Dual Core PowerMacs Tomorrow

kainjow · #1 October 18th, 2005, 07:27 PM

Power Macs:

Dual Core Single chip G5 2.0ghz
Dual Core Dual Processor G5 2.3Ghz
Dual ethernet jacks
Up to 16GB DDR2 RAM (loaded with 512MB?)
Nvidia 6600GT PCI-E with native 30" Cinema Display support

PowerBooks

17" PowerBooks have been dropped to $2499
Combo drive option on the 15" will be dropped, while maintaining a $1999 price point for the Superdrive option

They also tease there may be "one more thing", again

Some anonymous user posted this to MacRumors. Unfortunately I can't post a URL, but the Power Mac specs have been "confirmed" by 2 anonymous people

Mikuro · #2 October 18th, 2005, 08:34 PM

I thought the DC chips hit 2.5GHz. Was I wrong? In any case, a dual-core 2.3GHz chip ought to handily outperform a single-core 2.7GHz one. That is, for multithreaded processes. As with multiple processors, the extra core is not going to make individual "everyday" processes like web page rendering any faster.

It'd be nice if the new Macs were "just plain faster, period", but hey, I'll take what I can get.

16GB of RAM? *droooooooool*

kainjow · #3 October 18th, 2005, 08:46 PM

I doubt the info up there is complete... maybe there will be 2.5Ghz.. we'll just have to wait.

Lt Major Burns · #4 October 18th, 2005, 08:53 PM

remember that tiger can only use more than 4gb in command line: gui apps can only use 4gb ram. only the 64bit apps (command line only at the moment) can use 4gb+ ram.

ElDiabloConCaca · #5 October 18th, 2005, 11:07 PM

Why would command-line make a difference in 64-bit compatibility or the amount of RAM they use? I don't understand...

Mathematica, one of the most popular mathematical applications, is a full GUI program and fully supports 64-bit computations (and is a 64-bit application) as well as RAM usage above 4GB.

http://www.wolfram.com/products/mathematica/platforms/

What would happen if I wrote a fully 64-bit "command-line application" that consumed more than 4GB of RAM, then added one GUI "Start" button to it? Would it cease working? Where did you get this information?

kainjow · #6 October 18th, 2005, 11:08 PM

I'm sure it offloads the 64-bit work to a command line utility and then gets the results.. er something like that

Or it uses non-standard methods of working with 64-bit numbers..

ElDiabloConCaca · #7 October 18th, 2005, 11:12 PM

There is no difference between a command-line application and a GUI application, with the exception of the GUI. The source code is even the same... unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean by "command-line application".

They're all Unix processes -- one and the same. The fact that one has a GUI and the other doesn't have a GUI doesn't change the fact that the source code is all written in the same languages -- C, C++, Obj-C, etc. I'm just not understanding why adding a GUI would cause the application to not work.

What is a "non-standard" way of working with a 64-bit number? You either have a 64-bit number, or you don't. You could possibly simulate a 64-bit number with two or more 32-bit numbers, but then you'd have two or more 32-bit numbers and your application wouldn't be 64-bit. You add, multiply, divide and subtract them, and that's all you can do to them...

kainjow · #8 October 18th, 2005, 11:21 PM

I think it's mostly a speed issue. You might want to read this: http://developer.apple.com/macosx/64bit.html

Quote:

It is important to note that in Tiger, the support for 64-bit programming does not extend throughout the entire set of APIs available on Mac OS X. Most notably, the Cocoa and Carbon GUI application frameworks are not ready for 64-bit programming. In practical terms, this means that the "heavy lifting" of an application that needs 64-bit support can be done by a background process which communicates with a front-end 32-bit GUI process via a variety of mechanisms including IPC and shared memory.