Is the new Macintosh G5 an evolution, a new generation or a revolution? Ben Morgan of Apple Centre Taylor Square came along to the ClubMac September meeting to show us Apple's latest to allow us to ponder this question.

Considering the full impact of the advances is beyond the scope of a meeting report-indeed it would take careful examination of its spec sheet in comparison with that of its principle competitors to get a rigorous measure of its comparative standing. There is no doubt that the G5 represents a large step from the G4 but contempory numbers are getting too big to contemplate: "eighteen exabytes of addresses", wow! It is possible to misquote a number by a order magnitude of three powers of ten without being caught. Such are the numbers produced by a 64 bit system.

Ben quoted early comparison tests which showed the G5 to be faster than its competitors in important high-end applications such as Pixar's Renderman and Photoshop, and the esoteric Mathmatica. Steve Jobs will be an early customer - Pixar have been using Hewlett Packard work-stations because they need 4 gigabytes of memory - now Steve can buy G5s. Not satisfied with 4 gigabytes, one wag in the audience predicted that G5 users would be running out of memory within two years.

Apple have announced the G5 is their major weapon in breaking into the "enterprise market" including offering the G5, running the 64 bit Panther, as a full-spec network server. After nearly a decade of ravishingly styled machines which have wowed the consumer market, the G5's styling is more conservative. It looks more like an office machine. Apple have paid close attention to quietening the cooling - the G5 has four intelligent thermal zones and nine fans; all controlled by the processor.

Ben demonstrated the significance of 4 gigabytes of memory by launching eight heavy programs and then setting Photoshop to render a 3D image. The G5 has certainly taken "power" to a new level.

Ben always treats us to one or two scoops. Several members were worried that Microsoft's recent acquisition of Virtual PC would stop the emulation program's evolution to OS X. Ben told us of an unannounced agreement between Apple and Microsoft to market a fully OS X version of Virtual PC. Another bit of news from Microsoft is a deal for "kids" of Office v.X for $249.

Our thanks to Ben Morgan and Apple Centre Taylors Square.