Smart Computing Article - G.Lite to gateway

Apple's Power Mac G4 computer contains a PowerPC G4 chip with Velocity Engine, allowing processing speeds of up to 11.8 gigaflops. The G4, advertised as a "supercomputer on a chip," uses a technology known as the Velocity Engine to process data in 128-bit chunks, as opposed to the 32-bit or 64-bit chunks most microprocessors handle. According to Apple, the G4 can perform four (in some cases eight) 32-bit floating-point calculations in a single cycle—two to four times faster than processors found in run-of-the-mill PCs. The technology is so fast that the U.S. government supposedly contacted Apple to notify them that "supercomputers" cannot be shipped to certain sensitive nations and overseas areas. Traditional supercomputers are able to execute 1 billion floating-point operations per second, a rapid rate of calculation known as a gigaflop. G4 chips can offer sustained performance at 1 gigaflop, with some models reaching 11.8 gigaflops. Such processing speed aids in the manipulation of high-end video, graphics, and audio, along with delivering the computing horsepower some sophisticated online systems require. Apple offers G4 microprocessors in its Power Mac line at 733MHz, 867MHz, and 800MHz (in a dual processor model) with a L2 (level 2) and L3 (level 3) cache controller built in. A colloquial term for a subculture of fans devoted to playing, collecting, and developing video/computer games. Gamers can include those who play standalone video game systems such as Nintendo's Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox, or those devoted to games playable on home computers via CDs or DVDs. The first real video game is credited to William Higinbotham, a