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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Notebook Hardware
Why doesn't Apple just.....
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<blockquote data-quote="technologist" data-source="post: 42103" data-attributes="member: 4134"><p>First of all, you're absolutely correct. The FSB speed of the G4 PowerBooks is abysmal; a 167MHz bus feeding a 1.5GHz chip (as on the top-end PB's) leaves them seriously data starved.</p><p></p><p>My understanding is, though, that the limitation is the G4, and not the system. Motorola produces the G4 for Apple (and other customers, mainly in the telecom/networking sector) and only their engineers can up the FSB speed. Motorola's inability to do this is what has lead Apple to use the IBM-made G5 in its newest desktops. (Note that the G5 may run at only 2.5GHz, but it's FSB runs at half the processor clock...an awe-inspiring 1.25GHz on the top-end model, and a very respectable 900MHz on the low-end 1.8GHz unit.)</p><p></p><p>If you look closely at the <a href="http://www.apple.com/powerbook/specs.html" target="_blank">specs for the PowerBooks</a> you notice something: The FSB runs at 167MHz, but the memory is twice that speed (333MHz effective clock DDR.) The memory is really quite fast, but the processor can't keep up! (Though the on-chip caching helps some.)</p><p></p><p>This used to be a problem with the Power Macs as well. See the</p><p><a href="http://www.barefeats.com/pmddr.html" target="_blank">Barefeats tests</a> for more on that.</p><p></p><p>The G5 has effectively solved this problem in the towers, and as it migrates down, it will disappear in the PBs as well.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="technologist, post: 42103, member: 4134"] First of all, you're absolutely correct. The FSB speed of the G4 PowerBooks is abysmal; a 167MHz bus feeding a 1.5GHz chip (as on the top-end PB's) leaves them seriously data starved. My understanding is, though, that the limitation is the G4, and not the system. Motorola produces the G4 for Apple (and other customers, mainly in the telecom/networking sector) and only their engineers can up the FSB speed. Motorola's inability to do this is what has lead Apple to use the IBM-made G5 in its newest desktops. (Note that the G5 may run at only 2.5GHz, but it's FSB runs at half the processor clock...an awe-inspiring 1.25GHz on the top-end model, and a very respectable 900MHz on the low-end 1.8GHz unit.) If you look closely at the [URL=http://www.apple.com/powerbook/specs.html]specs for the PowerBooks[/URL] you notice something: The FSB runs at 167MHz, but the memory is twice that speed (333MHz effective clock DDR.) The memory is really quite fast, but the processor can't keep up! (Though the on-chip caching helps some.) This used to be a problem with the Power Macs as well. See the [URL=http://www.barefeats.com/pmddr.html]Barefeats tests[/URL] for more on that. The G5 has effectively solved this problem in the towers, and as it migrates down, it will disappear in the PBs as well. [/QUOTE]
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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Notebook Hardware
Why doesn't Apple just.....
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