Mystic Multiprocessor G4s To Take Stage at Macworld

As many will remember, back in October we ran a report on a rumored set of Multiprocessor Power Macintosh G4s that were said to be underway at Apple under the code-name "Mystic." At the time it was widely suspected that these units would make their debut alongside Mac OS X Consumer release, though according to new sources, these new powerhouses will touchdown as early as this January's Macworld Expo.

Now officially confirmed to go by code-name "Mystic," this initial set of Multiprocessor Power Macintosh G4 systems feature a dual processor configuration, sources said. Apple is also currently working on the successor to Mystic, which will boast a quad-processor design.

According to well placed sources in Cupertino, the Mystic boxes that will appear at next month's Macworld expo will sport dual 500MHz, second generation G4 processors from Motorola. The Drive and RAM breakdown for these units will closely mimic those of Apple's current Power Macintosh G4 offerings.

Mystic will be enclosed in a casing identical to the current Power Macintosh G4, according to AppleInsider sources who recently had to opportunity to witness a demonstration of the new units. The logic-board, on the other hand, is a slightly revised Sawtooth board, rumored to feature an additional port or two. Furthermore, one source notes that the Mystic prototypes he has seen feature Gigabit Ethernet as standard, and are highly rumored to make it to market this way.

Similar to P7A (the 17 inch iMac) Mystic will not be ready to ship come Macworld San Francisco. According to extremely reliable sources, the project is not expected to go Golden Master until January 14th or later. All Mystics units that will be shown at the Macworld Expo will be preproduction units, sources said.

Like Pismo and P7A, Mystic will also require a custom version of Minuet in order to function properly. If all goes according to plan, these units should begin shipping in quantity by the end of February.

Additional reports will follow as information becomes available.