Såhär skriver MOSR om powermacens framtid:
The big word in the rumor arena lately is all about the desktop consumer and professional Macs, the iMac and PowerMac. With the recent eMac, Powerbook G4 2002, iBook 2002, and Xserve announcements, those are the big two Macs left to update.
The next iMacs are to be a muted update, according to the latest from the grapevine. G4 processors at up to 933MHz, 133MHz bus speeds, and GeForce 4MX graphics cards are the main improvements recently noted. There is disagreement, but quite a lot of discussion in general, about external L3 backside cache memory, which can significantly increase performance as seen in the current Powerbook and PowerMac models. If it shows up, it will most likely be 1MB of such cache, at up to 333MHz, and will probably not be the Double Data Rate variety found in the Power models. Some have suggested that more costly models with 17-inch widescreen displays may also be added, but that Apple is still trying to gauge the psychological effect of an iMac that costs well in excess of $2000 for a standard model. Otherwise, it is unlikely that the core elements of the iMac G4 will change much.
The PowerMac will sport a more dramatic improvement, finally bringing the Xserve´s DDR266 memory to the mainstream Mac at a reasonable price point and nearly doubling peak memory bandwidth on that model. A new GeForce4-family graphics card will be standard on all models except the entry-level, which will retain the MX card but with more and faster memory than the iMac´s MX accelerator. Processor speeds are not entirely guaranteed just yet thanks to the usual problems at Motorola, but regardless the estimates are impressive -- 1.33GHz at the least, 1.5GHz at the best. 1.4GHz seems a reasonable middle of the road guess at this point. These new G4s will also sport some other improvements, including 512KB of on-chip L2 cache and an improved on-chip memory architecture.
The new PowerMac may also sport a killer new enclosure, but the Cupertino fog is thick as far as that goes. Other internal improvements are to include more room for extra internal drives, a possible third external drive bay, new and improved Airport antennas, and six -- count them six -- full-length PCI slots, three of them 64-bit/66MHz and three 64-bit/33MHz. An 8X AGP graphics slot rounds out a full seven beautiful expansion possibilities just waiting for the professional to drool over.
Right now it looks like 800Mbps+ Firewire and USB2 are going to wait for the next revision, due in early 2003 that will also most likely see very new processors that Apple, at least, will call G5s. But then, they might do that anyway this summer with dual 1.4GHz G4s. Also, expect only the entry-level PowerMac to retain a single processor. It may be that Apple will go for a single 1GHz G4 in the entry level, Dual 1.13GHz and 1.4GHz models filling out the line.
Quad processors, while made increasingly viable by the latest generation of G4 chips and the improved memory architecture, are still a difficult value proposition for Apple. Still, with the wonders of OS X to promote, we wouldn´t be surprised if Apple took the plunge and pushed the high end of Mac performance that much further. Just don´t look at the price tag....ouch.
Och vill man gotta sig i G4 vs. G5 så finns en rejäl och underhållande (nåja - för dom med intresse i alla fall tråd på Apple Insider:
There is no G5
