MAC

The MAC Baby

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Eduinfoline.com Newsletter # MAC Baby MAC # Author Venkat

NEW Macintosh OS with a new Macintosh Computer. Hold your breath... Lets forget the OS and look at the computer.

More news from Macintosh, that too hot. For they have unleashed what they claim to be "a compressed super computer." No doubt exaggerated, but this MAC beats its dazzling looks with its sizzling performance. The G4 processor working at 450 MHZ performs one billion instructions a second and it outperforms the Intel Pentium 3 by at least 200%. But will your favorite game work on this baby? Does it have the wide software range as there is for Windows? Is this MAC really worthwhile? Read on to find out.

Firstly, I will be covering the technical aspects.
The processor: The processor is a Power PC G4 processor at 450 MHZ with the Velocity engine. Now, what the hell is velocity engine? Well, this "engineered engine" allows the CPU to work with chunks of 128 bit nature as opposed to 32 bit offered by Intel. Also, it has new 162 integrated SIMD (Single Input Multiple Data - The very same thing as used by Intel) instructions as opposed to 70 of Intel. The bus speed is 225 MHZ and it has 1 MB L2 Cache with an 800 MBPS pipe. Whew, they really have shrunk a super computer. (It is interesting to note that a Super Computer made in California about 2 years ago has the same processor specifications). The Velocity Engine is the secret of the G4’s performance is its aptly named Velocity Engine. It’s the heart of a supercomputer miniaturized onto a sliver of silicon. The Velocity Engine can perform four (in some cases eight) 32-bit floating-point calculations in a single cycle — two to four times faster than traditional processors. It beats the Intel processor hands down in every department.

Memory: 64 MB of SDRAM PC-100 (Working at 100 MHZ). Up gradable to 1.5 GB (again whew!)

Video Card: An ATI Rage 128 Graphics accelerator with 16 MB RAM. Works on AGP 2x without TV-Out or TV-In. This card is decent but still lacks a lot. This probably is the weakest component of this extreme machine. A Geforce or a RIVA TNT would have been better.

Sound: The sound card it integrated, 32 bit and full duplex. Surprised that no acronym or some flashy name has been given to it. However it comes with two "sweet" and oh so cute speakers. The all-digital Harman/Kardon speakers are capable of 20 watt RMS power (That’s only about 800 watt PMPO :-)) and it has a incredibly low noise floor, around (for example, if the noise floor of your sound card or speaker is say -20dB, then sound up to +20dB will be distortion free, hence lower the noise floor the better). Well, coming to no surprise, the speakers have been hyped up well with the "high fidelity etc" crap.

Airport Technology: This is the technological "candy" of the machine. No more telephone wires, or Ethernet cable for an internal network. With the airport technology, all Macintosh users (including the older machines" can communicate with each other without being bound to the wires of "hell." The result of an 18-month collaboration between Apple and Lucent Technologies, Airport is changing the way people work and play and communicate, at least in the US. Because Airport is a powerhouse in the performance department. The wireless data rate, for instance, is fast 11 megabits per second for up to 10 simultaneous users per base station. With Airport, you can wirelessly transfer files from your computer to another AirPort-equipped MAC from up to 150 feet away — no floppy disks required. And as for games, imagine the possibilities: not only can you play multiplayer games with family members around the house; you can even play with friends across the street. The setup is simple. You need an Airport Base Station (it looks like a cute UFO), which has connector for your RJ-45 Jack (phone line) and your Ethernet card. Then, whenever you insert the Airport Card, in you MAC, you are connected. The only catch is that all users must be within 150 feet of the base station (obstructed will do). Nothing great, for WAN enthusiasts (Wide Area Networks), but is great to network a number of Macs say in two to three rooms.

FireWire Technology: Finally, USB faces competition, and if it as good as what it is claimed to be, it will definitely enter into the PC segment. At 400Mbps, it has 30 times more bandwidth than USB, which makes it the perfect choice for high-speed storage and serious video capture. Here are some other benefits: Supports up to 63 devices using cable lengths up to 14 feet. Hot-pluggable—you don’t have to turn off a scanner or CD drive to connect or disconnect it, and you don’t need to restart your computer. FireWire cables are a snap to connect—you don’t need device IDs, jumpers, DIP switches, screws, latches or terminators.

Storage: 20GB 5400rpm Ultra ATA/66 hard disk drive1 DVD-ROM drive for playback of DVD movies, DVD-ROM and DVD-RAM discs (This is pretty normal)

Input Peripherals: Apple Pro Keyboard with 108 full-size function and navigation keys, audio controls, and media-eject key. Apple Pro Mouse - Optical sensor provides precision cursor control for perfect precision on almost any surface. The optical tracking engine tracks movement 1500 times per second for pinpoint cursor control. Features a comfortable design that allows virtually the entire upper surface to be clicked. It works on a wide variety of surfaces and has no mouse ball to require cleaning.

Monitors: This MAC uses a new technology called ADC (Apple Display Controller), which carries digital video; hence all monitors will now not work with this MAC. Spending a few extra bucks you can choose from the 3 models - 15" CRT - 17" LCD - 22" LCD. The 22" LCD comes with a heavy price tag of about 50000 Rs. The 17" is about 35000 Rs and the CRT is about 10000 Rs. These costs are extra and are as per in USA, just converted into rupees.

Other Features: This MAC holds up to a staggering 1.5 gigabytes of PC100 SDRAM RAM (letting you allocate up to 999 megabytes of memory per game or application). And one can add this themselves. With no tools. In a matter of seconds. How about security, you ask — is there a way to prevent some villain from taking your machine for a walk? Indeed there is: the MAC and its removable internal components can be protected with a Kensington Notebook MicroSaver security cable. The cable attaches to a security lock port on the bottom of the computer’s core. The amplifier for the speakers, too, has a security lock port that works with the same type of Kensington cable. Apple engineers hid the antenna in the unobtrusive rounded circles on the sides of the G4 Cabinet. They’re actually supersensitive antennas for the AirPort wireless networking system. Of course one can connect to the Internet other ways, too — all of them easy. For instance, this MAC comes with a built-in 56k V.90 modem that you can simply connect to your home phone line. Also a cable or DSL modem or the built-in Ethernet port can be used to plug in to an office or school network

OS And Software: This baby comes with the MAC OS 9. This OS looks stunning but works like the one in the old MACS. Imagine that the taskbar of Windows is removed an placed on top, and everything you see is skinnable (like the cool skins you have in Winamp!). Well, then you are looking at the MAC OS 9. (MAC enthusiasts will slaughter me if they ever read that). A newer beta has also been released. Other preinstalled software is the iMovie2-Video editing tool. It is pretty decent, it stores digital videos in the DVD format and can also directly rip video of a Camcorders or a Video CD.

The Final Word
This machine is, no doubt, great. But is it useful to me? Particularly when there are no, or at times very few MACs around us. No, it is not. A MAC today for an average user in India is a pure waste. However on the other hand, for a power user or a high-end web developer, this is his dream machine. But for a game enthusiast, this is a big "no-no." First of all, finding MAC games can be quite a feat. You might get the older games, but then what is the use? After spending about 1.5 lakhs for the machine, you realize that your neighbor who has a 40000 Rs PC is running more games and software on his machine. And MAC service center here is not as good as Intel. All in all, a MAC in India is a great risk. You should remember all that works on Windows, never works on the MAC. No doubt, the MAC is different, it is easy, but it is not customizable. Also, it is not economical for an average Indian. So this supercomputer will not change things in India. Intel rules for the time being. The only thing for us to do is "drool over the machine."

By the way, did I mention the name of this machine? It is called
"The Power Mac G4 Cube"

This aspect definitely skipped your mind, didn't it? Gotcha.

"So much technology, so little space"