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This has been a rumor for a long time. It has just recently just poped it to the general public. This is however just speculation, but I do agree this is the chip that Macs will use in the next generation.
This chip will beat the pants of even if Intel can break the 4 Ghz Barrier by 2003.
But it will be difficult marketing this because most people believe that MHz are everything. When you are talking about 32-Bit and 64-bit the measurment gets really complicated. MHz is like the RPM meter on your car, more cycles usually means more revs per minute. But when you get into the archutecture of processors there are various things that make it produce results. This chip even at 1.8 GHz will be about 4 times faster (or I think) than a 2 Ghz 32-Bit Processor.
In 4 cycles a 32-bit processor computes 128 bits of information.
In 4 cycles of a 64-bit processor computes 256 bits of information.
Times those about a million a second and you can see really how far apart they are.
Anyways, however exciting this is for Mac users, it will not give them a leading edge, because AMD is slated to release "Hammer" its own 64-bit desktop processor, with simular speeds.
But still it may give Macs a significant boost that it seriously needs.
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