PRESS RELEASE 23 June 2003

Apple Unleashes the World’s Fastest Personal Computer - the Power Mac G5

First 64-bit Desktop Processor; First 1GHz Frontside Bus

WWDC 2003, San Francisco - June 23rd, 2003
Apple today unleashed the world’s fastest* personal computer — the Power Mac G5 — featuring the world’s first 64-bit desktop processor and the industry’s first 1GHz frontside bus. Powered by the revolutionary PowerPC G5 processor designed by IBM and Apple, the Power Mac G5 is the first personal computer to utilise 64-bit processing technology for unprecedented memory expansion (up to 8GB) and advanced 64-bit computation, while running existing 32-bit applications natively.
“The 64-bit revolution has begun and the personal computer will never be the same again”, said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The new Power Mac G5 combines the world’s first 64-bit desktop processor, the industry’s first 1GHz front-side bus, and up to 8GB of memory to beat the fastest Pentium 4 and dual Xeon-based systems in industry-standard benchmarks and real-worldprofessional applications”.
Delivering the industry’s highest system bandwidth, the Power Mac G5 lineoffers dual 2GHz PowerPC G5 processors, each with an independent 1GHzfront-side bus, for an astounding 16GBps of bandwidth. The line alsofeatures the industry’s highest bandwidth memory (400MHz 128-bit DDR SDRAMwith throughput up to 6.4GBps); the industry’s fastest PCI interfaceavailable on a desktop (133MHz PCI-X); and cutting-edge AGP 8X Pro graphicscapabilities, all within a stunning new professional aluminium enclosurefeaturing innovative computer-controlled cooling for quiet operation.
The PowerPC G5 processor is a result of the strategic relationship betweenApple and IBM. At frequencies up to 2GHz, the PowerPC G5 introduces 64-bitprocessing technology to desktop computing, while also running 32-bitapplications natively. The PowerPC G5 processor architecture is based on acompletely new execution core that features massively parallel computationfor an unprecedented 215 in-flight instructions, full symmetricmulti-processing, two double precision floating point units and an optimisedVelocity Engine. The PowerPC G5 chips are fabricated in IBM’s US$3 billionstate-of-the-art semiconductor facility in East Fishkill, New York.
The new Power Mac G5 is the world’s fastest personal computer based on SPECCPU 2000 benchmark results and leading professional application performancetests when compared against 3GHz Pentium 4-based systems and 3.06GHzDual Xeon-based systems:
  • In the SPEC CPU 2000 independent testing comparing the Power Mac G5against leading 3GHz Pentium 4-based systems and 3.06GHz Dual Xeon-basedsystems, the Power Mac G5 won three out of four key benchmark tests. Alltests were run with the same industry standard GCC 3.3 compiler to insure afair comparison;
  • Single processor tests results show the Power Mac G5 an impressive 21percent faster than the 3.0GHz Pentium 4-based PC on SPECfp_base2000, whichmeasures single processor floating point performance, and 10 percent sloweron SPECint_base2000, which measures single processor integer performance;and
  • Dual processor tests results, which determine the fastest personalcomputer since dual processor systems are faster than single processorsystems, are a clean sweep with the Power Mac G5 beating the 3.06GHz DualXeon workstations by an incredible 41 percent on SPECfp_rate_base2000, whichmeasures the total floating point throughput of the system, and edging outthe same system by three percent on SPECint_rate_base2000, which measurestotal integer computation throughput.

In addition to outperforming Pentium 4- and Dual Xeon-based systems inindustry-standard benchmarks, the Power Mac G5 ran significantly faster thanPentium 4 and Dual Xeon-based systems on performance tests of the mostpopular applications for creative professionals:
  • On a test of 45 commonly-used actions, Adobe Photoshop ran twice as faston the Power Mac G5 than on 3.06GHz Dual Xeon workstations;
  • Logic Audio on the Power Mac G5 can play nearly 40 percent more trackswith reverbs applied than Cubase SX running on a 3.06GHz Dual Xeonworkstation; and
  • Genentech Blast runs up to five times faster on a Power Mac G5 than on a3.06GHz Dual Xeon workstation.

Complementing its computational power, the Power Mac G5 providesleading-edge expansion with dual 1.5Gbps serial ATA interfaces; theindustry’s fastest PCI interface available on a desktop with a 133MHz andtwo 100MHz, 64-bit PCI-X slots; and AGP 8X Pro graphics capable ofsupporting the power and thermal demands of high-end professional graphicscards. The Power Mac G5 comes standard with either the NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200or the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro graphics card. As a build-to-order option forunprecedented 3D design, visualisation and gaming, the Power Mac G5 linealso features the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro — a workstation-class graphics cardfeaturing per pixel and vertex shaders, and providing an astonishing fillrate of 3 billion textured pixels per second.
The Power Mac G5 delivers industry-leading connectivity and high-performanceI/O for creative professionals with Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, twoFireWire 400 ports, three USB 2.0 ports, dual display support, opticaldigital audio input and output, analogue audio input and output and aheadphone jack. The system also supports 54Mbps AirPort Extreme wirelessnetworking and is Bluetooth-ready for wireless connections to a host ofBluetooth-enabled peripherals.
The Power Mac G5 features a stunning new anodised aluminium alloy enclosure,designed to meet the needs of the most demanding professionals. The newenclosure is built around four independently controlled thermal zones foradvanced airflow management, with fans in each zone that are individuallycontrolled based on a sophisticated combination of thermal and powermonitoring, resulting in the Power Mac G5 running three times quieter than theprevious Power Mac G4. The G5 enclosure also features an easy-to-open accesspanel allowing quick access to internal components for tool-lessinstallation of memory, hard drives, optical drives or an AirPort Extremecard. Front and rear handles allow professionals to rapidly and safely movePower Mac G5s when and where they need them, and front-mounted FireWire,USB 2.0 and headphone ports provide convenient access for popular peripherals.
Pricing & Availability:

The Power Mac G5, with a suggested selling price of £2,299(inc VAT), includes:
  • Dual 2.0GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5;
  • Dual Independent 1GHz frontside buses;
  • 512MB 400MHz Dual Channel (128-bit) DDR;
  • 8 DIMMs, 8GB maximum memory;
  • 160GB Serial ATA hard drive;
  • AGP 8X Pro graphics slot;
  • RADEON 9600 Pro-64MB DDR;
  • 3 PCI-X slots (one 64-bit 133MHz, two 64-bit 100MHz); and
  • 4x SuperDrive.

The Power Mac G5, with a suggested selling price of £1,849(inc VAT), includes:
  • 1.8GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5;
  • 900 MHz frontside bus;
  • 512MB 400MHz Dual Channel (128-bit) DDR;
  • 8 DIMMs, 8GB maximum memory;
  • 160GB Serial ATA hard drive;
  • AGP 8X Pro graphics slot;
  • NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra-64MB DDR;
  • 3 PCI-X slots (one 64-bit, 133MHz, two 64-bit 100MHz); and
  • 4x SuperDrive.

The Power Mac G5, with a suggested selling price of £1,549(inc VAT), includes:
  • 1.6GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5;
  • 800MHz front-side bus;
  • 256MB 333 MHz Dual Channel (128-bit) DDR;
  • 4 DIMMs, 4GB maximum memory;
  • 80GB Serial ATA hard drive;
  • AGP 8X Pro graphics slot;
  • NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra-64MB DDR;
  • 3 PCI slots (64-bit, 33MHz); and
  • 4x SuperDrive.

The Power Mac G5 line will be available in August and will ship with Mac OSX v10.2 with Mail, iChat, Safari, Sherlock, Address Book, QuickTime,iLife (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD), iSync, iCal, DVD Player,Classic environment, Acrobat Reader, Art Directors Toolkit, FAXstf,FileMaker Pro Trial, GraphicConverter, Microsoft Internet Explorer,Microsoft Office v. X Test Drive, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner and DeveloperTools.
The Power Mac G5 will be available in build-to-order configurations throughthe Apple Store. Options include up to 8GB of RAM, 250GB hard drives, Combo drive, graphics cards (NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200, ATI Radeon 9600, ATI Radeon 9800), AirPort Extreme Card, Bluetooth module and an Apple Fibre Channel PCI Card.
* “World’s fastest” based on SPEC CPU 2000 benchmark results and leading professional application performance tests against 3GHz Pentium 4-based Dell Dimension 8300 and 3.06GHz Dual Xeon-based Dell Precision 650. SPEC CPU 2000 benchmarks run with GCC 3.3 and independently tested; professionalapplications tested by Apple, June 2003.
Press Contacts:
Apple UK and Ireland Public Relations
Email: media.uk@apple.com
Phone: (020) 8218 1440
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