For sale: Motorola's PowerPC 7457 for $5046.96

Very expensive way to upgrade your Mac

Can't wait for new PowerBooks based on Motorola's upcoming PowerPC 7457 chip? Fancy upgrading your existing system by whipping out its current G4 and swapping in the new model? Well now you can - at a price.

If you've got a little over $5000 to spare, you can beat the crowd to the hottest Mac processor this side of IBM's 64-bit PowerPC 970 - aka the G5.

Not that it's an upgrade for the faint-hearted - or anyone with a wallet less capacious than an elephant's scrotum. Motorola is offering a version of its Valis X3 chip evaluation board equipped with a 1.3GHz 7457, codenamed 'Apollo 7'. The Valis X3 MPC7457 slots into Motorola's Sandpoint X3 chip testing system, but you won't need that.

Simply call your nearest Motorola chip distributor - there's a list on Moto's web site - and demand part number PPCEVALSP37457. Arrow Electronics, for one, is offering the board for $5046.96 - that's got to be good for a few air miles. When the box arrives, go to work removing the 7457 and soldering it onto your PowerBook motherboard in place of the chip you already have.

Friday afternoon frivolity aside, this isn't something we'd recommend anyone attempt, no matter how wealthy they are. Besides potentially destroying your valuable notebook, the 7457 won't necessarily be a final release version - the chip has yet to go into volume production - and may contain bugs (sorry, errata) missing from the shipping version.

Quite apart from which, you're going to look very silly if Apple does indeed manage to work out how to cram a G5 into a notebook... ®