There's nothing unexpected about at major third party processor upgrades company, XLR8, releasing G4 upgrades the same day Apple released G4 based machines. However, they're the first to announce support for "Blue and White" PowerMacs. This support is "being readied in our labs now," according to their press release.

For those that don't have a Blue and White PowerMac, the following are the specs and prices of XLR8's new G4 upgrades, straight from their press release:

XLR8 MACh Carrier G4 - The 2-for-1 Upgradeable Upgrade

The MACh Carrier G4 builds on the XLR8¹s award-winning technology. It replaces the existing CPU card and is easily upgradeable by simply swapping its ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) daughtercard for faster speeds. Users can also get a 2-for-1 value by "splitting" its cards, then upgrading a G3 system to G4, and using the G3 ZIF card on the Carrier in the older Mac. It uses the standard MACh Speed Control and includes AltiVec utilities and performance extensions.

MACh/G4C400/1	400 MHz MACh Carrier G4	Intro SRP: $999
MACh/G4C450/1	450 MHz MACh Carrier G4	Intro SRP: $1,299
MACh/G4C500/1	500 MHz MACh Carrier G4	Intro SRP: TBA

XLR8 MACh Speed G4z - Supercomputing for the PowerMac G3

The MACh Speed G4z is a ZIF based daughtercard that allows "beige" Power Macintosh® G3 owners and XLR8 CarrierZIF owners to upgrade instantly to G4 performance. The board simply replaces the standard G3 ZIF daughtercard.

MACh/G4Z400/1	400 MHz MACh Speed G4z	Intro SRP: $879
MACh/G4Z450/1	450 MHz MACh Speed G4z	Intro SRP: $1,199
MACh/G4Z500/1	500 MHz MACh Speed G4z	Intro SRP: TBA

All in all, good price for the performance of a brand new chip. It's also great to see someone working around Apple's disabling of G4 upgrades in the Blue and White PowerMacs with the latest ROM update.

Back to the main page for the rest of today's PowerBook news.

Published by Doug B. Landry and contributing staff. Logo by Jon Iverson/Steve Galinsky
Trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. reserved. ©1999 Doug B. Landry and others.
Publishing headquarters is located in Baton Rouge, LA

---