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It is a bit too late for freescale!


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It is a bit too late for freescale!
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Quagmire
meh
 
Join Date: May 2004
 
2005-06-20, 17:14

AI reports that freescale has announced the PPC 7448. It has been sampling since February and expected to be in mass production in october. It clocks at 1.7 Ghz and has a 200 Mhz FSB. It uses the 90 nm process. Freescale also mentioned the dual core G4. I can't believe Freescale developed a 90nm chip that when they tested it, the building didn't explode. Anyway, being a year late, and the intel switch announced I think it is a bit too late for freescale to redeem itself. The PPC 7448 is the only chip that has the chance to be in the powerbooks/ibooks. By the time the dual core G4 is ready the Powerbooks will be using Yonah Intel's dual core mobile chip. Both chips are based off of the e600 PPC core.

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1142

giggity
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onlyafterdark
Sucker for shiny objects
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Kitchener, ON
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2005-06-20, 18:57

Yup, well said.
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DMBand0026
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
 
2005-06-21, 15:41

The keywords here are: Freescale missed the boat by a year.

WTF? Why even try anymore.
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Luca
ಠ_ರೃ
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
 
2005-06-21, 15:45

Because Apple isn't one of their really big customers.
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DMBand0026
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
 
2005-06-21, 15:48

I know that, there aren't a lot of companies that Apple is their big customer. But the fact is, Freescale has been out of the game for a long time, a lot longer than a year in fact. They were out of the game before the G5 was unveiled. Freescale was out of luck before they were even freescale.

Come waste your time with me
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Chinney
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Ottawa, ON
 
2005-06-21, 16:02

I think that the announcement has possibilities. If freescale can get the chip into production quickly, it has the potential to allow Apple and freescale to sell more hardware over the 2 year (+) interim period. Also, even in the long term, the announcement just might be good news: if this revised chip is the basis for substantial upgrades in cool running G4s, maybe Apple can play both sides of the fence (I think that others have made this point in other threads). I know that a lot of Apple fans have been disappointed with the speed of Moto/freescale development over the years, but the G4 might not be dead.

When there's an eel in the lake that's as long as a snake that's a moray.
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Luca
ಠ_ರೃ
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
 
2005-06-21, 17:02

The problem is that Freescale's goal has never been to create competitive processors for mainstream personal computers. Motorola/Freescale's aims are at the embedded market, so when they fail at making good computer CPUs, it's not surprising since that's not their goal in the first place.

The problem is that Apple just doesn't have enough pull to get any of the big CPU companies to follow their orders. If Apple were as big as Dell, you'd bet Freescale would be pulling out the stops to get better processors made. As it is, Apple has to hitch their wagon to a company that's already making progress in their market - Intel.

I was discussing this with a friend yesterday and he was lamenting the loss of the (far superior) PPC architecture in favor of the ancient x86 architecture. While I agree that it's a shame that PPC is going away in Macs, I also had to say that it's silly to keep hanging onto PPC if nothing good comes of it. It's a choice between a technically superior architecture and one where actual work is being done to make processors that work well in personal computers. If Apple refused to ditch PPC, they'd be cutting off their nose to spite their face. Obviously they've had a reality check and chosen the platform that has a better future in the areas Apple is interested in, even if it isn't perfect.
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