re: 1.2 GHz Mac...
- From: "Jerry Hargis" <CCHARGIS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <technocracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 11:33:43 -0500
This was on MacOSrumors today:
Thursday, August 8
Xtrem's 1200MHz Mac "Hoax" Just Misunderstood? Rumor
If reports from Apple sources are to be believed, the claims put forth
by aspiring Swedish Mac accleration maker Xtrem, Inc. may not be a hoax
after all -- and relatively practical, to boot.
Whether or not one believes that 1200MHz is possible with any
alteration to the PowerPC 7400 (aka G4), it appears that Xtrem doesn't
plan to actually make their own Macs -- rather, they would buy PowerMac
G4s from Apple and resell them as a Value Added Reseller (VAR) by
applying their own high-end supercooling technology and upping the
price.
Many Mac sites have proclaimed Xtrem's 1200MHz Mac a hoax, and who can
blame them? Xtrem has provided nearly no technical details and no actual
product photos (merely computer renderings), giving the community little
to base its estimations upon. However, if it is true that Xtrem will be
a VAR rather than a true clone maker, its claims begin to make sense.
Using a large replacement enclosure for the PowerMac G4 that is
essentially a minitower-sized cooling device employing Peltier
heat-transmission and liquid cooling, Xtrem would chill the processor(s)
to hundreds of degrees below zero Fahrenheit. At these temperatures, the
processor's pathways suffer less electric signal "blurring," and can
operate without crashing at higher clock rates. 1.2GHz is a very high
overclock on today's G4s -- rather unlikely, in fact, to produce
crash-free machines with any regularity -- but 1GHz from a 500MHz G4 is
not out of the question, and by the time Xtrem ships its Value-Added
G4s, the G4 and G4e may be running at up to 800MHz cooled only by a
standard heatsink.
Please don't think that this site wishes to make any claims that Xtrem
is for real -- merely that evidence exists to suggest that their claims
are misunderstood and not necessarily as impractical as they appear on
first glance. After all, Wintel overclocking companies have already used
similar cooling enclosures to accelerate Pentiums and Athlons by a
factor of two or more. Xtrem's other claims, including a 150MHz bus
speed, are not utterly impossible with a cooled UMA-1 motherboard and
memory -- but remain very unlikely and serve to further damage their
image in the eyes of the community.
There can be little doubt that by making announcements with no
demonstrable -- or even visible -- product, and claims that are clearly
outrageous without evidence to the contrary, Xtrem has given the Mac
world little reason to take it seriously. As with most things, time will
tell the tale -- and the wise reader may wish to withhold judgement
until the tale is indeed told.
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