Motorola pledges fix for G4 supply problems this quarter

Motorola reckons it will be able to meet Apple's requirements for PowerPC 7400 (aka G4) processors this quarter, the company told MacWeek Friday. Clearly this is a point of honour for the chip company -- and perhaps a tacit admission that Apple was right to lambaste Motorola for its inability to meet the company's demand, in turn preventing the Mac maker from supplying its customers in a timely fashion. Interestingly, company spin doctor Phil Grove said Motorola is focusing on "fulfilling demand" for 350, 400 and 450MHz parts, so it would appear that the company still hasn't knocked the chip's 'can't exceed 500MHz' bug on the head, at least not enough to get 500MHz parts in volume production. The 500MHz bug forced Apple to downgrade its Power Mac G4 line, prompting some serious marketing gaffes as the Mac maker proved unable to figure out what to do with users who had already ordered pre-downgrade computers. It's policy shifted one way, then another, back again and then settled down somewhere else. Grove told MacWeek that Motorola is "run-rated" to meet Apple's demand -- in other words, the company will hit targets in the quarter, rather than (since we're already there) hitting targets just before entering the period. It's also rather vague on when exactly Apple's requirements will be met -- it could easily be later rather than sooner. ®