Sonnet Technologies has announced a new G&4 upgrade product line to join their existing G3 products. The new cards fully support AltiVec, or The Velocity Engine, and are shipping in 350 MHz and 400 MHz versions. According to Sonnet:
Sonnet Technologies announces that G4 upgrade cards for PCI Macs are immediately available from distributors worldwide. Sonnet quietly stocked resellers last week and is pleased to announce immediate volume availability from reseller partners. The Sonnet Crescendo G4 includes superior Altivec Enabling software, complete Mac OS 9 Velocity Engine compatibility, Adobe Photoshop Altivec Plug-In Enabling software, Sonnet Metronome Profiler Utility software, and unequaled ease-of-installation and reliability.
Altivec Enabling Software
The Sonnet Crescendo G4 upgrade ships with superior Altivec Enabling software, giving all applications access to the Altivec processing engine in the G4 processor. The unique Sonnet Enabler extends Altivec support to even MacsBug, which is an important distinction for software developers and sophisticated users.
Mac OS 9 Velocity Engine and Adobe Photoshop Altivec Compatibility Sonnet Crescendo G4 Enabler fully supports the Apple Velocity Engine libraries included in Mac OS 9. The Adobe Photoshop 5.5 Altivec Plug-ins, Altivec Core, Lighting Effects, as well as future Altivec plug-ins are also enabled with the Sonnet software. Adobe Photoshop 5.5 users can expect a specialized boost out of the Sonnet Crescendo G4 processor. Scientific and audio/video authoring applications will also benefit significantly from a Sonnet G4 upgrade.
Sonnet Metronome Every Sonnet G3 and G4 upgrade includes the Metronome Profiler Utility software, giving users useful system performance information such as processor type, speed, temperature, bus speed, and cache size.
Simply Fast
Sonnet Crescendo G4 cards have unequaled ease-of-installation and reliability. Sonnet Crescendo cards work in every compatible Macintosh without the need for the antiquated methods of hardware configuration. Free from switches, jumpers, and control panels, the Sonnet Crescendo G3 and G4 families for PCI and NuBus Macintoshes are Simply Fast. Sonnet processor cards will automatically configure to the maximum possible reliable speed based on the machine and rating of the processor. Sonnet products are guaranteed to operate reliably over variations of machine, time and temperature. The ability to move an upgrade card from one machine to another without the need to tweak any jumpers, switches or control panels is a significant advantage to resellers and organizations that want to maximize their flexibility, while minimizing the long term technical support requirements.
Availability All Sonnet G4 upgrades are now available through all channel partners and from the Sonnet web site. Estimated US pricing appears below. Actual pricing may vary.
The Crescendo G4/PCI is compatible with the following models:
- Power Mac 7300, 7500, 7600, 8500, 8515, 8600, 9500, 9515, 9600
- Workgroup Server 7350, 8550, 9650
- Power Computing PowerTower Pro and PowerWave
- UMAX J700/S900
- DayStar Genesis 360, 400, 528, 600, 720, 800, 900, 932