#XBENCH FOR POWERPC MAC OS#
#XBENCH FOR POWERPC SERIES#
#XBENCH FOR POWERPC MAC#

The G5 (PowerPC 970FX) CPU supports 64-bit addresses and data, in contrast to its 32-bit G4 predecessor, as well as a full-duplex FSB.

#XBENCH FOR POWERPC MAC#

This system's FSB speed is half the core clock frequency (in this case, 900 MHz), whereas the single-CPU 1.8-GHz G5 Power Mac ran the FSB at one-third the core clock rate, presumably to maximize the test yield for the CPU and other system components. This second-generation iteration of the platform includes PCI slots along with a four-DIMM architecture the first-generation dual 1.8-GHz G5 Power Mac supported PCI-X add-in cards and included six DDR SDRAM slots. This project also harnessed a dual 1.8-GHz G5 Power Mac, at the other end of the performance spectrum from the dual G4 Power Mac.

#XBENCH FOR POWERPC SERIES#

Follow-on “Mirrored Drive Door” systems marked the end of the line for the G4 Power Mac series they further evolved the memory subsystem by switching from SDRAM to DDR SDRAM. The cost-slimming 元-cache omission on the Mac Mini and PowerBook is perhaps more understandable when you realize that their SDRAM runs at a higher peak data rate than the 元 cache in the dual G4 Power Mac can support! This first-generation Quicksilver system, which runs its single-data-rate SDRAM at a PC100 speed setting, also came in 733- and 867-MHz single-CPU variants second-generation Quicksilver systems delivered 800- and 933-MHz (single-CPU) and 1-GHz (dual-CPU) speeds and underwent a minor 元-cache evolution, switching to DDR (double-data-rate) SRAM that ran at half the CPU core clock speed. The dual 800-MHz G4 Power Mac system (code-named Quicksilver) showcased in this article has half the L2 cache of its Mac Mini and Powerbook G4-based counterparts but contains 2 Mbytes' worth of off-CPU 元 cache consisting of synchronous SRAM running at one-quarter the core CPU-clock rate. To give the project additional relevance to EDN readers, therefore, we also acquired a four-year-old G4 Power Mac through a winning bid on an Ebay auction.įigure 1 Apple’s 1.25-MHz Mac Mini (a), 1.25-GHz G4 PowerBook (b), dual 800-MHz G4 Quicksilver Power Mac with GeeThree’s Sweet Multiport installed (c), and dual 1.8-GHz G5 Power Mac (d) underwent intensive benchmark scrutiny during this hands-on project. The core clock speed of the CPUs in the Mac Mini and PowerBook exceeds that of many PowerPC-based embedded designs. The 32-bit G4 (PowerPC 74xx) CPUs in both systems run at 1.25 GHz, with a 167-MHz FSB (front-side-bus) frequency and no 元 cache. The Mac Mini's specifications are similar to those of a PowerBook that's also in the EDN computer pool, giving credence to the oft-touted observation that (simplistically speaking) Apple repackaged an iBook laptop and removed the LCD from it to come up with the Mac Mini ( Figure 1 ).

Stay tuned for a product teardown in a future EDN Prying Eyes section. Is the Mac Mini, as IBM's documentation claims, a valid development vehicle for PowerPC-based embedded-system designs? What does next-generation game-console developers' embrace of the PowerPC architecture indicate about its cost, performance, power consumption, and other attributes? And, conversely, does Apple's embrace of x86 suggest that the PowerPC is at a crossroads compared with AMD-, Intel-, and Via-supplied CPU alternatives? These are some of the questions that the development efforts, benchmark results, and other issues raised and resolved in this hands-on project attempt to explore.įollowing the recommendations outlined in IBM's literature, EDN purchased a 1.25-GHz Mac Mini, with the SuperDrive writable-DVD-drive option, for $553 after rebate ( Table 1 ). The diverging game-console-versus-computer trends have provoked a vigorous cyberspace and water-cooler debate regarding the future of the PowerPC, both absolutely and relative to its chief 32- and 64-bit competitor, the x86.

And, in early June, Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs announced that the company would begin a phased transition away from the PowerPC to Intel x86 CPUs (references 3 and 4 see sidebar “New PowerPC flavors”). In mid-May, all three next-generation game consoles (Microsoft's Xbox 360, Nintendo's Revolution, and Sony's PlayStation 3), containing various spins of the PowerPC architecture, went public at the E3 Expo.

#XBENCH FOR POWERPC MAC OS#

Beginning in mid-March, IBM published a series of articles promoting the Apple Mac Mini as an embedded hardware- and software-development platform, both under the Mac OS and with various iterations of Linux and BSD Unix (references 1 and 2 see sidebar “Linux: a work in progress”). Three notable events in the high-tech industry so far this year have particularly influenced the status of the PowerPC CPU in embedded-system applications and the broader electronics market.

Xbench for powerpc