI cards. To contrast the 2 specs, the current PCI bus as it exists on nearly all desktop computers, supports 32 bits at 33MHz for a max theoretical bandwidth of 133MB/sec.

PCI-X in it's initial form supports 64 bits at 133MHz for a max theoretical bandwidth of 1066MB/sec. That ought to be more than enough for any audio needs I can imagine.

I have no idea as to whether the new Macs will include PCI-X. I tend to think not, as it's currently only really useful on specialized and highly expensive peripherals used in servers.

What you may be referring to is a new and vastly improved Front Side Bus, which they will include that should remove a big performance bottleneck that exists on the current G4s.


Regards,
Brian T

Brian T, Thank's for the info!

>C.Lambrechts: "I was told towers only at the beginning and possibly
> quadruple engines very soon to follow.


Whey! Logic doesnt even use TWO processors properly....

'best
TOM

can't wait to hear what they announce. i was planning on getting some upgrade for my dual 533, but a new comp would be even cooler. i'm saving my money.

Yeah I'm doing the same, I have the same mac as you. I was all set to buy a new dual 1.42 last week, but decided that it would not hurt to wait a few more weeks, and see just what Mr. Jobs has up his sleeve. I think it would suck to buy a new machine, and then just weeks later it's value is cut in half by the new Macs.grudge

There's just been a price drop on the g4 laptops.....

Oh my God, could the new 15" actually be coming.....

Please hurry up I want one with firewire 800!!!!

Also this is interesting from a rumor site:

MacPlus.org is reporting that one marketing report floating around Apple proposes the possibility of revamping of its product line with the introduction of a low-end G4 "box" with 32MB VRAM, and 256MB RAM. Target price is reportedly $599.

Such a target price is said to be realistic, and comes with expectations of significant sales gains in consumer and small/home office markets. Impact on Pro-machines is projected to be minimal, and with only 8-12% reduction of iMac sales.

If true, this might fill in a much-requested segment of the Mac product line -- low end "headless" machine. It's unclear from this report if the machine would be expandable.

Digi PCI cards out in the cold then?

whooo - the rumors are getting bigger

AppleInsider updates with a report that claims that the PowerMac G5 is arriving at WWDC.

According to AppleInsider, the new machines will be dubbed "PowerMac G5" and will use IBM's new PowerPC 970 at speeds of 1.4 and 1.8GHz.

The new machines will sport new compact/"more square" enclosures without handles, as well as front-ports (USB and Firewire). Internal improvements listed include DDR 400, AGP 8x, FW800, USB 2.0 and Hypertransport based motherboards.

MacBidouille has claimed "longer and narrower" motherboards and processor speeds were reported as 1.4GHz, Dual 1.6GHz, and Dual 1.8GHz. While Appleinsider's report does not exclude the possibility of Dual 1.8GHz machines in the near future, the 1.6GHz speeds are not mentioned. The article also implies immediate availability of the machines after their introduction..

A MacRumors Page2 report indicates that Dual 1.42GHz PowerMac G4's are depleted at this time.

AppleInsider has had very intermittent updates in the recent past, but their previous story on iTunes Music Service did provide accurate information regarding the (then unreleased) service... however, they provided inaccurate information on iMac updates in February.

i'm trying to save my pennies. it'll be an interesting time to get a new mac.

i think my goal is to use the current dual g4 as a mach5 and spectra foo dedicated box while the new mac is the primary DAW. many of the plugs i need will be on osx and the programs will be on their second versions by then i suspect.

hey hey, wait a minute.
what about the noise they produce ?

My modified( new powersupply kit) dual 1.25 still drives me nutty !!!!

the noise mine produces is freakin great... oh hold it, you don't mean sound coming out of it. oh well, i was just having a proud moment.

as far as the fan thing goes, what i did is what i recommend. move the box into the next damn room. i used some cables from www.gefen.com to extend the cpu out of the room. now i kind of have a machine room (my ampex tape deck plus my mac, and assorted manuals and tools just to keep them out of the way) the studio control room is cool and quiet. it's a beautiful thing.

it was cheep to do, took me about and hour to do (make the holes in the wall and get them dressed properly, move machine, set and dress cables, test system) now that the room is dead quiet i cannot believe i waited this long to do it. you wont' appreciate the difference until you take the plunge. strongly recommended creature comfort factor. noise is so much not an issue for me. plus a pleasure to mix now.

I agree - even with the MOD that we all did (which did help) it's still a noisy mf

I'll be sad to see the handles go, I have found them quite useful over the years.

Not at all. The new PCI-X standard, which I doubt will be present on the new Macs, is still rearwardly compatible with existing PCI cards.

So either way, new or existing PCI specs, current PCI cards should work fine.


Regards,
Brian T

When you said you doubted the new PCI-X would be present on the new Macs I had wondered if that meant no PCI at all - assuming the existings specs wouldn't be possible with the new machines. Thanks for the info!

this just gets stranger!!!!

Reliable sources have informed us that Apple Computer (NasdaqNM: AAPL - News) is negotiating to buy Roxio (Nasdaq: ROXI - News). Recent erratic stock activity confirms this information with very high volume trading over the last few weeks. It?s no secret that Apple is trying to make inroads to the PC market, and buying Roxio, a company that caters predominantly to PCs will help them do just that. Roxio, Inc. provides the best selling digital media software for Windows in the world. While they only make Toast Titanium CD burning software for Mac, they make award-winning software products for CD/DVD burning, photo editing and video editing for Windows. Apple sells Roxio?s Toast 5 Titanium software at its store. Also, Apple has been promoting Roxio?s Easy CD Creator 5 software on its website since it began the Switch campaign.
Apple?s recent introduction of iTunes Music Service coincides with this buyout since Roxio bought the rights to Napster's name and technology at a bankruptcy auction last year for just over $5 million. The CD-burning software maker has since bought Pressplay, a struggling online music service launched by (ring a bell?) Vivendi Universal (NYSE: V - News) and Sony Corp. (Tokyo:6758. T ? News) for about $39.5 million in cash and stock

Here's another story from a credible source that's not really even a Mac oriented site.

STORY


Regards,
Brian T

does anyone else here think its a bit ironic that apple is now teamed up with ibm?

yes