Apple Developer Connection
Advanced Search
Member Login Log In | Not a Member? Support

Hardware & Drivers
Power Mac G5

The 64-bit processor and next-generation technologies in the Power Mac G5 open a world of opportunities for developers. Optimizing your code can yield significantly increased application performance. More importantly, you can exploit the revolutionary processing, memory, and throughput capabilities of this unique platform to create apps never before possible.

The PowerPC G5 processor supports up to 215 simultaneous in-flight Velocity Engine, floating point, integer & branch instructions. On top of that, the Power Mac G5 has the capacity for up to 8 GB of RAM, more than enough for memory-intensive applications and large media files; high-speed PCI-X slots for expansion; Serial ATA for fast access of up to 500GB of internal storage; and an AGP 8X Pro graphics controller.

The higher processor speeds and wider data paths bring instant performance benefits, but even bigger gains can come with a bit of extra effort. Recompile with GCC 3.3 and its G5 optimization flags, use Apple's Velocity Engine libraries, and utilize profile tools for analysis and fine tuning to gain significantly higher performance. Using Apple's latest Developer Tools is the best way to create apps that take full advantage of the Power Mac G5.

Power Mac G5 Articles

Optimizing for the Power Mac G5

The full capabilities of the Power Mac G5 are available to those who optimize their applications for the new system. Learn how to analyze your code and reap the full benefits of the G5 for both new and existing apps.

Related Links

Developer Performance Page

How can you get the best possible performance out of your code? Are you making the most of Mac OS X and Mac platform? The answers are available on the Apple Developer Connection's Performance page.

Power Mac G5 Architecture

There's more for developers in the Power Mac G5 than just the new chip. This page provides an overview of the re-designed, ultrahigh-bandwidth system architecture that your applications can now take advantage of, and that ensure no bottlenecks to hold back performance of the Power PC G5 processor

Power Mac G5 Specs

This page provides the product specifications for the current Power Mac G5 models.

Power Mac G5 Technology Overview (PDF)

This white paper describes the technologies of the Power Mac G5 , with a focus on the benefits for professional users like graphic designers, video producers, music professionals, and others with needs for high performance.

PowerPC G5: The World's First 64-Bit Desktop Processor (PDF)

For an in-depth explanation of the performance capabilities and features of the PowerPC G5, developers should review this white paper.

Power Mac G5 Performance (PDF)

Read this white paper to learn about the Power Mac G5's performance specs and the results of real-world benchmarking.

PowerPC G5 Microprocessor Presentation

An architectural overview of the PowerPC G5 microprocessor is available on the World Wide Web at IBM's site.

Inside the IBM PowerPC 970

This two-part series on the Ars Technica web site provides a good discussion of the architecture of the PowerPC G5 (IBM 970) chip. Part I introduces the chip and its features. Part II covers the execution core.