IBM's 90nm PowerPC 970FX... at 2.5GHz? - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

IBM's 90nm PowerPC 970FX... at 2.5GHz?

IBM's PowerPC 970FX won Microprocessor Report's 5th Annual Analysts' Choice Awards. The 970FX beat out the AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 and Intel Pentium 4.

Of more interest, however, is this abstract for an article entitled "IBM Takes the Lead" at the Microprocessor Report.

The author expects the 90nm PowerPC 970 to scale well:

The 970FX should yield well at 2.5GHz, up from the 2GHz speed of the 970 used in Apples Power Mac G5. This 25% increase in clock rate will not soon be matched by Intel or AMD. Prescott is struggling to eke out minor clock-rate improvements, and AMD will need to wait for its own 90nm productsdue in 2H04to achieve substantial speedups for Athlon 64.

The article, however, appears to be entirely speculative based on what little information is presently available on the PowerPC 970FX. More details should emerge as IBM presents information on the 970FX at ISSCC 2004 next week. (Feb 14-19, 2004)

Meanwhile, Appleinsider claims that development of the next PowerMac G5s were "completed early last month"... and is awaiting the delivery of these chips.

Buyer's Guide: Mac Pro (Don't Buy)
Related Forum: Mac Pro

Popular Stories

apple silicon feature joeblue

Apple Reportedly Worked on Two 'Extreme' Chips

Sunday July 19, 2026 8:51 am PDT by
Apple once developed "M2 Extreme" and "M3 Extreme" chips for the Mac Pro, but it decided not to release them, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He first reported on this topic in 2022, and he touched on it again in his Power On newsletter today. "Extreme" chips would have had twice as many CPU and GPU cores as Apple's "Ultra" chips. "The idea was to offer twice as many graphics and...
Mac Pro Feature Teal

Apple Shelved Two Mac Pro Models, Including an Intel-Based One

Monday July 20, 2026 6:30 am PDT by
Apple developed two Mac Pro models in recent years that never made it to market, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman revealed that Apple internally developed two unreleased Mac Pro projects codenamed J170 and J190 before ultimately discontinuing the machine altogether. As for new Mac Pro hardware, there were two additional models developed by...
Apple Event Logo

Apple Working on All-New Operating System

Wednesday July 29, 2026 11:39 am PDT by
Apple is developing an all-new operating system that is essentially a mix of tvOS, watchOS, and iOS, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In a report this week, he said the operating system will feature a grid of icons, widgets, and apps, along with customizable clock faces. The new software platform is intended for Apple's long-rumored smart home hub. With built-in facial recognition,...

🔗 Related Apple News & Rumors

Stay updated with the latest Apple ecosystem news and verified rumors