[Gllug] Laptops?

[Rich Walker]

Richard Jones <rich at annexia.org> writes:

> On Sat, Oct 25, 2003 at 01:27:04PM +0100, Fasih Rehman wrote:
>> Here is a crazy notion get an Apple iBook or if you can stretch your 
>> budget a Powerbook. Apple just upgraded the iBook processor to the G4
>> series making the base 12" model a very good buy at only ?850.
>> 
>> I'm running Debian and OS X 10.2 on an G3 iBook, I'm not alone on this 
>> crazyness, I used this guide http://www.flamingspork.com/linux/ibook/.
>
> [Spent a few more exhaustive days trying to find a reasonable laptop
> without Windows, to no avail]
>
> I have a couple of further questions about the Apple option if you
> don't mind.
>
> The G4 processors are clocked pretty slow (typically under 1 GHz,
> compared to >2.5 GHz to the latest Intel laptops). Now my
> understanding was that the G4 was a RISC-ish processor, and so should
> be able to do fewer operations per cycle than the CISC-ish x86, and
> thus ought to be clocked considerably _higher_ and not lower. Now I
> assume that these Apple machines aren't actually really slow, so how
> does this work? Are they very superscalar? Vector architecture? Does
> the graphics architecture compensate for really slow main CPU?

If you look at the SPEC2000 results for the IBM Power4 chips clocked at
1GHz, you find them getting 610-630 SPECint base and 630-680 SPECint
peak. This is the same as a 2GHz Pentium-4 on an Intel motherboard, or a
1GHz Itanium-2 in an SGI box, or an Athlon XP 1800+ on an Epox
motherboard, or a 1GHz Alpha box. Now, it's true that the Power4 is a
little more heavy-duty than the G4, but it's the same basic core - the
substantial difference being ALTIVEC.

I don't think there are any CPU's left with a CISC core - except
possibly the Itanium. In all other cases, a front-end decoded translates
the visible ISA into an internal ISA that is essentially RISC-like. The
width of this decoder can be a limiting factor for the CPU performance.

It *is* interesting, though, that there are *no* SPEC scores published
for anything Apple make.

My experience watching one run is that they run very hot and Mac OS X
is irritating. Also, the movie playing/editting software takes 30s to
respond to play *or to un-pause*.


You did look at http://www.emperorlinux.com/ did you?

Also http://www.elitegroup.de/ seem to sell "barebone laptops" - if ohne
means without, then they'll ship you a laptop 
"ohne CPU, ohne RAM, ohne Betriebssystem, ohne HDD" which should cut the
cost a bit. www.ecs.uk.com which is their UK site doesn't seem to have
the barebones models. Poking through their distributer list,
www.novatech.co.uk seem to sell their stuff with optionally NO OS:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/NBspec.html?NNB-131

which might help you.

cheers, Rich.



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