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Apple's Dev. Tools Hint @ Dual-core G5 & Quad Mac 421

Posted by Hemos from the peering-into-the-future dept.
Eug writes "Apple just released a new version of its CHUD tools, which provides clues about dual-core G5s and quad core Macs (dual dual-core). The clues include a reference to the 970MP, which is dual-core G5 with increased L2 cache. Also, there is now support for 4 CPUs, whereas previous versions of these Mac OS X tools only supported 2. This likely means we'll see dual-core Macs by WWDC, and possibly quad Macs based off these dual-core chips by then too."
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Apple's Dev. Tools Hint @ Dual-core G5 & Quad Mac More

Apple's Dev. Tools Hint @ Dual-core G5 & Quad Mac

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  • Why rumors? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BWJones ( 18351 ) * on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:06PM (#11911436) Homepage Journal

    So, while it is interesting to speculate [utah.edu] on what Apple may be doing and where they may be going with various products, I have never really understood the rabid nature of the fan sites and rumor sites. What is the point with rumors? Can anybody explain that to me?

    I am going to be practical here: It has always amazed me that people say "I am going to wait to buy XXXX until they come out with the new one". Buy what you need for the job you need it for and realize that whenever you buy something computer related, it is likely already obsolete and will be replaced with the next shiny thing in a couple of months. There are very few times where waiting will recoup your investment. Get what you need for the job and start being productive now. If something comes out that will make you more productive, then sell off the previous system and get the new one if 1) it will pay off the investment or I suppose, 2) if you simply like shiny things.

    Don't get me wrong. Apple builds some sexy hardware and software, but I prefer to use their stuff for my work and research because it simply allows more productivity and is more pleasurable to work with, but somebody, please explain to me why the rumor sites are so popular? I understand why business analysts might be interested, and competitors, buy why the obsession of fans with these rumors?

    Oh, and is not it time for the Slashdot Apple desktop icon to be updated to reflect the current desktop line? i.e. G5.

    • Re:Why rumors? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Daedala ( 819156 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:09PM (#11911476)
      It's much less messy than reading entrails, though.

    • Re:Why rumors? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      One reason for the interest in when the new models are coming out is price.

      Sure the current model might be what you need, but when the new models come out, the older model usually drops in price - saving you a decent amount of money.

    • Why rumors? Because they feel a need. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by crovira ( 10242 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:15PM (#11911565) Homepage
      Its like IBM in the 60s (boy I feel o-l-d) and the seventies, when all of the trade rags were committing acts of stochastic tittilation trying to perceive the direction that an elephant was going in from a point of view slightly below and in front if its tail.

      Apple is a live player and everybody who can't DO like to play at pre-guessing on ones who can as to what they're actually going to DO.

      If they're right, they can claim guru-hood and if they're wrong, they bury the evidence in the /null/zero bit-bucket.

    • Re:Why rumors? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by painandgreed ( 692585 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:16PM (#11911571)

      Main Apache Apple AskSlashdot 5 more Books BSD 1 more Developers 4 more Games 19 more Interviews IT 2 more Linux 1 more Politics Science 5 more YRO 2 more Help FAQ Bugs Stories Old Stories Old Polls Topics Hall of Fame Submit Story About Supporters Code Awards Services Broadband PriceGrabber Product Guide Special Offers Tech Jobs Why rumors? Why rumors? (Score:1) by BWJones (18351) on Friday March 11, @12:06PM (#11911436) (http://prometheus.me...b/pubx_pubx_bwj.html) So, while it is interesting to speculate on what Apple may be doing and where they may be going with various products, I have never really understood the rabid nature of the fan sites and rumor sites. What is the point with rumors? Can anybody explain that to me?

      Well, for one, why do people like to reada about Linux? people want information on the stuff they're interested in and since Apple is pretty closed lip about such things the only news are rumors. Two, Apples updates happen fairly less frequent than general updates in the PC world. With things less fluid, it becomes advantageous to perhaps wait a few weeks or months before makign a large purchase, especially for a business if you might get 25% preformance boost for doing so. Since the upgrade cycle is longer on Macs typcially, that means more work out of those machines for a longer time. Paying attention to such release schedules can pay off even if you are planning to get current models. If you find out that a new release is coming out, that usually means the current one will be discounted. While it's possible to a refund if the change happens very near you purchase date, sometimes it's less hassle to simply wait.

      • Re:Why rumors? (Score:5, Informative)

        by ducomputergeek ( 595742 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @02:20PM (#11913168)
        This is extremely true in video production companies, especially small ones. I still know two people that used a G3 tower up until last fall when they purchased a top of the line Dual G5 machines after 6 years. They needed it to run FCP 4HD/64-bit. Why do we use the machines for so long? Because its not uncommon to drop $20,000 on a machine and realated software. Our primary rendering units for lightwave were $8k a peice without monitors. Believe it or not, some of our modeller's larger meshes can eat up 2GB or more of RAM, so having 8GB is extremely nice!

        Right now we are suffering from a bottle neck in rendering. We typically make new hardware purchases every major Apple upgrade typically about every 6 months. The former top of the line machines get intergraded as render nodes, with older machines going off the render farm for general business use like for the secratary. (G3 400'sand G4 500's still run MS office just fine).
        We were seriously considering purchasing some Mac Mini's and adding to the group for about $600. (Base model with 512MB of Ram). Why? Well for the base price of one entry level G5 we could purchase about 4 Mac Minis. 4 versus 1 machines, so even if one fails we still are at 75%. Typically we figure that if the Mac Minis took 1 hour each per frame and a G5 Tower could do 2.5 we'd still be rendering 4 frames per hour.

        We currrently have 6 Mac Mini's on order to test them out. If all else fails, the the none Graphics people will be getting nice new upgrades on their desks.

        Having this kind of information though is nice because it plays a role in determining when we make major hardware additions (we're talking spending $50k+ at a time). The thing is, we don't typically purchase first generation Apple anything. We purchased 12 new Dual G4's two weeks after the release of the first G5's just to make sure the bugs were worked out. We just figured we'd play a hunch and buying $3,000 worth of new computers isn't a major purchase to us (2 copies of Lightwave in our business).

    • Re:Why rumors? (Score:4, Funny)

      by thirteenVA ( 759860 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:16PM (#11911578)
      Rumors are like 'celebrity gossip' for the slashdot crowd. Now shut up so I can here the whispering!
    • If you buy it at the beginning of the life cycle, you have a longer time before it's obsolete (same with buying top-of-the-line). That argument convinced my wife to let me get a Powerbook. The obvious tradeoff is that you deal with the bugs.

      The rumor sites are popular because *gasp* people like to know what's coming out. Especially people who like certain things.

      I know. It's shocking.

    • Re:Why rumors? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by KiloByte ( 825081 )
      New hardware is always insanely expensive. Unless you have really specific needs, it never pays to be an early adopter here.
      If you need the processing power, just build a cluster of quite-new-but-not-spanking-new boxes. In this case, you don't even get the benefit of improving the performance of single-threaded programs.

      Unless you really need the shiny thing to feel like a macho, you can as well wait until they get cheaper.
    • while it is true that computers always get better so waiting on the next thing can seem stupid, it would not be wise to buy right before a new product release or refresh.

      if something new is about to hit the shelves you should wait a bit to see because even if you don't buy it you'll at least get a discount on the stuff you were just about to buy anyway.

      just in the last few months there have been cases of Apple refeshing (new Powerbooks, iPod minis and iPod photos) and discounting (iBooks).
    • I have never really understood the rabid nature of the fan sites and rumor sites. What is the point with rumors? Can anybody explain that to me?

      Well, Spock, it's kind of for the same reason we try to make predictions on emerging technologies in the future, and say how cars will look in oh I dunno 2025.

      There's really no pragmatism in it, it's more of an oooh-ahhh factor.

    • Re:Why rumors? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by daviddennis ( 10926 ) <david@amazing.com> on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:26PM (#11911701) Homepage
      For one thing, some people are egotistical enough to want the latest and greatest thing. It may not be the smartest thing in the world, but it's very human. The longer you have the latest and greatest thing, the more ego satisfaction it brings you. So the optimal strategy is to buy the system when it first comes out and to hope that when you have the budget for it, something even greater will come out to replace it.

      I have what was the lastest and greatest thing a year and a half ago: The PowerMac G5 2.0ghz dual processor system. It's been through a revision or two since then, but nothing earth-shattering.

      You would be right about wanting to buy the system you need today, but if you already have a system that's working well, such as my 2.0ghz dual processor G5 I bought a year and a half ago, things are different. Do I want to get the 2.5ghz revision, or do I want to wait until it gets to 3.0ghz? This is particularly interesting since I do work that would enormously benefit from a quad-processor system.

      So in this respect, rumors are valuable since they help us see ahead, even if through an Apple-created fog. Apple hates them because they want me to buy my 2.5ghz system today. At the same time, I had decided at the time the system was introduced that the small performance improvement probably wasn't worth it. So I'm stuck, but rumor sites give me something to look forward to.

      Hope that helps.

      D

    • It has always amazed me that people say "I am going to wait to buy XXXX until they come out with the new one". Buy what you need for the job you need it for...

      I'm going to risk blowing a fair amount of karma here and say that a huge bunch of the people that are like this with Apple hardware actually have just about zero real need or use for it. They just like it cos it's new and shiny...
    • People become addicted to Apple rumors because they tend to be first to market for a lot of stuff.

      If you have an interest in where desktop computing is going, it's good to know what Apple's got in the oven.
    • You're thinking WAY too logically. People do make purchase decisions based soley on need, as you suggest-- but they also make them based on other factors. Apple products inspire, for lack of better words, lust.

      Aside from that simple anecdote, this particular rumors has a practical side:

      Today I can buy 2 processors running at 2.5 GHz. In a couple months I can buy 4 processors running at 3.0+ GHz. Unless I _need_ a machine now because I don't already have one, then it's a simple waiting game. Since I alread

    • Re:Why rumors? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Have Blue ( 616 )
      You forgot to take into account how *long* you plan to wait. There's a big difference between "We think Apple will release a new XXXX sooner or later" and "Apple is very likely release a new XXXX at Macworld next week." I hope nobody is basing their purchasing decisions off TFA, since it's so vague and WWDC is way off in June, but it's standard procedure when buying anything to make sure you don't miss a chance to get more for less.
    • am going to be practical here: It has always amazed me that people say "I am going to wait to buy XXXX until they come out with the new one". Buy what you need for the job you need it for and realize that whenever you buy something computer related, it is likely already obsolete and will be replaced with the next shiny thing in a couple of months.

      I take a slightly different approach based on that same idea of inevitable obsolescence. Know that some day, the computer you buy will be unable to run the the
    • What is the point with rumors? Can anybody explain that to me?

      Most technology companies give you a roadmap so you can plan your technology budget. Apple plays Cloak & Dagger games instead. The rumors sites fill a small part of that gap. And when Apple does give a roadmap, they miss it.

      If you're a big account and about to drop Apple you might get some advance information - otherwise, wait & see.

      And people wonder why businesses are largely not on the Apple bandwagon. When Apple grows up the bus

    • Re:Why rumors? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jizmonkey ( 594430 )
      This the logical flaw of circular reasoning. You say, whenever you buy something computer related, it is likely already obsolete and will be replaced with the next shiny thing in a couple of months. In fact this very problem is avoided by knowing when new products are coming out.

      Your other comment, Buy what you need for the job you need it for is something of a strawman. You are putting words into people's mouths when you say there is a "need." Most people don't work at NASA, where X is needed now at whatev

    • I agree completely. On so many of the Apple fan sites I read all the comments like these: "I won't buy product X until is has Y" or "I'll wait until product Z has feature Q".

      So many people are holding off on a PowerBook purcahse because they just feel that a G5 is right around the corner.

      With any technology, you can wait until you purchase until the next best thing comes along, because there will always be a next best thing.

      Just buy what you need to get your job/interests done! If you wait for another

    • Re:Why rumors? (Score:5, Funny)

      by revscat ( 35618 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:58PM (#11912130) Journal

      So, while it is interesting to speculate on what Apple may be doing and where they may be going with various products, I have never really understood the rabid nature of the fan sites and rumor sites. What is the point with rumors? Can anybody explain that to me?

      Dude, if the though of not one but TWO dual-core 64-bit processors sitting on your desk doesn't get you engorged and/or moist, then it is simply impossible for you to call yourself a geek in good standing.

      Two 64-bit *multi gigahertz* dual core CPUs. On your desktop. Running OS X.

      *shifts in chair*

      Yup, I'm in the in crowd. Kickin.

    • Re:Why rumors? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by javaxman ( 705658 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:59PM (#11912139) Journal
      why the obsession of fans with these rumors?

      Why do bored housewives care about what was on Paris Hilton's handheld ? Why is Michael Jackson's trial big news ? Who are Brad and Jen and why do so many people care?? How many people read US Weekly?!?

      God help us, I don't know why, but reading tech rumor sites is the geek equivalent, what's so hard to understand? It beats doing actual work... I don't care what happens to hollywood celebs, and politics is just painful to watch, so reading up on my favorite tech is great entertainment. Probably a lot of the folks reading these sites are checking CNet and /. and google news as well. I know I am.

      But by any standard, Apple is one of the more interesting tech companies out there, definitely one of the more unique ones, so it really shouldn't be hard for you to see why it's so popular as a rumor subject. Almost nobody is really checking rumor sites to make purchasing decisions. It's just our form of US Weekly.

      is not it time for the Slashdot Apple desktop icon to be updated to reflect the current desktop line? i.e. G5.

      Is that really the thing /. needs to work on the most?? I'm sure there are more important features of the site that could use some attention... but most important of all, what should the icon be? A G5 PowerMac? A Mac mini? A G5 iMac? An Xserve? I guess it should be a G5 PowerMac, but a Mac mini or G5 iMac might be the more common machine...

  • i'd be willing to wait for a g5 powerbook, if i could get a dual-proc one ..

  • Dichotomy (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Space cowboy ( 13680 ) *

    I can't help thinking that this is bad timing on Think-Secret's part. To raise your profile by doing (again!) the thing you're being sued for, at the very time you're being sued means that (if he loses), the penalties are going to be that much worse (reckless, showed no remorse, uncontrollable, etc. etc.). Lawyers will have a field day.

    On the other hand, there's the case that if he's not doing anything wrong, why not continue doing exactly that. And let's face it, if this turns out to be true, it's definit

    • Re:Dichotomy (Score:5, Informative)

      by BWJones ( 18351 ) * on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:14PM (#11911542) Homepage Journal

      I can't help thinking that this is bad timing on Think-Secret's part. To raise your profile by doing (again!)

      The reason is that Nick Ciarelli is making beaucoup cash from Think Secret. It has been a cash cow for him.

      On the other hand, there's the case that if he's not doing anything wrong, why not continue doing exactly that.

      The blog world is having a field day with this case but the reality is that Apple is not trying to limit what blogs report, and they do not consider Think Secret to be a blog site. It is a rumor site that has broken the law by soliciting confidential information and compensating those who choose to divulge confidential proprietary information. Good write up on the reality here [daringfireball.net].

    • Um, Note the Byline Date (Score:3, Informative)

      by SteveM ( 11242 )

      July 23, 2004

      SteveM

    • Re:Dichotomy (Score:3, Informative)

      by MattHaffner ( 101554 )
      WTF are you talking about? The new news comes from a blog site "everythingapple" and talks about something Apple publicly released! The link to thinksecret is from last summer!

      READ!

    • Re:Dichotomy (Score:3, Insightful)

      by 2nd Post! ( 213333 )
      Plus they aren't INDUCING information.

      They'ved DEDUCED information from publically available information from Apple.

  • bravo apple (Score:3, Interesting)

    by PureCreditor ( 300490 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:09PM (#11911481)
    Dual-Core Dual-CPU G5 will be the ultimate design powerhouse....esp if Apple/IBM can up the cores to like 2.8 or even 3GHz each, then you can have a theoretical 12GHz workstation. Even accounting for SMP overhead, a dual-core dual-cpu G5 can chunk a massively parallel job (e.g. HD movie rending) at the equivalent of 10GHz.

    • Re:bravo apple (Score:3, Insightful)

      by thirteenVA ( 759860 )
      You want a 3ghz dual core G5 and we're still waiting for the 3ghz single core version we were promised for last year.
    • Dual-Core Dual-CPU G5 will be the ultimate design powerhouse


      Add multithreading to the mix, and you would have a real killer system.... Each core would be capable of handling two threads, two cores per chip, two chips per system...

  • Excellent marketing (Score:5, Funny)

    by ites ( 600337 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:10PM (#11911491) Journal
    I'm impressed.

    To get to the point where fans will scan random binaries for strings that give clues as to the features of upcoming products, write their speculations in blogs, and where these blogs then make the front page of the world's most popular news site for geeks...

    I'm impressed.

    Now if only I knew what CHUD, 970MP, or WWDC meant...

  • Quad Mac (Score:5, Funny)

    by zosa ( 261289 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:10PM (#11911496)
    ...will they call it a Quadra? ;)

  • Totally offtopic (Score:2, Informative)

    by TuringTest ( 533084 )
    Hey, I thought Slashdot had a policy of never removing a posted story. But the dupe article on Israeli Army Bans Dungeons & Dragons Players [slashdot.org] has totally disappeared, with all the user comments [slashdot.org]!

  • we'll see (Score:3, Informative)

    by djdavetrouble ( 442175 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:12PM (#11911522) Homepage
    There were plans for 4 processor g4's also, remember? Then there was a cpu shortage and they stopped at dual proc models.

  • Good Stock? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by SteelV ( 839704 )
    Even though Apple Computer's stock is pretty high in regards to the P/E ratio (ever since the iPod got the investors' interest), I still think it might be a good buy for the future.

    They seem to be sort of like Google in that they are constantly experimenting with new ideas, and coming out with new products/services and business models.

    Unfortunately, I didn't get in on either stock on the ground floor, and even though they went up pretty high now I think they both might still be great buys for the future

    • Re:Good Stock? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by revscat ( 35618 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:36PM (#11911814) Journal

      Even though Apple Computer's stock is pretty high in regards to the P/E ratio (ever since the iPod got the investors' interest), I still think it might be a good buy for the future.

      I agree. You won't make any money off of dividends, but my own belief (and Wall Street's consensus, for what that is worth) is that AAPL is a good buy. I'm hoping that when Apple holds their next earnings call that we will find out that the Mac mini has sold absolute gangbusters, and that it will allow the market's focus upon the success of the iPod to be somewhat psychologically replaced by the success of the mini.

      Unfortunately, I didn't get in on either stock on the ground floor, and even though they went up pretty high now I think they both might still be great buys for the future.

      Apple, yes. Google, not so sure. Apple is consistently coming out with products that make money, and their recent stock split have brought their stock back to more reasonable levels. Google is still trading at around $180/share, and that to my mind is far too high a price to pay given their current revenues. They're profitable, I just don't know about $180/share profitable.

      Difficult to see, the future is. *shrug* For whatever reason my inner Warren Buffet says "buy AAPL, wait on GOOG".

  • WAIT... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by thirteenVA ( 759860 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:14PM (#11911544)
    [quote] "Also, there is now support for 4 CPUs, whereas previous versions of these Mac OS X tools only supported 2"[/quote]

    Before you work yourself into a tizzy of excitement that requires you to wipe off your keyboard, remember that quad processor mac rumors have been around for a long time.

    If we ever do see A quad processor mac it will likely be in a server configuration such as the xServe, not in a PowerMac.

  • Dual Dual Dual ??? (Score:4, Funny)

    by blakespot ( 213991 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:15PM (#11911553) Homepage
    Dual dual G5's. I guess now I'd need [blakespot.com] four screens. The wife is going to kill me.


    blakespot

  • Slashdot's New Title (Score:5, Funny)

    by Koiu Lpoi ( 632570 ) <koiulpoi@gma i l .com> on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:16PM (#11911581)
    Rumors for Nerds!
    Stuff that may or may not be true!

  • the IIfx effect (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Selecter ( 677480 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:17PM (#11911590)
    Way back when, Apple came out with the IIfx, described as "wicked fast" by Jobs. They cost 10,000 dollars in 1993 dollars, but they sold plenty of them.

    I am convinced thay have missed the boat until now. They need to make a PC crusher at the top of their line, something that is so much faster than any PC for creative work that no one would dare say any PC is faster.

    They got a lot of attention and doubting when they introed "The World's Fastest Personal Computer" when they came out with the G5. What they need to do is actually make that come true beyond anyone's doubt, and then keep up with it. To hell with what it costs - if they sold those IIfx's for 10K back in 1993 they can do the same thing today but even better for far less money.

    This time, make that boast true, and shove it straight down the naysayers throats.

    • 1990, 1993, either way, Jobs wasn't at Apple then.

      Maybe someone else called them "wicked fast", but since calling everything 'wicked' is a Bah-stahn (pahk the cah by tha hahbah) thing, I doubt it was His Steveness.
    • Quad dualcores maybe? With 4 AGP slots, maybe... and hell, 16 DIMMs.
    • They were wicked fast, but I don't think it was Jobs who described them thusly, since he had founded NeXT by that point, and wasn't at Apple.

      Also, by '93, Apple was making the transition to PPC, so I'm not sure if your dates are correct.
    • So you are counting anything up to $10k as a PC?

      Right now I can go out and buy a machine with a quad AMD-Opteron board from Tyan. They cost a lot, but are here today, and well under your limit for price. AMD will go dual core sooner than Apple too.

      Sorry, the PCs have the MAC crushers right now, and will for some time to come.

  • Dual Core vs. Dual Processor (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ironsides ( 739422 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:19PM (#11911615) Homepage Journal
    Can anyone tell me if a Dual-Dual-core processor box is better than a quad-single-core box? I know none are out yet so we can't do benchmarks, but I would think that there might be bottlenecks or something that would make a quad-single-core perform better.

    • Re:Dual Core vs. Dual Processor (Score:5, Informative)

      by JohnGrahamCumming ( 684871 ) * <slashdot.jgc@org> on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:22PM (#11911652) Homepage Journal
      Theory is that the dual core chips will run cooler than two single core chips and there's less real estate on the motherboard required (one socket and less glue circuitry).

      John.

      • Re:Dual Core vs. Dual Processor (Score:4, Informative)

        by rsborg ( 111459 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @02:19PM (#11913150) Homepage
        Theory is that the dual core chips will run cooler than two single core chips and there's less real estate on the motherboard required (one socket and less glue circuitry).

        Add to this that mutli-core chips usually have better memory interconnects with each other, improving speed to a small degree...not to mention that either there are more memory coherence interconnects for all chips involved (assuming a point-to-point design similar to AMD aka Hypertransport) or a shared memory bus like Intel (and reduced memory throughput per chip)

        In short 2xDual is better than 4xSingle.

    • It all depends on the design of the memory system. Any box can be crippled by a cheap/slow memory system. If you want large caches, low latency, and huge main memory bandwidth, you can have it, for a price.
    • I would say almost certainly dual core processors would run more efficiently than single core processors. The necessary communication between the cores to ensure cache coherency etc would run along much faster pipes in the chip rather than having to find their way back to the motherboard.

  • Testing Doesn't Mean Products (Score:5, Insightful)

    by buckhead_buddy ( 186384 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:26PM (#11911702)
    CHUD tools are most useful for testing products, but they happen to have some utility for those of us who want to tweak our computers at home. The latest release indicates that the developers have modularized the product and made it more adaptable when chips change.

    What's likely happened is that Apple will get hot under the collar about the way these tools can inadvertantly indicate possible future plans. They used to release WWDC sessions on Quicktime CD's for free (back in 98 or 99). They used to not make developers sign their life away in non-disclosure agreements. They used to allow more access to developer docs, tools, and seeds to the dedicated hobbyist. Now these are all restricted because of leaks that have come from eager fans searching resource forks, out of context remarks, and misunderstood uses as "evidence of Apple's future plans".

    If no quad processors are actually in the production pipeline, this rumor will be forgotten. If there is something that has been revealed by the Chud tools, it's more likely that Chud tools will be even more restricted and difficult to get hold of. Slowing down development as developers fear for their jobs for accidentally including a reference to a product they may know nothing about (e.g. Asteroid, a cpu number, a code name, etc.)

    It's not like these strings tell you any useful information. Since Apple has a lengthy design, testing and production pipeline all it really says is we might have some new tech in a couple of years if it seems like a good marketing move. There's no pricing, case design, release dates, or anything marketing related in these leaks. In fact, since Apple is strongly dependent on a suprising and innovative marketing aura these leaks and speculations probably worsen that marketability.

    One other example: the rumors sites have seen some "evidence" in seed releases that Apple will be making a push to release OS X on x86 chips. That may be the case, but more than likely they're confusing efforts to make a Window's user's transition to a Mac easier as "evidence" that Apple is moving to x86. All that happens is that OS X users will be disappointed that future releases don't run on the x86 line as their speculative "evidence" promised.

    Get over the obsession with the rumors; you're only setting youreself up for disappointment.
  • ...They'll be enterprise-class 4-way XServes. Hopefully with dual power-supply available.

    Really, these two features are the last things keeping Xserves out of my datacenter... (Our corporate IT policy is that all servers have dual-PS.) You can't imagine how much it sucks to have the Macs for the design team saving data to Windows servers, because Microsoft's AFP implementation blows, and so does Apple's SMB implementation. I know you can't see, but I'm doing the happy dance now.
  • Maybe this is just the push the industry needs to make more apps multi-cpu aware.
  • Whats the big deal? multi-core processors seems to be the "next big thing" to achieve faster speeds, smaller sizes, yada yada.. AMD is doing it .. Intel is doing it .. IBM has been doing it for a while .. so Apple is going to do it.

    I don't understand why a rumor about yet another chip going dual core is news. It makes a LOT of sense. Multi-processor machines are more responsive, apps that need the speed are designed (generally) to utilize multiple processors and a dual core processor provides the benefits

    • So where's the OS? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Thu25245 ( 801369 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @03:56PM (#11914145)
      This is not a rumor about another dual-core chip. There is no mention of a chip at all. Apple uses IBM chips,and, as you mention, "IBM has been doing it for a while."

      This is about Apple's diagnostic and performance tools supporting more than 2 CPU cores. The implication is, whatever prototypes Apple's working on needs these tools *right now.*

      Further, Apple is not much of a server vendor. XServe is great, sure, but it's not how Apple makes its money. You can bet that, if Apple's going 4-way, it's going to have 4-way desktops or workstations.

      Windows XP, on the other hand, does not yet support more than two logical CPUs. So any dual-core chip used on an XP box would be by itself...a two-way box. 4-way or larger Windows boxes would have to run Server 2003. Windows Server is not usually blessed for use on personal machines. (Though plenty of people do it.)

      So what's the point? The point is, four cores on your desk, not in your closet.
  • the kicka-you-a$$a! That's what they should call the dual-dual G5.

  • That sound you hear... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by javaxman ( 705658 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @12:43PM (#11911916) Journal
    is the sound of Apple's laywers starting firing off letters to EverythingApple.

    You have to do a click-through NDA just to get the -current- version ( 4.0.1 ) of the CHUD tools, I don't want to think about where this guy got his clearly pre-release copy of CHUD 4.1.0.

    Are there sites that show off pre-release Microsoft software covered by NDAs? Where can you get the unannounced plans for Intel's next big thing? Why is it that people don't expect Apple to sue their pants off when they report this stuff ??

    Don't get me wrong, I'm big on freedom of speech, press, and just about anything else, but... if it was my company whose not-publicly-announced-plans were being outed all over the internet, I'd be pissed, and probably suing, if just to find the source of the leak and fire someone.

    Clearly, Apple's not going to make too big a deal out of this, since it's info in an app that anyone can download ( after creating a free account [apple.com] and clicking past an NDA ) , but still... I certainly wouldn't put this kind of stuff up on *my* website without a sure way to keep the lawyers at bay. On the other hand, since the noted version isn't actually available _yet_, they might sue... maybe it wasn't going to go out until after Apple announced quad-processor plans. Given Apple's recent lawsuits ( and court victories ) in this area, I'd think people would be a *little* more careful what they blog, but I guess not. Eug looks pretty annon, I don't know what you have to do to get an EverythingApple blog going, maybe he feels that Apple just can't get to him. For his sake, I hope he's right.

    In any event, it'll be interesting to see how long AnythingApple can keep this page up, and I am definitely keeping my eye out for a new CHUD update...

    quad G5s?? Damn, I almost forgot to drool about that !! 64-bit number-crunching goodness!!

    • You have to do a click-through NDA just to get the -current- version ( 4.0.1 ) of the CHUD tools, I don't want to think about where this guy got his clearly pre-release copy of CHUD 4.1.0

      Um no CHUD tools are not under NDA... it is a freely and publicly available tool from Apple's developer site.

      See Apple's Performance Tool Page [apple.com] for the link.

      Or just download it from the FTP site [apple.com].

      Nothing presents any NDA when installing it either, in fact my already installed version of CHUD prompted me to download the u

  • might be on to something after all ... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by for_usenet ( 550217 ) on Friday March 11, 2005 @07:26PM (#11915932)
    Okay - so when the slashdot story hit, the update was available, and now (as of 2005.03.11, 1830 CST) the update is no longer available...

    Maybe those multi-CPU tabs were NOT supposed to be seen after all ...

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