Ars Technica PPC 970 analysis resonates


Ars Technica has posted an in depth analysis and speculation piece about IBM's upcoming PPC 970 processor.

Some salient points from the article include:

o The "the hackish nature" of the Altivec functionality of the PPC 970 indicates the rushed nature of the chip;
o Cache latency, 32-bit compatibility issues vis-a-vis cache and a "potential" lack of L3 support will impact performance, but we'll still be light years ahead of where we're at right now;
o IBM has announced Power4 silicon shipping at 1.7GHz and the article posits the the 970 will initially top out in excess of 2GHz.
o Expect dual-processor boxes "right out of the gate;"
o The 64-bit 970 will "make a great Linux platform, especially for content creation;"
o FSB throughput could quadruple from 1.3GBps to 7.2GBps; and
o Apple will once again return to the top of the performance tables with the release of 970-powered Macs.

The significance of this article lies mostly with the impugnable reputation of its author, Jon Stokes. He does flesh out some important issues, especially as relates to cache and Altivec. Moveover, the speculations he does make appear to this junior-league pundit to be well founded.

From my perspective, this Ars Technica piece is the icing on the cake, which appears day-by-day ever more appealing. Though my two current production Macs (PC133 G4s) are just over a year old, I'll sell both to buy a 970-powered machine if they live up to just 75 percent of the hype attributed to them.

What's your take? Are you in a buying mood? Salivating perhaps?