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4/6/01 Friday's News: Story DetailReturn to News Page

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A Look at XLR8's MAChCarrier MPe
Dual G4 CPU Card

Last Updated: 4/6/2001

Update: I've had some problems with this upgrade in my 9600/350 which is why no performance comparisons, etc. have been posted. At least some of the issues seem to be related to the common issue of G4 upgrades in 6 PCI slot macs with controllers/cards in the lower 3 slots. I'm continuing to work with XLR8 on this issue. The CPU ratings database has some other recent entries from CarrierZIF MPe owners with G4 CPU modules installed that you might want to check also. (This early card was returned to XLR8 as I was unable to obtain reliable operation with it in my 9600/350. They noted other beta testers had better luck than I did with this early card.)

I received a loaner of an XLR8 MAChCarrier MPe CPU card with dual G4/400 CPUs. I'll be testing it in my 9600/350 and comparing performance with the original 604ev/350MHz CPU card.


kit contents
Kit Contents (wrist strap not shown)

The retail package includes the Card (CPUs installed, switches set ready to install), a thick illustrated manual, CD with software and utilities, XLR8 decal for your Mac and (not shown) an anti-static wrist strap.

A closer look at the card is shown below. The power cables provided connect to spare hard drive power connectors from the system power supply.

MPe Card


XLR8's control software for the MPe cards is shown in a past article here on their MPe Dual G4/500 ZIF for the Beige G3. Their software control panel includes the usual CPU/Cache/Bus speed/temperature reporting, but also has a temperature monitoring feature that will issue an alert if either of the CPUs are overheating (from a fan failure for instance).

I'll be posting results of tests in OS 9 with my 9600/350 as soon as possible. [Problems with the MPe upgrade in this system have prevented this to date.]

The MAChCarrier MPe cards will be offered in single and dual CPU models. You can add a 2nd CPU later for instance, even one of a different speed according to XLR8. Their G4 ZIFs feature a superior multi-processing design that is detailed in this MPe modular design page. XLR8 has said that even 7450 G4s can be added in the future. With the lower bus speeds of pre-G3 Macs, a very high bus/cpu ratio would be required to run a CPU at very high speeds. (I.E. with a 50MHz bus speed, you'd need a 12x ratio for 600Mhz CPU speeds for instance. The 7400 G4 CPU has a max ratio of 9x I believe, but the 7450 supports up to 16x ratios which would allow for a CPU speed of 800Mhz with a 50Mhz bus speed.)

For more info on the MAChCarrier MPe, see XLR8.com's product page.

 
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