eWeek provides some corroboration of rumors floating around regarding the upcoming release of 970 based PowerMacs:
- Sources said that the IBM chip will make its first appearance in a new Power Mac known internally as Q37. However, sources said, Q37 won't ship with a 64-bit version of Mac OS X, limiting OS performance gains in the initial release. Instead, Q37 will launch with a special build train of the current Mac OS X Version 10.2, a k a Jaguar.
Code named Smeagol, this newest Jaguar update will provide compatability for the new machines while Panther is in the works. According to eWeek, Smeagol may not be complete for a month or so after WWDC, suggesting new machines would not be able to ship until that time.
First hints of Smeagol appeared on Appleinsider's forums.