The Register UK Reports Apple Cranking Up Bus Bandwidth For Faster G4s

by , 10:30 AM EDT, May 24th, 2002

The Register UK is reporting From a news releasethat Apple is working on improving speeds in its PowerMac G4 line in part by increasing bus speeds for the machines. The article claims that Apple will be announcing faster PowerMacs at MACWORLD New York, and that the machines could run as fast as 1.5 GHz. More importantly from a performance standpoint, the new units would also incorporate improved bus speed, which would itself offer much improved performance. From The Register UK's piece:

Recent word from sources close to Motorola confirm that a significant speed bump will be timed for MACWORLD Expo in July, raising current bus speeds, and seeing new 7470-based G4s raise frequencies to as high as 1.5Ghz.

The 7470 supports PC2100 DDR-SDRAM memory at 266MHz, as we told you back in February, and PC2100 made its debut in Apple's product line with the launch of the Xserve rack last week. More importantly the new G4 supports front side bus speeds of 133MHz and 166MHz, which double to 266MHz and 333MHz.

The most dramatic bandwidth improvement would be a jump to 266Mhz, and although we don't know if that choice has been made, but a more modest increase to 166Mhz (2x) would be more in keeping with recent announcements. The first AMD Athlon debuted on what then was an incredibly fast bus speed of 266Mhz in 1999. The recent Intel Northwoods deploy a 400Mhz bus.

Check out the full article for more information that was not quoted. Thanks to Observer Sigmascape for pointing us to this article. You can join in on the discussion of this topic in our forums.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Thinking that Apple might release faster PowerMac G4s come July is no great leap of faith, at least when one considers that Apple has bumped its portable line, and introduced new servers, between MACWORLD events. Steve Jobs is known for wanting to have something special to offer during his keynotes. That said, we hope The Register's article is close to the mark, because it would definitely represent a huge performance increase for Apple's line. It would also serve mightily to help quell criticism related to Motorola's MHz lag.

As with any rumor, however, we are strong proponents of the idea that a new Mac on your desktop is worth two on a rumor site. In fact, we coined that phrase, but the point is that Apple's current PowerMac line offers a lot of bang for the buck, and it is very possible that this particular rumor will turn out not to be accurate at all. If you need a new PowerMac now, buy it. Waiting for the next big rumor is more often than not a fruitless endeavor.

The Register UK Article