Thursday, November 12th, 1:02 PM EST The future of the PowerPC: Max and V'Ger Information recently acquired by Rumors has shed new light on the migration path to AIM's next generation of PowerPC processors -- and the outlook is extremely promising. Over the next few weeks, we'll explore that information in depth. Today, we look at the two steps that will move Mac users into the G4 space, toward 1 Gigahertz: Max -- 300 to 500MHz The first stage of the Motorola G4 revolution is code-named "Max." This PowerPC processor will sport many improvements over the G3s, and push adoption of these technologies onto the many PowerPC-supported platforms, paving the way for the truly remarkable processors to follow. Among Max's features: New copper wiring process, reaching 0.18 microns of wire width, vs. .29-.25 for current pro cessors. Reduced power usage, cooler operation, possible wider tolerance for overclocking Support for older, tradition "60x" busses at 64 bits, and faster "MaxBus" technology, which sports 128 bit width and advanced capabilities allowing Max and V'Ger processors to talk directly to each other at full speed. AltiVec instructions support, accelerating IP Telephony, software IP routing, 3D graphics, and many other functions. Dual 32k on-chip L1 caches Support for up to 2MB of backside L2 cache On-chip debugging support 1.8 Volt processor core Support for work with the "Chaparral" motherboard chipset, which allows for bus speeds up to 100MHz and 33/66MHz PCI as well as two-channel DMA (Direct Memory Access) technology for PCI expansion devices. While not confirmed, this chipset may also support ECC (Error Correction and Control) SDRAM as well as pairing up SDRAM for accelerated memory performance. Should ship in volume by mid 1999 at 400MHz. Estimated performance of 22 SPECint at 400MHz. Overall, speed should be 30-50% faster than a common G3 -- add to that AltiVec's performance, and many professional and game applications will begin to reach in the supercomputing range of performance. V'Ger -- 500+ MHz Vger will push the PowerPC into completely new realms, with a swath of impressive features that begin to grow the scalability of the chips in the consumer space: First silicon at 500Mhz, derivative processors should reach 800MHz, with successors breakin g 1GHz. Multiple cores, which can be turned on and off on-the-fly to scale processor performance an d power usage/heat. Each core performs as fast as one Max, allowing for tremendous speed. 0.15 copper wiring process, reducing power and heat further. On-chip L2 caches boost memory performance and further decrease frontside bus usage External Level 3 caches of 8MB or more are available to accelerate by tremendous amounts re petitive tasks like Web serving, Emulation, and Rendering. Should ship in late 1999 or early 2000. Performance scales by number of cores (1, 2, or 4). Each core should perform similarly to a Max per MHz. All in all, a very impressive array of options for the Mac to move forward into realms of performance and flexibility that the x86 and even Merced platforms cannot begin to match. More details about AltiVec and other aspects of the next generation of PowerPC processors next week.