Jobs Demos Panther, Power Mac G5
Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage Monday at WWDC 2003 in San Francisco, ushering in a new era of 64-bit desktop computing. Jobs offered developers a first look at Apple's upcoming release of Mac OS X version 10.3, code-named "Panther" and put to rest a myriad of rumors and speculation with the introduction of the Power Mac G5.
Based on the 64-bit PowerPC 970 processor from IBM, the G5 desktop features a 1 GHz front-side bus and supports up to 8GB of memory. The new systems utilize 400 MHz 128-bit DDR SDRAM, PCI-X, AGP 8X Pro graphics and dual Serial ATA hard drive interfaces.
"The 64-bit revolution has begun and the personal computer will never be the same again," said Jobs. "The new Power Mac G5 combines the world's first 64-bit desktop processor, the industry's first 1 GHz 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-world professional applications."
Apple is readying Panther to take advantage of the new G5 architecture, delivering a developer preview release at WWDC. Panther sports a completely new Finder, rewritten from the ground up to be more "user centric." A new feature dubbed FileVault, also new in Panther, secures the contents of a user's home directory with 128-bit AES encryption. Data is instantly encrypted and decrypted in the background, while still providing security if a notebook is lost or stolen.
iChat 2 will finally make an appearance in Panther, complete with support for audio and video chat. Apple has additionally launched a new FireWire webcam called iSight to compliment the new functionality. iSight is priced at $149 and features full-motion video at 640x480. A beta version of iChat 2 is currently available for download.
PDF will be a major focus of Panther. Apple's Preview application has been updated to support very large PDF documents and the ability to select text. On the fly postscript to PDF conversion will also be supported in the new Preview.
Taking a cue from Windows XP, Panther will support fast user switching. Users will be able to share a single Mac and switch between accounts without having to close applications and log out of the system.
"With over 100 new features, including some real blockbusters, Apple is again the industry innovator in operating systems," said Jobs.
Apple is set to release revamped developer tools, dubbed Xcode, to facilitate the transition to the 64-bit platform and Panther. Xcode includes the new GCC 3.3 compiler and will ship on September 15.
The Power Mac G5 will be available in three configurations starting this August, with a 1.6 Ghz processor, 80GB hard drive and 256MB of RAM in the low-end model that will retail for $1,999. A 1.8 Ghz G5 with 160GB hard drive and 512MB of RAM will run $2,399. Both models include the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics chipset.
A dual 2.0 GHz Power Mac G5 with 160GB hard drive, 512MB of RAM and RADEON 9600 Pro graphics will be available for $2,999. All Power Mac G5s include gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, two FireWire 400 ports, three USB 2.0 ports and optical digital audio. Bluetooth is supported, along with Airport Extreme wireless networking.
Jobs said Panther will ship before the end of the year and is priced at $129. Jaguar users not interested in the upgrade will be able to purchase iChat 2 separately for $29.