The Register, a hotbed for early Mac news and rumors, is reporting that Apple is gearing up to revamp their G4 product line at Januaryis MACWORLD Expo. Stuck at 500Mhz for over a year, the G4 has seen AMD and Intel release chips with clock speeds approaching 1.5Ghz. The Register is reporting that MACWORLD will see the release of a MP G4/600, an MP G4/533, and the bottom of the line G4/400. While this is indeed news, it is rather underwhelming considering that Intel and AMD are producing chips with clock speeds double that of the high end G4.
According to The Register:
Apple looks set to boost its dual-processor Power Mac G4 line to 600MHz early next year, after announcing the new models at MacWorld Expo in San Francisco in January.
The update will also see the Mac platform commence support for the double data rate (DDR) SDRAM memory technology, part of Appleis latest Universal Motherboard Architecture design.
Apple insiders claim that the new G4s will ship with 400MHz, 533MHz and 600MHz, though with Motorolais ongoing problems getting decent yields of first-generation PowerPC 7400 (aka G4) processor running at over 500MHz, the top-speed model may prove difficult to get hold of.
While only time will tell if these reports prove to be true, but it does highlight the current problems with the PowerPC chip, and the increasing clockspeed gap between that chip and its Windowis world competitors.
You can read the full story at The Register web site.