I just wanted to know what people here think of the powerpc.  After all,
reports have it that it runs twice as fast as pentium at half the price (40%
better floating point, even on intel apps.) So list your coplaints/comments
about the 64 bit revolution here! (non PowerPCs as well).

7 responses total.

Let's not get carried away.
The PowerPC compliant MPC601 is a tad slower than a Pentium on integer
arithmetic, but it is indeed much much faster on floating point.
I don't remember the comparable MHz used for this comparison, but I think
this is in a PowerPC faq at rtfm.mit.edu. If there's enough interest
locally, I'll go look for it.

The PowerPC is not a chip - it is an architecture. The MPC601 chip is
PowerPC compliant (mostly) but has a lot of Power architecture features
that were dropped from the PowerPC architecture. This is so that under
AIX, the MPC601 will run binaries from an RS6000.

Later chips in the MPC601 line (603,604,620) will probably lack these.

All of these MPC chips through the 604 are 32 bit RISC chips. They have a
64 bit path to memory but that is the bus width. The chips are 32 bit
because that is the width of the address. The MPC620 is the first one to
break this mold and provide for 64 bit addresses. As a result it is not
necessarily compatible with earlier 32-bit chips in the line, although I
understand that there will be a 32 bit compatibility mode which is kind of
reminiscent of the 80386 emulating an 80286 which proved to be very
persistent for years. 

Anywoy the 620 is not in Silicon yet, it's just on the drawing board.
The Dec AXP is already commercially available, and a true 64 bit chip.
Unfortunately, DEC is having trouble marketing it. DEC has a big lead in
64 bit RISC over PowerPC, but may blow it.

I am lurking on the sidelines - saving my $$ - with the intention of
buying a killer PowerPC (80Mhz) Mac some time soon. They'll be announced
tomorrow - this is not a secret.

well, it is definately no secret that MAC is jumping onto the 
PowerPC bandwagon bigtime.

another word on the street, Intel overseas is producing a 3.3V 4W
Pentium @ 150MHz, and that it is being released into some sort
of "channels" very soon now.

from the articles I have read PowerPC looks pretty good.  worth a look.
but, I don't get into MAC's, and the PC-Clone side of PowerPC is d
definately going to move more slowly...

...at first.  A year into it, it'll be moving extremely rapidly.

Something like this can only pick up steam. :)

Today's the day. PowerPC RISC to the massses! I love it.
As soon as I buy my Power Mac, I gotta go pick up that PowerPC
plug-in for photoshop that Adobe Posted as free. My Photoshop
Speed should improve by a factor of 15 from my 1987 vintage Mac II.

Don't get me wrong, I'm going to wait a month or two, until I can't
*stand* it anymore. :-)

Yeah, yeah, I (we) have heard it all. If you really want to buy a new machine
the first thing I'd look at is WHAT software is flying around at your home. 
if you got tons of IBM stuff buy the Pentium 100 mhz or faster (available soon
at your local candy outlet), if you got Mac stuff get the powermac and live a
sad live of emulation, unless you want to fork over tons of money for upgrades
(i.e., how much is 49.95 + S.H times 10 ??) Humpf! 

Most PowerMac upgrades which are merely to get to native code are free.
This includes the PPC native Photoshop plug in.
I have a PowerMac now, and I have that plug-in and a number of other
native programs, with more to come each month. 
Sure, MIKE, if you own a bunch of PC software you should get the Pentium.
I would never suggest otherwise. It has some decent risc features in the
architecture. Eventually you will have to change your architecture to
keep up. Intel is delaying that moment admirably well.

RE:#6
Eventually, but what good is a machine that runs my software in emulation 
slower at a higher price than a machine which will run it faster for less?? 
The only FAST machine based on a PowerPC is the IBM workstation and it's
too expensive. The Intel P6 (hexium? sexium?) will run at 300 mips, which is 
slower than risc processors which will appear at the same time, i.e., sooner   
 or later all IBM/Intel/Mickeysoft freaks will have to deal with the emulation
problem, hopefully though Intel gets some good ideas. Note that Dos 7.0 and Win
4.0 will start a trend towards 386/486, maybe, just maybe the 86/286 will die
out and Intel does not have to worry about emulating those.  We'll see, we'll
fork over cash, two years later we'll see again...  (Ceasar's comment about the
PC industry)   MIKE...

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