Freescale announces revised PowerBook chip
updated 08:25 am EDT, Tue June 21, 2005
Freescale PowerBook
Freescale yesterday showcased a new high-performance PowerPC G4 processor touted as the successor to the chip used in Apple's current PowerBook G4 systems. The new MPC7448 is based on Freescale's e600 PowerPC core and is expected to offer speeds up to 1.7 GHz with the system bus at 200 MHz. The new AltiVec-equipped processor is the first of the MPC74xx family to use Freescale's 90 nanometer process. The MPC7448 offers GHz-class performance at less than 10 Watts. "The MPC7448 is a seamless step up in performance that demonstrates Freescale's continued commitment to developing compatible high-performance PowerPC processors for the embedded market."
In testing, a 1.7GHz MPC7448 scored a 350.8 in the DENbench suite without optimization, and nearly double with AltiVec. The new chip is slated for full production in October.
The MPC7448 is seen as a stepping-stone between current designs and the new MPC8641D, a dual-core version. However, by the time Freescale is shipping its dual-core mobile chip, Intel will be shipping its Yonah processor. Apple is expected to rapidly adopt the Yonah processor once it enters production.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2005
Apple jumped the gun
Of course this doen't really deal with the problem that's been holding the G4 back... the low-speed I/O bus. If it wasn't for that, the G4 would beat the G5 or any intel processor clock-for-clock and watt-for-watt.
BUT... if the e600 core is shipping in October, then the MPC8641 (with or without D) is not long in coming, and it's going to be faster than people have been predicting: at 1.7 GHz with two 667 MHz memory busses the MPC8641 will kick Yonah's 533MHz bottlenecked butt.
Apple will not be ready to ship Yonah-based laptops until 2Q06 no matter when Intel ships, because they're not going to be shipping OS X on intel until next June. So as far as the powerbook is concerned, Freescale's roadmap really is better than Intel's.