by , 12:30 PM EDT, August 3rd, 2000
This one is straight out of the "If it sounds too good to be true..." files. A Swedish company calling themselves Xtrem has issued a press release stating that they have released a new computer called the XtremMac. The new system features a 1200MHz G4 chip, with graphics options from NVIDIA, 3dfx, or ATI, a host of high performance drives and ports, a 150MHz system bus. According to Xtrem:
The XtremMac(tm) G4 1200MHz is the next generation of desktop computers designed for professional power-users. It is powered by Apple's G4 motherboard, and will be the first personal computer in history to deliver true supercomputer-level performance of over two billion floating-point operations per second. The XtremMac(tm) G4 will run professional applications like Adobe's PhotoShop up to three times as fast as 1GHz Pentium III-based PCs.
"The XtremMac(tm) G4 will not only be the fastest Mac(tm) ever, it will be the fastest personal computer ever," said Xtrem Inc.'s CEO Mats Wallberg. "The revolutionary with the XtremMac(tm) G4 is how the whole system interacts. It's not only the processor that runs faster. The whole system including memory, graphics and disks are working at top speed. Compared to Apples new dual G4 our machine is much faster and is not limited to the use of PhotoShop. It runs all applications including MacOS at full speed. I wouldn't be surprised if we have a dual processor version ready in time for the official release of MacOS X."
The new XtremMac(tm) G4 will initially be offered in a build-to-order customer-selected configuration from Xtrem Inc.'s online store. The 1200 MHz XtremMac(tm) G4 model features support for up to 1.5 GB SDRAM powered by a new 150MHz system bus, high performance graphics from ATI, NVIDIA and 3dfx, a dual channel Ultra 160+ SCSI RAID drive interface for up to 320Mb/s of data transfer, five internal drives configurable up to 367 GB internal and 2,2 TB external capacity, removable storage including ZIP, JAZ, Orb, 72x CD-ROM, 16x DVD-ROM and DVD-RAM.
The XtremMac(tm) G4 comes in a stunning "never-seen-before" appearance, where the casing is made out of polished aluminum as an integrated part of the advanced active cooling system and gives a whole new meaning to computer design. "We don't believe that a computer has to look like one. The design is not only appearance, it's very much an important contribution to the performance of the computer" said Xtrem Inc.'s CEO Mats Wallberg.
The Mac Observer attempted to contact Xtrem's offices in Sweden but were met with an answering machine. Our messages had not been returned by press time. We are working hard to get at the bottom of this, and will keep you updated.
You can find more information at the Xtrem web site.
Of course, they could take the chips from the 10,000 XtremMac pre-orders and start there...
Kidding aside, more or less, on the face of things this simply can not be real. If it is real, it is almost certainly a huge misunderstanding on our part. That said, this company has a very professional Web site that someone spent time, and likely money, on. The company also has an office, or at least a phone, with the right kind of recording on it. As far as hoaxes go, this would be one of the most elaborate we have ever seen.
Contradictions can not exist, but we are still in the process of rechecking our premises.