Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Apple Businesses

PowerPC G4 Upgrades Direct from Motorola? 26

Posted by Cliff from the worried-about-compatibility dept.
Gizzmonic asks: "I was looking at PowerPC upgrade cards for my Mac G3 Blue-and-White and I couldn't help but notice that the offerings by PowerLogix and Sonnet are quite pricey. So, I started poking around Motorola's site looking for the G4 or my dreams. I could probably pull a few strings at work and get them to order a G4 direct. Is there any reason that a G4 from Motorola wouldn't work with the ZIF socket on my motherboard? (Yes, I know about the G4 enabler software) Ordering from Motorola or one of their suppliers could potentially save me a lot of dough, but I'd hate to plunk down the money for an incompatible CPU. What do you folks think?"
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

PowerPC G4 Upgrades Direct from Motorola? More

PowerPC G4 Upgrades Direct from Motorola?

Comments Filter:

  • Here you go... (Score:3, Informative)

    by infornogr ( 603568 ) on Monday August 26, 2002 @04:51PM (#4143844)
    From http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/9901/29.upgrad es.shtml Motorola's solution is more hazy. The company's website claims that AltiVec will be "100% compatible with the industry standard PowerPC architecture," but doesn't say whether processors with the added technology will fit into current ZIF slots. Will the current blue G3s be able to handle either or both G4 processors? If IBM's roadmap is followed, it would seem most likely since clock-rate increases don't generally mean a radical shift in chip design. Since the Blue G3s are equipped with a ZIF (Zero insertion force) processor slot, a processor with similar size to the current G3s could be easily installed.

  • Motorola Dreams (Score:3, Funny)

    by infornogr ( 603568 ) on Monday August 26, 2002 @04:56PM (#4143886)
    "So, I started poking around Motorola's site looking for the G4 or my dreams."

    I like Motorola's G4 processors, but their dream department leaves something to be desired. I'm glad you went with the former option.
    • Heh. I know he's only looking for his dreams but, speaking from experience, I think it's safe to say that that requires more than zero insertion force...

      Having said that, heat dissipation can sometimes be a problem and there have been times when overclocking has been desirable.

      Unfortunately, finding a suitable heat sink that doesn't interfere with operations can be problematic, although water cooling/immersion can be a more than pleasant solution - with the right component(s).

  • Why not just upgradethe whole system? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sockit2me9000 ( 589601 ) on Monday August 26, 2002 @05:14PM (#4144015)
    You'd still be crippled by the old mobo at 66 mhz (I think). You'd probably be better off buying one of the recently replaced (non-DDR) boxes. They have great discounts on these now. You could ebay your old system for around $500 and use that towards your new bitching quicksilver. Then you'd have it near the bleeding edge, get quartz extreme support, plus have it last a lot longer. A hundred dollar upgrade here and a four hundred dollar upgrade there and sooner or later you're talking real money. And just to be a bit off topic, but I'm really noticing an increase in Apple mindshare here on Slashdot. It's really becoming noticable. Nearly everyday they are on the frontpage.
    • Who has the big discounts? I'm not seeing them. I still see 800mhz systems almost as much as the 2x867 ones!
    • I'm a good case in point. I just got a Mac in the family. 15 months ago I bought a laptop and Mac wasn't even a consideration.

      For the /. crowd its a good box: you get most the development advantages of Linux and most of the business productivity advantages of Windows. It beats the Windows / Cygwin or Linux / Wine setup hands down.

      You could almost say that Next acquired Apple not the other way around.
    • Yes, isn't that unfortunate?

      True about the used systems...

      The G4 533 w/512k cache smoked the G4 733 w/256k cache. Basicly, the 533/512 G4 was not surpassed in performance untill the 800 came out so..

      Buy used and steal Jaguar. Apple gets no dimes untill they lower their prices on current under powered hardware.

      Can you belive they have the gall to migrate to DDR on an asynchronous bus which actually quite a bit slower than SDRAM?

      At least Apple's marketing department can use the DDR buzzword now.
    • At my current financial juncture, I'm not sure it would be the wisest to get rid of my Blue-and-White. I'm a video editor, so basically the machine has to be up all the time, either waiting for me or rendering stuff...

      I could theoretically float a fairly new G4 system on my credit card and swap out all the parts, but switching over hard drives, system software, etc would take a lot more time than just replacing a CPU.

      I'm most curious about the G4 slot on Mot's own motherboards. Does anyone happen to work with them on a regular basis? If so, is the board ZIF-compatible with the G3? How much voltage does it draw? (G3 mainboards can spit a variety of voltages, but changing the voltage setting requires a lot of hacking and is probably not worth the effort).

  • Suppliers? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Gregg Alan ( 8487 ) on Monday August 26, 2002 @05:15PM (#4144021)
    Are you planning to build your own chip by buying raw materials from Motorola's suppliers? That's awsome! Put a website up about it (with pictures!)

  • Highly unlikely (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If the upgrades from two separate companies are both pricey, it probably means there is considerable engineering effort required to get it to work. It won't just be a matter of buying a processor fresh from the foundry, slapping some cache on it, and popping it in. Do you reall think all the surrounding circuitry [sonnettech.com] is just window dressing?
    • The cpu still looks like the most expensive thing in that picture - by far. And considering the backside cache is half speed on those, I don't see the big deal. Also considering you find P3-866 chips (with full speed cache and superior SPEC-CPU-2000 numbers) practically in the trash, I dont see why $300 is fair.

      The real cost may have to do with the fact they have to reverse engineer firmware updates put out by apple to block people from updating, like the infamous BW Yosemete G3 - I'm half beig snarky and speculative, but I have a G3 BW REV 1 right here, and I don't use it much, expensive to upgrade, slow, broken CMD 640 that won't take a slave, no AGP, no SCSI. Its sitting next to a PC thats 6 months older with none of the said problems, more memory, onboard 7895 SCSI, dual IDE channels that work, etc.

      I was rather disappointed to learn that there is little markup on those, but Sonnett has to charge, I have yet to meet many tech savvy mac users (or Mac users that function technically in any capacity), so I can imagine the tinkerer-upgrader-gamer market for Macs being exceedingly small.

      What you are paying for is something that won't sell in incredibly high volume.

      And to answer the root of this ridiculous thread, I would have to say, heck no, the Mot CPU won't work. If it does, post a webpage HOWTO. I won't be holding my breath.
  • Moto most likely sells in bulk. Also, you would probably lack the processor card. I don't believe Moto sells Apple processor cards.

Slashdot Top Deals

"Ninety percent of baseball is half mental." -- Yogi Berra

Close