Online: Apple hits the fast track: Neil McIntosh was at the European launch this week of ‘the world’s fastest personal computer’

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs pulled the wraps off what he called “the world’s fastest personal computer” this week and promised that a new generation of faster Macintosh machines was now on the way.

The new computer – called the Power Mac G5 – was unveiled at a developers’ conference in San Francisco on Monday night by Jobs, who trumpeted it as having “the world’s first 64-bit desktop processor”.

The new chip at the heart of the machine, made by IBM, processes data in bigger chunks, meaning the machine can make use of more memory than its predecessors.

Apple’s claim to a 64-bit first was immediately disputed by some, who pointed to earlier 64-bit desktops from DEC, built in the 1990s. But it is certain that the new chips represent a huge boost for Apple.

For, just as importantly as the 64-bit architecture, the new chip has a much faster headline speed. In recent years, the company has seen its computers become noticeably slower than ones using Intel and Athalon chips, and the headline megahertz speed, used in most PC advertising, has fallen even further behind.

The new Power Mac G5 runs at up to 2GHz, almost double the speed of its G4 predecessor. The machines also include such features as very fast internal “bus” connections and Apple’s Velocity engine to speed up graphics performance, which is designed to appeal to professional users.

In a series of “bake-off” tests between Apple and Intel systems, Jobs showed the G5 system completing a variety of graphical tasks well ahead of its Intel-powered rival.

The tests, revived after a long absence from Apple’s regular, evangelistic gatherings, were greeted with applause at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.

During his two-hour keynote, Jobs said the new processors were “a whole new generation of architecture for Apple”, and added: “You can basically say we’ve caught up.”

Some Apple staffers were suggesting this week’s announcements were as significant as Apple’s original move to PowerPC chips in the early 1990s, which dramatically increased the speed and functionality of the company’s computers.

But some analysts were less impressed in the wake of the announcements. Martin Reynolds, a Gartner Group analyst, told Associated Press that the tests “don’t always translate to real- world performance”.

He said: “The real value in the Mac isn’t in the processors, it’s in how the system and the user interface works.”

But Pascal Cagni, Apple’s vice-president for Europe, said the new hardware presented a strong argument for professional users to upgrade their machines, after a period that has seen the replacement age of computers increase by 33% to 40%.

And he said there was major significance in IBM’s heavy investment in research and infrastructure needed to produce the new chips for Apple.

“The important thing to notice is that you’ve got John Kelly on stage, a senior vice-president [at IBM], the head of a $5bn a year R&D department, the decision maker on their $3bn processor plant,” said Cagni.

“[He] is stating that after a decade of partnership with Apple, they are looking for a different kind of partnership going forward, and committing to a long road map. I think that’s immense. This renewed IBM partnership, the investment that IBM is making in it, that is critical.”

The new Power Macs towers start at pounds 1,318.30, rising to pounds 1,956.60 for a dual 2GHz version (ex VAT).

One other piece of hardware was also launched – a pounds 119 digital camera designed to sit on top of screens, to make video conferencing easier.

The company also used the event to promote a major revision of its Unix-based OS X operating system. The new version, called Panther, sports a number of new features:

* Finder a new version of Apple’s file management program, designed to make it easier to search out files on hard drives, networks and online.

* iChat AV a new version of the instant message client that sports video and audio messaging between iChat users.

* Expose an effort to make it easier to cope with multiple open windows and applications. Expose can shuffle and reduce open windows to thumbnails, allowing the user to pick the window to work in next.

* FileVault a new option to have your personal files encrypted and decrypted “on the fly” as you use them, to improve data security -especially for mobile users concerned their laptops might get stolen.

* Fast user switching in what is likely to be a boon for users of shared machines at work or home, a new pull-down menu allows a change of users with a couple of clicks, rather than having to log out.

Apple says Panther will be released “sometime before the end of the year”, although no firm date has been set. It will cost $129.

During the keynote, Jobs also delivered an upbeat assessment of Apple’s performance in the first six months of the year. He said the millionth iPod was shipped this week, while the iTunes music store, which offers legal music downloads to US Apple users from major record labels, had sold more than 5m songs in its first eight weeks. A recent $2bn surge in Apple’s stock market value has been attributed to the success of the store.

www.apple.com

Neil McIntosh was one of a group of European journalists flown to Berlin by Apple for the launch.