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Dear All,

I'd like to see a competent side by side technical comparison of the
two workstations:
http://www.sgi.com/workstations/fuel/
http://www.apple.com/powermac/

Also, may the G5 be called a "workstation" or it is a high-end PC? If
yes, then low- or midrange ws?

TIA,

PK

> I'd like to see a competent side by side technical comparison of the
> two workstations:
> http://www.sgi.com/workstations/fuel/
> http://www.apple.com/powermac/

What do you want compared? Hardware? Benchmarks? It may be difficult to
provide the latter, as I don't think anybody's come up with a good
cross-platform test there.

> Also, may the G5 be called a "workstation" or it is a high-end PC? If
> yes, then low- or midrange ws?

Apple apparently identifies it both as a workstation and as a high-end
desktop PC. I think it's fair to say it's not a high-end workstation,
as, AFAIWKRN, it doesn't support pro graphics cards... yet.

This was on MacRumors Page 2 (note that on page 2 they put rumors of
less likelihood & verifiability than page 1):

> MacBidouille claims that Apple will be supporting some professional video
> cards in Panther. The
> list includes NVidia's Quadro 2, Quadro 4 and ATI's Fire GL 8700, GL 8800,
> GL2, and GL4.
>
> Of additional note, they claim that certain Select and Premier developers
> have started receiving PowerMac G5 orders. Being so far ahead of the general
> population, it's unclear how accurate this report is. No independent
> confirmation available.

Interpret as you will.

BTW, the thing that makes me doubt this rumor is it's not like support
could be "put in Panther" unilaterally by Apple without the video card
manufacturers' cooperation, modifications, and drivers. And that's
ignoring the certification issue.

** Please note: I am uninterested in restarting the debate over whether
there are any differences about these cards from existing hardware. I am
simply passing the information on to those parties interested.