Sources for G4/AltiVec hardware

[Troy Benjegerdes]

Jim_Ravan@avid.com wrote:
> 
> Has anyone looked for alternate sources for PowerPC G4/AltiVec hardware other
> than Apple? Will Motorola be offering a PCI board, perhaps? I've been searching
> around the net, but can find little PPC G4 related information. The AltiVec
> extension would be of interest for my application, but I need to make some
> back-of-the-envelope price/performance calculations.
> 
> regards,
> -jim

I suspect you'll have a hard time getting any information unless you
have a good contact in Motorola. Even then, you'll probably have some
sticker shock. (The Motorola MTX+ dual 604e/400 is something over $4000
if I remember correctly.)

It still might be a good choice, as I have talked to one person who
thinks the MTX+ boards are a better deal than Alpha 21264's for various
reasons.

<plug>
You might also take a look at
http://www.blacklablinux.com/products/cluster.html if you haven't in the
last week or so. We have some more 'cluster friendly' pricing on Apple
hardware. I would guess the G4 will run $200-$500 more than the current
systems if Apple follows there usual pricing strategy.
</plug>

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