Rumor: PowerPC 970, 64-Bit OS X 10.3 Beta Coming


Is IBM's much-vaunted PowerPC 970 coming to the Mac sooner rather than later? There're at least two conflicting, but equally well-sourced points of view. [attrib: MacGeneration]

On the one hand, Ars Technica says that the 2.5GHz version - prototypes of which IBM has running currently - will be a 'later rather than sooner' version, with the 1.8GHz versions coming in the first wave.

On the other hand, MacBidouille reports that Peter Sandon, "father of the PowerPC 970," will make a presentation at the World-Wide Developers' Conference. The MacBidouille story says that only certain select members of Apple's Developer Connection will get the exclusive demo of the capabilities of the PowerPC 970 actually running on a Mac prototype.

Better still, the story states that Apple has a beta version of Panther - OS X 10.3 - in advanced stages of development, running in full 64-bit mode.

The article also notes that the current (prototyped) version of the 970 running at 2.5GHz needs a lot of juice: 64 watts, around twice as much as current G4 designs. A DP version would need 128. Ars Technica adds a little to this, stating that the 2.5GHz version will come later, rather than sooner, as IBM will fabricate this version of the 970 using a 90-nanometer process.

Analysis: Hot, hot, hot - that's what a DP 970 would be like. The question is whether IBM can fab a low-power version to run in the PowerBooks - and, hopefully, eventually - the iBooks. For Apple, it would be quite a considerable marketing coup to have a 64-bit notebook in its users' hands.

The news about a 64-bit version of Panther in beta form tells us a lot as well: Apple is well down the road to making OS X run on 64-bit systems. Our guess is the big guys, like Adobe, will be first off the blocks with 64-bit versions of Photoshop and the like. Not too sure about MS, given that Office v.X scarcely seems optimized for anything doesn't inspire confidence.