Avid Pro Audio Community

DC2light · #1 06-06-2005, 10:50 AM

A moment of silence please... Well looks like 1 more year for my current platform. Question is how long will Digi support it? I was always skeptical about liquid cooling. R.I.P.

xsane · #2 06-06-2005, 10:56 AM

What are you talking about specifically?

Dutchmuzik · #3 06-06-2005, 11:30 AM

Actually not until the end of 2007 for the Powermac, that is 2 1/2 years away.

DC2light · #4 06-06-2005, 11:31 AM

I wonder how many more G5's they expect to sell at top dollar? Also no 4 slot macs that I was hoping for. Oh well.

Vaphoron · #5 06-06-2005, 12:00 PM

One of the Mac sites reporting about the Keynote today said that the first Intel based Mac would be out by June 2006 and the transition is to be completed by June of 2007.

Tiago Silva · #6 06-06-2005, 12:17 PM

The first x86 Mac IS out. It's a developer system with a 3.6GHz P4 and 10.4.1/x86, available for $999 if you're a $$$ Developer. The transition is supposed to be complete by the end of 2006

I bet it's a beige box

Vaphoron · #7 06-06-2005, 12:38 PM

There seems to be conflicting reports because I read the end of 2006 one place and the middle of 2007 another so I figured I would go with the middle of 2007 just in case the end of 2006 was wrong. Those developer Macs are supposed to be returned by the end of 2006 so I would guess that means they plan to be done by then. I wanna see some pics of that developer Mac! Its funny that Microsoft is using G5s for Xbox 360 game development and now Apple is using an Intel based PC for development of future Mac software.

Tiago Silva · #8 06-06-2005, 01:04 PM

"Sic Transit Gloria Mundi"

Seeee · #9 06-06-2005, 01:59 PM

yeah, maybe if apple follows PC's with the "2 year usability" factor your G5 will be outdated. but, as of now, i am using a 4 year old G4 with no problems.

DC2light · #10 06-08-2005, 12:00 AM

Just some quick points. My whole purpose of concern was the roadmap and touted importance of Altivec. This was the BIG advantage over the Pentium line and not just the gHz chasm . All of Apples Pro apps use it for there foundation and speed. (like FCP, Motion or the convolution verb in Logic, ect) Each G5 has multiple Altivecs. In essence for a lot of apps a single G5 was like multiple processors. Sheer horsepower alone (faster CPU) does not make up the difference of loosing those FPU's (Altivec) till you get way up there ghz wise. (up to 3 times as much) So the only true option is multiprocessors or multi-core processors. As we know IBM has hit many stumbling blocks with the G5's clock speed. Now comes along a few major game players, (Sony and Microsoft, sorry for the pun) and suddenly IBM is touting a multi-core 3.6 ghz processor with each core having multiple FPU's and NO liquid cooling. (I know one was codeveloped with Sony but.. so? ) OK folks here's were my conjecture comes in. We all know of Steve's emotional reaction to other companies contradictury policies in the past but was it Apple who brought on this switch or IBM's? In the next couple of years there's going to be a lot more game consoles sold then Macs so Apples share of IBM's PowerPC chip sales will be tiny in comparison. When IBM was beating there chest over there new chip manufacturing plant and it's ability to gear up for several different production runs in a minimal amount of time, all hailed it as the mecca for future G5 growth. Truth is it has seen very few G5 production runs and now is being tooled up for there exclusive new set of PowerPC chips. Is Apple benefiting from this? Unless Apple can some how get these custom processors, I doubt it. Where is Motorola in all this? From what I understand they share in the developmental patents of the PowerPC chip and where also shown the door by Steve after there production stumblings. Remember that Just before Apple made the switch to IBM exclusively from Motorola, the main design team responsible for the PowerPC chip flew the coup and went to go work for Intel. I'm telling you there might be a great book or movie out of all of this. (for a geek)
So what's the bottom line? We will have porting cost which we as consumers we will pay for plus the slowdown of other future development due to this change. Did Apple have any choice in this matter? At the moment everything is working well for me so I can't bitch but this will make me think twice before my next speedbump upgrade and wait several more incarnations before my next dollars are spent. OK time to focus on the music now.