Vincent Hong wrote: <<<I heard the computers coming out in November will include the Orient Express (the first PPCP machine) and a 7600 style PPCP machine as well.
I'm not sure when the LERP will be out, but I heard that UMAX (Company which makes SuperMac) will have a cheap Mac coming out this summer. It is suppose to cost $1500 use a 150 Mhz 603ev and include a monitor. Almost makes me want to wait and get this machine, but I think I'll just get a 7200 right now and hopefully I can upgrade it to a PPCP machine later this year.
Vince>>>
Well, I read a review of the new 5400 LC today on MacWeek's site. I may be wrong, but I think this system's motherboard is basically the foundation of the LERP spec that Apple will be liscencing to clone makers to make cheap mac compatibles. Here're the highlights:
120Mhz 603e processor 64 bit datapath THROUGHOUT the motherboard 40Mhz system bus! 1.6Gig HD Digital Video-In 1 7" PCI slot (standard except it only takes 7" cards, which many are anyway)
This is a siginificant system! The key things to remember is that a lot of people complained about the performance of the 5200/6200 and 5300/6300 machines' speed problems. Much of that was due to the fact that those systems were based on the old Quadra 630 motherboard design, which was ONLY 32-bit, and SLOW. Apple says this motherboard will be around a while because it's fully capable of holding the 603ev's at up to 240Mhz (can you imagine a 240Mhz low end machine?). The MacBench results (attached, along with a pic of the 5400 itself), show it's as fast as a 7200/120, when both are outfitted with a 256K L2 cache. That's darn fast, if you ask me. The 603e really takes advantage of the 64-bit datapath. Since the 5400 doesn't come with a cache, you'll have to add one...apple sells 'em for $100...and it's worth it b/c it gives a 37% speed increase!. Actually, the results they posted are better than those for my 7500/100 across the board (bummer).
