The original email, sent October 19, 2001

Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 06:16:43 +0000
From: Tracy Rompes <tracyrompes@hotmail.com>
To: contribute@macosrumors.com
Subject: Apple Info

Ryan,
I'm a systems engineer on the PowerPC Architecture Development Team and I
feel the need to comment on what has been released regarding the G5
processor. Some things that have been reported are spot on but other points
need to be revised. As an avid Mac user I feel that your website provides
content that people like me need to keep spirits up, and it fills the
information gap that Apple often creates. Feel free to post this note, but
please do not attribute the content to me because what I am going to tell
you would be grounds for Motorola to terminate my employment.

Here is what we know and what I am not going to refute.

a.This is a 64 bit chip.
b.This chip is blazingly fast.
c.Yields are up and we are now getting a consistent product running at 1.6
Ghz. version .5
d.Reported Specmarks are fairly accurate.

Here is what has been reported and may not be accurate:

a.You reported that version .6 will fix the two major errors with the chip
but many of us on the team are not as confident as major changes in the
fabrication process might need to be made in order to address the issues.
b.Prices reported on the Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/39/22328.html are much higher than what
we expect. This processor seems to have a great potential for high success
rates. The current poor yields are mostly due to tinkering with the die to
get the bugs eliminated.

Here is what you might not know.

a.High power draw on the current models may be addressed by a future chip
that could be integrated into portable devices.
b.Altivec performance has not been as robust as seen in the G4. This could
be due to the cache problems, but honestly, we are not sure right now.

I hope you find this useful and we here at Motorola hope that we can deliver
an early Christmas present to Apple. ;-)

Best,
Tracy