upgrades/storage/memory
03/06/2006, 8:10am, EST
Monday, March 6th
Daystar debuts PPC-7448 PBG4 upgrade
Daystar Technology has announced a new PowerPC 7448-based processor upgrade for the 1.67GHz PowerBook G4. The "XLR8 MAChSpeed 7448 Aluminum" is a factory installed upgrade and is expected to be available within the next month. The first "customer" upgrade has already shipped as a "pre-release" edition of the forthcoming product, according to the company. The new upgrade offers a 1.83GHz G4 processor and 1MB of Level-2 cache for optimal performance, but is limited to the 1.67GHz PowerBook G4 due to hardware restrictions that prevent the use of the 7448 in earlier systems. In real-world (Photoshop) benchmarks, the 7448 performs 20 to 30 percent faster than a 7447A at the same MHz. Overall the XLR8 MAChSpeed 7448 Aluminum provides 30 to 60 percent more performance for PowerBook users, according to the company. The upgrade requires Mac OS X 10.4.4 or later. The upgrade includes shipping, testing, installation and "100 percent quality assurance." (Pricing not available.)
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As for this product, increasing clock speed from 1.67 to 1.83 MHz makes for lousy marketing, even if the chip is a bit more efficient. Maybe they should call it the "G4+" (or "G4.5") upgrade to better distinguish the 7448 chips over the previous generation. Afterall, Apple came up with "G4" so Daystar should be able to call it a "G4+" for their marketing.