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Apple I6

Well, when Apple made the change from motorola to IBM didnt they keep the G?

Motoralo = G3
IBM = G4

Or am I thinking of motorola (68k) to IBM (G3)?

Last edited by Colticus (2005-06-15 5:55 pm)

and also:
The first two G names come from the PPC chips known as Motorola 601 = G1, and Motorola 603-604 = G2
but those names were never really used in public

W

Last edited by Short Circuit (2005-06-15 6:04 pm)

So why did Apple switch between the 2 several times? Why didnt they just stay with one?

The G stands for generations of the PPC chip. Keeping it in the switch to x86 chips would be dishonest, though might make sense from a marketing perspective.

pirloui wrote:

after-life wrote:

The G stands for generations of the PPC chip. Keeping it in the switch to x86 chips would be dishonest, though might make sense from a marketing perspective.

Indeed...

of course...

But Pontiac grabbed G6...

XYZ wrote:

jgcampos wrote:

i thought the G always stood for Generation. so the intel mac would be the... Gintel???

More like Gee wiz

Speaking of which, what ever happened to "Da Beav" who used to post here occasionally?

i's rather have a powermac 645ci

Yep. Apple's the only one (besides upgrade card manufacturers).

To the rest of the world it's a PowerPC 7455, or 970, etc.

Short Circuit wrote:

No you are somewhat right, it was:
IBM (630) = G3

Nope, G3 was (is) the PPC750 series of CPU's.

Motorola (7400 to 74xx) = G4
IBM (970) = G5
so naturally, the:
Intel (xxxx) = G6

No. Intel doesn't make PPC chips, so the Gx naming convention simply doesn't apply to the Intel CPU's. A G6 CPU would be whatever IBM and/or Freescale come up with next in the PPC family of chips.

I still doubt Apple will put current P4s into PowerMacs, so it will probably be a "new" P4 series chip

And Intel/Apple might suprise us with anouncing a brandnew chip on the launch date... iHope

I doubt it. That would negate most of the benefit Apple are gaining from this alliance with Intel: cost savings.

and also:
The first two G names come from the PPC chips known as Motorola 601 = G1, and Motorola 603-604 = G2

The PPC601 was an IBM chip, also produced by Motorola. The 603 and 604 were Motorola chips, also produced by IBM.

Colticus wrote:

So why did Apple switch between the 2 several times? Why didnt they just stay with one?

They didn't. I don't know where people get these weird ideas that Apple "ditched" Motorola/Freescale for IBM at any one time. Apple, IBM and Motorola are all in the AIM alliance together, they have been from the start. The PPC750 (G3) is an IBM design, but it was also produced by Motorola. Apple used both Motorola and IBM G3's in their machines.

The MPC74xx (G4) is a Motorola design, and this was one of the first PPC chips that wasn't produced by both Motorola and IBM. That has been named as one of the reasons for Motorola's supply problems with the G4 CPU.

As for Apple "ditching" Motorola for IBM, who do you think makes those G4 CPU's used in all of Apple's currently shipping computers except the PowerMac G5 and the Xserve?

Scott wrote:

I believe the G3 got that name from the mother board.  I remember when they came out they were called the G3 because it was the third version of the PPC and it was on the the new Gossamer mobos.  And the generation thing came later. Though I was unable to find any reliable resources to support that.  But that is what I remember.

Well, you remember wrong. Apple started using the term G3 at the introduction of the PPC750 CPU, simply because it was catchier than "601", "603", "603e", "603ev", "604", "604e", etc.

That was in line with the simplification of the product lines, away from the plethora of Performa 6345CD/DOS Compatible models and and their 10,000 variations, to the simple PowerMac/PowerBook/iMac/iBook.

I don't think anyone other than Apple refers to them as G3/4/5s do they?

Yes, they do. Only not in actual product designations. If you look at the roadmaps on Freescale's and IBM's PowerPC web sites, you'll see what generations of PPC CPU's each model falls into.

DJ LUCiTE wrote:

Yep. Apple's the only one (besides upgrade card manufacturers).

To the rest of the world it's a PowerPC 7455, or 970, etc.

See above. Internally, both IBM and Freescale divide the various PPC chips into generations, and Apple use those generation names to designate their machines. The actual products are much more diverse than the simple "G3", "G4" and "G5" designations let on. The G3 encompasses the PPC740, PPC750, PPC750CX, PPC750CXe, PPC750FX, PPC750GX, for example. All of those were used in various Apple computers, all of them were simply called "G3" by Apple. The G4 series follows the same pattern: we have the MPC7400, MPC7410, MPC7450, MPC7455, MPC7457, MPC7440, MPC7445, MPC7447, MPC7447A, and the forthcoming MPC7448. Most (not all) of those were used by Apple in their computers, some were offered by upgrade manufacturers, and one is still slated for the future (MPC7448), but will likely be used in some sort of G4 upgrade board.

,xtG
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If the G1 and the G2 were not PPC and the G3 was the first PowerPC chip one would assume that the intel chip is G6

Last edited by Kurto2021 (2005-06-16 8:07 am)