The end of the road with Motorola has been reached, at least when it comes time for Apple to revamp its iBook line of consumer portables. The chip designer has failed to produce any process spec PowerPC 7457 G4s in commercial volumes required to propel Apple's portable and iMac computers to the next level.
Meanwhile, IBM is in the advanced stages of development of the 90nm PowerPC 750VX -- a chip which sources say will essentially replace the iBook's Motorola G4. Along with its successor -- the PowerPC 750VXe -- the PowerPC 750VX will advance the iBook to and beyond the 2GHz barrier by 2005. According to sources, the 750VX is a G3 variant that includes Altivec, additional pipeline stages, and advanced power management features.