“SAN FRANCISCO–Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs rolled out on Tuesday a new crop of Power Macs he says can outperform any Windows-based PC on the market.
Speaking at the company’s annual developer conference here, Jobs announced that the Power Macs will be built around IBM’s new PowerPC 970 chip and come in three flavors–a 1.6GHz model, a 1.8GHz model and a 2GHz model. The machines, available in August, are priced at $1,699, $2,399 and $2,999.
Dubbed the G5, the new chip is the successor to the G4 that’s now used in the Power Mac lineup. It puts Apple on track to eventually sell PCs that run 64-bit software, the kind of design that’s found on today’s top workstations. On top of new chip, the PowerMacs boast other architectural changes, including the addition of a 1GHz front-side bus along with USB 2.0 ports and serial ATA drives.
All of which adds up to create “the world’s fastest personal computer,” Jobs said. Jobs showed both benchmarks and Photoshop tests showing the new dual 2GHz PowerMac outperforming a dual 3GHz Xeon machine.” [News.com]