CALIFORNIA: Apple has removed the 1.8GHz, single processor Power Mac G5 from its online store. Yesterday the company confirmed that single-chip processor systems were being taken off as the company plans an entire lineup of systems featuring dual-chip processors.
The production of the single-chip Power Mac G5 is discontinued and the last of the systems would be sold through other channels. As part of the effort, the Power Mac G5 line was upgraded two months ago, by adding dual-processor systems ranging from 2 GHz to 2.7 GHz in clock speed.
The next batch of the Power Mac G5 line would be all dual processor and “deliver the ultimate in performance for our most advanced customers” the company said in a statement to the media.
Apple made a more significant move by announcing earlier this month its decision to part ways with IBM and team up with Intel. IBM’s PowerPC chips would be replaced with Intel chips in all of Apple products, a move that has greatly surprised the market. This transition would take 12 to 18 months.
Until now Intel chips were seen as suitable only for Windows-based PCs. Apple systems have been using the IBM PowerPC chip for almost a decade. Software manufacturers had to convert or “port” their applications to either PowerPC platforms or Intel processor; or to both because the hardware architecture of the two platforms was different from each other.
With Intel and Apple shaking hands, one can look forward to running Windows on a Mac. It can get even better with dual processor platforms as one could then run Windows on one hard drive and OS X in the other.
Apple enjoys a two percent share of the worldwide PC market. When asked for the reason for cutting business ties with IBM, the spokesman said there were certain supply issues which IBM could not resolve, referring to their order for a notebook version of the G5 processor that would not overheat. IBM appeared to have been slow in executing this order. However, sources at IBM said they did not do so because Apple did not accept their terms for the deal.
Market-watchers and analysts feel AMD would have been a better choice for Apple rather than Intel. They point out that AMD’s proactive methods matched Apple’s flair for innovative software. AMD is seen as the more dynamic of the two chip-making companies. Its breakthroughs in 64-bit computing and dual core processor core chips that have received positive reviews should have weighed in their favor for the choice.
