| William H. Magill on Tue, 24 Jun 2003 12:00:15 -0400 |
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Yesterday's announcement by Apple of G5 PowerPC systems based on the IBM 970 PowerPC gives anybody interested in Linux a new 64-bit, seriously high-performance, platform to work with. (www.apple.com/g5/) On another list a couple of us have been discussing the implications... The 970 runs both 32 and 64 bit code. IBM has large chip runs to meet its own needs, but the chip runs to fill Apple's needs is at least an order of magnitude larger. That means cheap chips...! [All being built in a brand new IBM Fab.] Apple is pricing the Dual 2 ghz CPU with a 1 ghz system bus at $2999! There is a sub 20w version of the 970 that runs at 1.2 ghz ... can you say Laptop? "IBM's entry into the commodity Power chip space will only bring down the prices as well. It seems IBM's strategy is to sell the commodity version for Linux solutions (as well as to Apple)." Couple this with the fact that IBM DOES have decent compiler technology, significant experience with emulation from the 68K to PowerPC migration, and, unlike Digital, Compaq or HP, DOES understand Marketing -- Itanium with Alpha inside is likely to prove too little too late. (Tape-out was scheduled for late 2004, early 2005.) This announcement is the "first shoe" that many of us who watch the hardware side of things have been waiting for since Compaq killed Alpha. It basically marks the beginning of the end for SPARC and for the entry of folks like Dell into the mid-range server market. And if we suddenly discover that we also are once again seeing REAL IBM clones appear again, it could also hammer Hammer. Hardware has just gotten interesting again.
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