> Apple said 3 ghz yes, but unpredicted results meant the
> processor speed has "hit the wall" as steve jobs put it.
> Basically they predicted processors would get faster and faster
> using their current methods but they didnt. Its not just with
> IBM but with intel and AMD aswell. Dont worry 3 ghz will
> come, just not as soon as expected.
The companies have hit the wall with-regard-to frequency speeds for their current chip technologies. I think that PPC is at
130 nanometers. The next shrink would be at 90 nanometers.
AMD is ramping up at 90 and Intel is working on 65 so Intel is
leading the pack here.
There were some benchmarks on AMD's new Venice core and
they were very impressive in terms of power consumption and
performance and top end. AMD can make faster chips with the
process shrink to 90 nm.
> What if AMD made processors for Apple, instead of IBM.
> there mite have been Dual core processors and then two
> Dual core processor in the machines, so it would be like
> having 4 single processors !!! sweet
AMD has their own production constraints and there have been
some talk in that they have some problems making enough of
the highest-performing parts.
AMD's chips top out at 2.6 Ghz though I think that they're
going to get a little more headroom with 90 NM. But dual-core
will be very, very nice. The AMD K8 architecture was designed
as a multi-core architecture which gives it an advantage over
MC chips from Intel. I don't know the history of PPC very well
and can't comment there.
> apple systems are based on power PC processors. its not as
> simple as it sounds to "take AMD and put it in apple"
Digital ported VMS from VAX to Alpha and HP took it and ported it to Itanium. Microsoft ported Windows-32 from x86 to PowerPC, MIPs and Alpha. And ported Windows to Itanium and
x86-64. Sun ported Solaris to x86 and x86-64.
It isn't easy to do but it's been done. Many times.
AMD chips are cheaper because they have the advantage of
more volume so per-unit costs are lower. Can PowerPC gain
there? I think that would be hard to do unless Macs become
a lot more popular.
> There is a dual core G5(970MP) but they haven't
> implemented it yet. I haven't seen the Dual Core AMD
> processors for sale yet. I want to see a dual core, dual
> processor Xeon HT machine, thats like 8, kind of...
There's an article at
http://www.aceshardware.com/forums/read_post.jsp?id=115129046&forumid=1 saying that Sabre has 145 of them and is using them for their online airfare search system.
I saw a web page at hp's site where they are selling AMD DUal Core systems. I don't have a link handy though. My next system will probably be a dual-core AMD notebook system. Not sure what I'm going to run on it though.