Apple updates iBook with G4 CPU

Apple has at long last upgraded its iBook family to the G4 processor, ending months of speculation that new G3-class processors from IBM - the PowerPC 750GX - would continue to drive the consumer-oriented notebook line

As before, two models are on offer, one with a 12in screen, the other with a 14in display. The 12in version contains an 800MHz G4 with 256KB of on-die L2 cache, so its a Motorola MPC7455 chip. The machine includes 256MB of 266MHz DDR SDRAM - another major architectural upgrade - and ships with a 30GB hard drive

Two 14in configurations are on offer: one with a 933MHz G4, the other with a 1GHz chip. Again, both have just 256KB of L2 cache, half of what's offered across the PowerBook G4 line, which is based on the latest generation of mobile G4, the MPC7447. The two 14in models come with 40GB and 60GB of hard drive capacity, respectively, and ship with 256MB of 266MHz DDR memory, expandable to 640MB.

All three machines ship with a slot-loading DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo optical unit and an ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 graphics chips with 32MB of DDR video memory. Each is Airport Extreme (aka 802.11g) ready, and the iBook line gains USB 2.0 support. As per previous models, the three new iBooks come with a built-in 56Kbps modem, 10/100Mbps Ethernet, a 400MBps Firewire port and a video-out connector.

They also ship with Mac OS X 10.3 'Panther' pre-installed.

The three models will retail for £849/$1099 (800MHz), £999/$1299 (933MHz) and £1199/$1499 (1GHz). ®