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IBM's New Power PC 970 CPU Chip may significantly change the face of future computing. Based on the same Power PC architecture used by the Motorola G4 CPU, the new chipset runs much faster. The basic parameters are:

• 64-bit CPU
• 900 Mhz system bus
• Clock speed of 1.8 Ghz (this is an "initial speed", faster ones coming?)
• 5 to 8 instructions executed per clock cycle
• Includes the 162 instructions of the AltiVec vector arithmetic unit, or what Apple calls the Velocity Engine

As I wrote about in the recent past, the clock speed can not be used to compare overall processor performance relative to a different processor architecture. Thus, there is now useful way to compare a 1.25 Ghz G4 to a 1.8 Ghz AMD Athlon or a 2.4 Ghz Pentium CPU - except to run substantially identical applications and measure their time to execute, across all of the systems. Even Intel admits that its slower clock speed Centrino chipset runs faster than its faster clocked Pentium.

One of the Mac rumor web sites (or perhaps several) have posted reports that the 1.4 Ghz IBM PowerPC 970 single CPU runs about twice as fast as the dual processor Power Mac G4 at the same clock speed. In other words, it seems to be about 4x faster than the existing Motorola PowerPC G4. That's fast! A dual processor 1.25 Ghz G4 is said to have similar performance to a 3 Ghz Intel Pentium (I read that in an online digital video web site - but I do not remember the source). A dual processor IBM 970 system at 1.4 ghz might then be similar to a non-existent 6 Ghz Pentium - and that does not include use of the AltiVec vector processing code, which can speed up certain arithmetic operations (especially signal processing used in audio, video and image software) by perhaps up to ten times faster. Various rumor web sites suggest that Apple may introduce dual processor IBM 970 systems later this year, and perhaps much sooner than most are expecting (like this summer). This takes the concept of desktop supercomputing to an entirely new level - and with the reliable, Unix-based Mac OS X operating system, this could have interesting market impacts on Windows-based systems. [Edward Mitchell: Common Sense Technology]

comments < 5:10:02 PM        >

Junk Science? Now the government says if your blood pressure is greater than 115/75, you may be a candidate for hypertension and should begin being treated for high blood pressure. You can read the NY Times story or you can read the new report itself. Besides lifestyle changes, they also recommend that hypertensives (which is now everyone) be placed on typically at least two anti-hypertension medications-after a battery of expensive tests- paid for by someone else, of course. Never mind that the drugs have side effects, and that most will not see measurable benefits from the treatments. This is a real money maker for health care providers and drug companies. That's reason enough to be deeply suspicious of these new guidelines. But add in the government's new definition of obesity about a decade ago (overnight, a lot more people were obese) - and you've got to wonder how, in the midst of this gloom, that life expectancy is today longer than at any time in history. Go figure.

Check this reference for more details on reality: "Average BP was 136/83 mm Hg in the European countries and 127/77 mm Hg in Canada and the United States among men and women combined who were 35 to 74 years of age. This difference already existed among younger persons (35-39 years) in whom treatment was uncommon (ie, 124/78 mm Hg and 115/75 mm Hg, respectively), and the slope with age was steeper in the European countries. For all age groups, BP measurements were lowest in the United States and highest in Germany".

The linked reference has an interesting chart that shows - surprise! - that blood pressure goes up as you get older. And then you eventually die. Because higher blood pressure (getting old) is correlated with eventually dying ... well, you figure it out... [Edward Mitchell: Common Sense Technology]

comments < 5:08:28 PM        >

iBlog. This is a new weblog authoring tool and news feed reader, produced by Lifli software of India. The application runs only on Mac OS X and integrates extremely well with Apple's iLife suite of applications. I've heard rumors that Apple might want to buy iBlog to add to iLife (iBlog is not quite that good yet - but with a little polishing, it could definitely fit into the iLife suite). Considering that Google has bought blogger, and Microsoft will definitely be entering the blogging scene at some point, Apple would be wise to be making moves in the same direction. Blogging is here to stay.

I have begun experimenting with the iBlog software. Depending on how things go, I may decide to drop Radio Userland and switch to iBlog. There are pluses and minuses to both directions. iBlog is very easy to use, supports multiple weblogs, each having multiple categories, and publishing photos is easy, easy, easy (and a HUGE pain in Radio Userland). iBlog is very easy to configure (unlike Radio Userland). But Radio Userland also supports multiple users, which iBlog does not (yet). With Radio Userland, I can post messages to my weblog from any computer, running any OS, on my LAN, which is kind of fun. I use that feature occassionally, but probably not enough to make decision on using the product; then again, my daughter DOES use that remote publishing feature. I do not think I can do remote publishing (yet) with iBlog. But iBlog is also inexpensive and it would be no big deal to buy another copy or two (they also have a $39.95 five-user site license intended for home users) [Edward Mitchell: Common Sense Technology]

comments < 5:05:25 PM        >