Apple had also updated the Xcode development tool set, upgraded the Power Mac G5’s firmware, and delivered QuickTime 6.5. The Panther operating system had just received its second major update, 10.3.2. I did what I’d have done as a buyer of the Power Mac G5 and Panther: I waited until the platform came together and came to rest.īy mid-December, when this review was written, things had settled down. Then there were no applications tuned specifically for the Power Mac G5, except for a preview of Photoshop. The system’s delivery preceded the availability of the Panther OS, so the machine’s 64-bit capabilities could not be immediately exploited. Apple rushed the Power Mac G5 out the door in the fall of 2003 in order to win the race to be the first 64-bit desktop (AMD was in the other lane). The timing of this review bears explaining. The Panther client is beautiful and practical, while the server is powerful and painless. Panther Server includes the open-source JBoss J2EE application server, complete with graphical administration and monitoring. As has long been true, the Mac is the platform to beat for client Java. Panther server tightens links to Windows and Unix networks reworks its directory services around open standards and a high-speed database and adds a unified management interface that controls, among many other things, the new mail server, a Microsoft-compatible VPN, and streaming video services. The client version firms Apple’s lead in graphics, boosting the performance of overall rendering and dramatically improving the display speed of PDF files. The Power Mac G5 takes the throughput flag, and it’s got something else you can’t get on the Xeon: the Panther OS (aka OS X 10.3). With the Power Mac G5, the penalty for accessing data that’s not in the CPU cache is reduced to a degree not possible with Xeon. In a dual-processor Power Mac G5, the cost of talking to peripherals is also reduced substantially by the machine’s efficient and highly integrated system chip set. Solid processing power and maximum bandwidth rule the day, and the Power Mac G5 has that combination down. (By way of comparison, memory throughput on a 17-inch PowerBook is 535MB per second.) I’m not cutting Apple special slack. Using the University of Virginia’s Stream memory bandwidth benchmark, the Power Mac G5 moves data almost twice as fast as a dual-processor 3.06GHz Xeon system: 2.2GB per second versus 1.3GB per second. Apple won’t beat it until IBM gets serious about an architecture-tuned compiler for OS X.Īpple’s marketing choices aside, I believe that I/O throughput, especially memory performance, is infinitely more important than raw computing speed. The Intel compilers are used to create most commercial and performance-sensitive applications for x86 software running on Windows and Linux. The x86 architecture has the Intel compiler suite on its side. If you’re on the edge of your seat waiting for a characterization of the Power Mac G5’s performance, here it is: Comparing official Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) dual-processor throughput tests with the unofficial numbers on Apple’s Web site, the 3.06GHz Xeon bests the 2GHz Power Mac G5 by some margin.īut wait, doesn’t Apple call the Power Mac G5 the world’s fastest PC? Yes, and I think that characterization was a big mistake from the beginning. The result, the Power Mac G5, delivers on the present need for rapid computing, deep multitasking, and responsive user interfaces - as well as the future need (current for some, including myself) for mainstream computers that rapidly process and analyze massive data sets. We’re due for a shift in standards.Įnter Apple, which got the bright idea of taking a pair of 64-bit IBM PowerPC CPUs, jacking them into server-class internal buses, and squeezing the whole thing into a desk-side tower chassis. Companies large and small routinely set their expectations of computer systems according the capabilities of Intel-based x86 computers and 32-bit Windows.
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