Apple Computer's new PowerMac G5, which Chief Executive Steve Jobs claimed as ``the world's fastest desktop computer,'' is due to ship in August. 

Apple said that G5 chip is small, so the PowerMac enclosure surrounds it with metal plates to help distribute heat. The current dual-processor PowerMac G4 systems draw 400 watts of power. The new dual-processor PowerMac G5 will pull 600 watts of power and will use nine internal fans to cool the system, while the current G4 uses five.

Though the G5 has almost twice as many fans, Apple said G5 machines will be half as loud as the G4 under normal conditions, in part because the fans only come on when they're needed.

The PowerMac G5 will come to retail stores in three configurations. The $1,999 base model will have a single 1.6-gigahertz G5 chip with a 1GHz front-side bus, 256 megabytes of RAM and 80 gigabytes of hard-drive storage. The top configuration will have dual 2 GHz chips, 512 MB and 160 GB of hard-drive storage.

John Kelly, who leads IBM's technology group, affirmed that IBM will clear the 3 GHz hurdle in a year. He also said IBM will be ready to ship a large volume of chips in time for the PowerMacs to have a big debut in August.

By: DocMemory
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