Related Articles

- Turtle Beach announces two USB Audio products

- Magic Mouse software now available for existing Macs, mouse not quite yet

- OWC posts memory upgrades for new iMacs

- Iomega intros new NAS solutions for home

- Wacom announces new Bamboo multi-touch surfaces

- Vertical Mac laptop stand BookArc ships

- OWC cuts prices on external Blu-Ray drives

- LaCie introduces LaCinema Rugged HD media player

- LaCie introduces USB hubs

- Iomega announces more droppable eGo portable HDD

IBM next week will provide a preview of its new 64-bit processor. Designed for both desktops and entry-level servers, the new PowerPC chip could find its way into Apple desktops sometime in the future, according to a report in the EETimes.

The Power4-based chip will be the first IBM PowerPC processor which incorporates vector processing abilities which are expected to be similar if not exactly like Motorola's AltiVec instruction set. AltiVec has long been a feature of the Motorola G4s used in Apple's Power Macs, PowerBooks, flat-panel iMacs and eMacs.

IBM will detail the chip at the Microprocessor Forum, running October 14-17. According to the report EETimes, the chip will support extensions which will provide compatibility with PowerPC architecture, with backward-compatibility with 32-bit environments. Commentators in the article argue that this will ensure compatibility with the Mac OS.

"Apple would have to be crazy not to use this part," Peter Glaskowsky. editor-in-chief of The Microprocessor Report, the forum's host, said to EETimes.

However, there are obstacles to the Power4's use: Apple would need to invest significant time in OS development to support a 64-bit environment. Moreover, software developers would need to rework their applications to take full advantage of the chip.

The upsides, should Apple decide to adopt the chip, include a superscalar pipeline and symmetric multiprocessing.

Analysis: Jobs has had a sneak preview of the PowerPC roadmap that we aren't privileged to, but it's safe to say he's happy with the 'options'. The work needed to rework OS X to get the best performance out of the Power4 may take considerable time and investment; however, it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that Apple could implement the Power4 and use the existing 32-bit architecture in its boxes. It's been done before and they're doing it now: the current PM G4s are a case in point, employing processors which cannot take full advantage of DDR.

Similarly, Apple has pulled such stunts in the past, with some deplorable, half-baked Performas. Power4 - like the early PM G4/350 - might give Apple the marketing edge it sorely needs while it competes with the next-generation Intel/AMD chips. To be able to use Power4 in a 32-bit environment while it waits for the OS to catch up may prove a temptation for Apple that is too great to ignore.