Power Macintosh

Side view of an open Power Mac G5 with dual processor

The company Apple produced and sold several Macintosh models with PowerPC processors under the product name Power Macintosh or Power Mac . The term "Power Mac", which was previously only used colloquially, was officially used by Apple from the G4 models from 1999, and the term "Macintosh" was dropped at the same time.

The first Power Macintosh series was introduced in March 1994 and represented a seamless transition to a completely new type of processor for users : the conventional processors of the Motorola 68k series were replaced by the RISC PowerPC 601 processor.

On August 7, 2006, the last Macs with PowerPC were replaced by computers with Intel x86 processors . These devices are incompatible with the PowerPC architecture and are referred to as Mac Pro . As of Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7 from 2011), support for PowerPC applications (Rosetta) has been discontinued.

Transition from 68k to PowerPC

The transition from the 68k to the PowerPC processor is considered a technical masterpiece. Apart from a higher speed, almost nothing changed for the user: The operating system was System 7.1.2 instead of 7.1 and looked essentially the same as before, except that there was a special system enabler in the system folder . The housings of the new computers were also carried over from their predecessor, the Quadra series, with only minor changes . Outwardly, they differed almost only through a different floppy disk drive and the additional lettering PowerPC. The starting gong of the first generation Power Macintosh was designed by jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan and sounds roughly like a struck guitar chord. In later Macintosh models with a PowerPC processor, however, the start gong introduced with the Macintosh Quadra AV was used again.

The classic Mac OS at that time was monolithic (it was only based on a nanokernel since Mac OS 8.6 ) and only supported 68k processors until the Power Macs appeared. With System 7.1.2, both PowerPC and 68k CPUs were supported, although almost all programs written for the old processor could still be run on Power Macs, in an emulation that the user did not notice. The emulation, which came from the processor manufacturer Motorola, was accelerated over time, and more and more parts of the system were successively translated from 68k to PowerPC code, which slowed the execution speed on Power Macs less and less over the course of the operating system versions.

Programs could contain both the 68k and PowerPC code; the Code Fragment Manager (CFM) took care of the mode switching at runtime. Such programs are called fat binaries , with the 68k code fragments in certain sections of the resource fork and the PowerPC code in the data fork .

Transition from PowerPC to x86

The end of the Power Macs rang the 2,005 announced switch from PowerPC to x86 - architecture one. This transition, completed in mid-2006, is very similar to the change in the main processor from the Motorola 68k, which was shown in 1994. The programs were generated , usually with the Xcode development environment , as so-called universal binaries based on Cocoa , which contain both PowerPC and x86 binary code and can thus run natively on both processor types. The operating system, more precisely the Mach kernel XNU , loads the necessary code for the processor from it. Older Mac OS X programs that are only available in PowerPC machine code and that do not contain any x86 binary code, ie are not available as " Universal Binary ", ran from Mac OS X Tiger / Intel (10.4, 2005) to Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6, 2009) transparent with the integrated Rosetta - emulator . This also includes PowerPC programs that run natively under Mac OS up to 9 as well as Mac OS X ( carbonized applications ).

As of Mac OS X Lion (10.7, 2011), pure PowerPC programs for Mac OS X ( Cocoa and Carbon ) can no longer be executed because Rosetta is no longer supported by Mac OS X from this version. (From 2012 Mac OS X is only called "OS X" and from 2016 "macOS".)

Old 68k programs that only ran in the Classic environment under Mac OS X on the PowerPC are no longer supported by x86 Macs, but can be used with an emulator such as B. SheepShaver , can also be used on current Apple and Windows systems, which, however, requires an original classic Mac OS installed in the emulator .

Brief historical overview

The early Power Macintosh were based on the PowerPC 60x series, followed by the G3 , G4 , and G5 processors.

From companies like Metabox (joeCard), Phase5 (Power Booster, Maccelerate) and others (Sonnet, ...) there were numerous upgrade cards for different Macs in the mid / late 1990s that provided them with faster G3 and G4 CPUs. Some of the corresponding companies were also active in the market for Mac clones for a while, until Apple distanced itself from the open CHRP platform approach .

On August 7, 2006, the Power Mac was taken out of the range and replaced by the Mac Pro running with an Intel processor . In order to be able to differentiate between PowerPC and Intel Macs in terms of software, the terms “Mac” were used for the now “classic” Macs with PowerPC processors and “Mac / Intel” for Intel-based Macs. This was important at the time of the changeover, as newer programs for Mac OS X only ran on Mac / Intel. As of Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6, 2009), Apple dropped support for PowerPC processors on the part of the operating system and, as of Mac OS X Lion (10.7, 2011), discontinued support for PowerPC applications (Rosetta), so that the addition “/ Intel” is no longer used. Conversely, based on “Mac OS X / Intel”, “Mac OS X / PPC” or “Mac OS X / PowerPC” can now be found for very old software.

Power Macintosh with NuBus slots

There were three product lines: 6100, 7100 and 8100. The Power Macintosh 6100 had the slim case of the Macintosh Quadra 610 ; it was initially clocked at 60, then at 66 MHz and had a PDS . The Power Macintosh 7100 had the massive metal housing of the Macintosh Quadra 650 and a further development of the Wombat board with three NuBus slots and a processor direct slot (PDS), which was equipped with a graphics card or a video digitizing card (model 7100/80 AV) as standard that could be used as a graphics card. The Power Macintosh 7100 was initially clocked at 66, then 80 MHz. The Power Macintosh 8100 , which used the housing of the Macintosh Quadra 800 and was initially clocked at 80, then at 100 and 110 MHz , was similarly equipped . All computers were equipped with a 16-bit stereo sound system.

System profiles

Apple Power Macintosh 6100/60 (flat case)

• Construction time: March 1994 to January 1995
• Main processor: Motorola PPC 601
• Mass storage: SCSI hard disk; 3.5 ″ drive for 1.44 MB floppy disks
• Level II cache: optionally 256 KByte
• Bus rate: 30 MHz; Clock rate: 60 MHz (after conversion max. 100 MHz)
• Max. RAM: 72 MB (2 × 72-pin SIMM memory banks)
• Main memory: 8 MB
• ROM size: 4 MB
• Graphics memory: 1024 KB (upgradeable to 2 MB)
• Graphics resolution: max. 1024 × 768 pixels, at 640 × 480 pixels max. 16 bit color depth

Apple Power Macintosh 6100/66 (successor to Apple Power Macintosh 6100/60, flat housing)

• Construction time: January 1995 to October 1995
• Main processor: Motorola PPC 601
• Mass storage: SCSI hard disk; 3.5 ″ drive for 1.44 MB floppy disks
• Level II cache: optionally 256 KB
• Bus rate: 33 MHz; Clock rate: 66 MHz (after conversion max. 100 MHz)
• Max. RAM: 72 MB (2 × 72-pin SIMM memory banks)
• Main memory: 8 MB
• ROM size: 4 MB
• Graphics memory: 1024 KB (upgradeable to 2 MB)
• Graphics resolution: max. 1024 × 768 pixels, at 640 × 480 pixels max. 16 bit color depth

Apple Power Macintosh 6100/60 AV (flat case)

• Construction time: March 1994 to September 1994
• Main processor: Motorola PPC 601
• Mass storage: SCSI hard disk; 3.5 ″ drive for 1.44 MB floppy disks
• Level II cache: optionally 256 KB
• Bus rate: 30 MHz; Clock rate: 60 MHz (after conversion max. 100 MHz)
• Max. RAM: 72 MB (2 × 72-pin SIMM memory banks)
• Main memory: 8 MB
• ROM size: 4 MB
• Graphics memory: 2 MB
• Graphics resolution: max. 1024 × 768 pixels, at 640 × 480 pixels max. 16 bit color depth

Apple Power Macintosh 6100/66 AV (successor to the Apple Power Macintosh 6100/60 AV, flat housing)

• Construction time: January 1995 to April 1995
• Main processor: Motorola PPC 601
• Mass storage: SCSI hard disk; 3.5 ″ drive for 1.44 MB floppy disks
• Level II cache: 256 KB
• Bus rate: 33 MHz; Clock rate: 66 MHz (after conversion max. 100 MHz)
• Max. RAM: 72 MB (2 × 72-pin SIMM memory banks)
• Main memory: 8 MB
• ROM size: 4 MB
• Graphics memory: 2048 KB
• Graphics resolution: max. 1024 × 768 pixels, at 640 × 480 pixels max. 16 bit color depth

Apple Power Macintosh 6100/66 DOS-Compatible (first Power Macintosh with a card for DOS compatibility)

• Construction time: January 1995 to October 1995
• Main processor: Motorola PPC 601 and 80486-SX (Intel compatible)
• Mass storage: SCSI hard disk; 3.5 ″ drive for 1.44 MB floppy disks
• Level II cache: 256 KB
• Bus rate: 33 MHz; Clock rate: 66 MHz
• Max. RAM: 72 MB (2 × 72-pin SIMM memory banks)
• Main memory: 8 MB
• ROM size: 4 MB
• Graphics memory: 1024 KB (upgradeable to 2 MB)
• Graphics resolution: max. 1024 × 768 pixels, at 640 × 480 pixels max. 16 bit color depth

Apple Power Macintosh 6200/75 (successor for all 6100s)

• Construction time: from May 1995
• Main processor: Motorola PPC 601
• Mass storage: SCSI hard disk; CD-ROM drive; 3.5 ″ drive for 1.44 MB floppy disks
• Level II cache: 256 KB
• Bus rate: 37.5 MHz; Clock rate: 75 MHz
• Max. RAM: 64 MB (2 × 72-pin SIMM memory banks)
• Main memory: 8 MB
• ROM size: 4 MB
• Graphics memory: 1024 KB
• Graphics resolution: max. 1024 × 768 pixels, at 640 × 480 pixels max. 16 bit color depth

Power Macintosh with LC PDS slots

Power Macintosh 5200LC / 5300LC

The 5xxx series (also sold under the name Performa 5200 ) comes as an all-in-one housing. Monitor and computer are housed together in one housing. Its users rate it as probably the slowest Power Mac that ever left Apple's factory. Its motherboard is a further development of that of the LC630, which was designed for 68000 processors, thus combining the possibility of using PPC software, but at the same time using the proprietary expansion cards of the 630 series (Video-In, CommSlotI, TV-In) . Many LC-PDS cards also work in it. There was also the 62xx and 63xx series, which used the identical motherboards in the classic desktop case of the LC630.

Initially, the PPC603 with a processor clock of 75 MHz and a bus clock of 37.5 MHz was firmly soldered, later the PPC603e with a processor clock of up to 120 MHz and a bus clock of 40 MHz. Only 1 MB RAM was available for graphics, the main memory could be expanded to 64 MB.

The 5xxx series was built from April 1995 to the beginning of 1997. All computers were equipped with a 16-bit stereo sound system and had a 32/64-bit system.

System profiles

Apple Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC

• Construction time: April 1995 to April 1996
• Main processor: Motorola PPC 603
• Mass storage: SCSI hard disk, CD-ROM drive, 3.5 ″ drive for 1.44 MB floppy disks
• Level II cache: 256 KByte
• Bus rate: 37.5 MHz
• Clock rate: 75 MHz
• Max. RAM: 64 MB (2 × 72-pin SIMM memory banks)
• ROM size: 4 MB
• Graphics memory: 1024 KByte
• Graphics resolution: max. 1024 × 768 pixels, at 640 × 480 pixels max. 16 bit color depth

Apple Power Macintosh 5200/100 LC (" Cube Mac " with built-in 15 "screen)

• Construction time: April 1995 to April 1996
• Main processor: Motorola PPC 603e
• Mass storage: SCSI hard disk; CD-ROM drive; 3.5 ″ drive for 1.44 MB floppy disks
• Level II cache: 256 KByte
• Bus rate: 40 MHz
• Clock rate: 100 MHz
• Max. RAM: 64 MB (2 × 72-pin SIMM memory banks)
• ROM size: 4 MB
• Graphics memory: 1024 KByte
• Graphics resolution: max. 1024 × 768 pixels, at 640 × 480 pixels max. 16 bit color depth

Power Macintosh with PCI slots ("Old World")

Power Macintosh 7200 (Catalyst) / 8200

→ Main articles : Power Macintosh 7200  and Power Macintosh 8200

From 1995 the smallest PCI computer from Apple was available for around DM 2,400–2,700  . It was designed as the successor to the Power Macintosh 7100, but with its technical equipment and low price it also overtook the then current PowerPC Performas 5200 and 6200 in its own ranks. The Power Macintosh 7200 was intended as an inexpensive alternative to the Power Macintosh 7500 series (in the same housing), which was introduced at the same time. The Power Macintosh 8500, which was also released at the same time, and the somewhat older top-of-the-range Power Macintosh 9500 were on top of these two computers. This more expensive 9500 had heralded Apple's transition from NuBus to PCI, with the 7200, 7500 and 8500 now being wanted which make new technology for Macs accessible to a wider market at a lower cost. Apple had to react because they had actually already missed the PCI bus system, which had long been part of the standard equipment of PCs at the time. The 8200 was added in 1996 and was a highly bred variant of the 7200.

Power Macintosh 7300 (Montana)

Replaced the Power Macintosh 7200 and 7600 and was on the market for around ten months from February 1997.

Power Macintosh 7500 (TNT) / 7600/8500 (Nitro) / 8600

The PPCs with AV unit , 3 × PCI, 8 × RAM. The input / output of stereo sound was possible via cinch sockets, and the Power Macs could be connected to a stereo system. All Apple computers without an AV card were connected to recording and playback devices via the mini jack plugs. The recording of your own system sounds or music was already possible at Apple in the 1980s, now the playback and recording of video signals (from model 7100 / 80AV) was added. With QuickTime or additional programs such as B. VideoShop, you could watch TV or play videos while working on your computer.

Apple Power Macintosh 9500

Power Macintosh 9500 (Tsunami) / 9600 (Kansas)

The high-end Macs with six PCI slots, one of which is occupied by a graphics card, and 12 memory slots. The built-in processor was the 604, later the 604e. The fastest devices in the series reached 350 MHz (9600).

Power Macintosh 4400 and Tanzania clones

Entry-level models with 603 CPU, only three (albeit very fast) RAM slots for a maximum of 160 MB (2 × 64, 1 × 32), with PCI riser card, depending on the model, three PCI slots or two PCI slots and a ComSlot II for modem or network cards. The computer was built around the Motorola Tanzania board, which Motorola had actually intended for clone manufacturers. The computer came from the factory without an L2 cache, which accelerated it considerably. However, this could be retrofitted, and many dealers offered the computer with it.

Power Macintosh 64xx / 65xx / 54xx / 55xx

As the successor to the LC-PDS PowerMacs (see above), Apple updated the mainboard to a more or less current state and now also uses PCI in the lower price range. This significantly upgraded the entry-level series. It was consistently sold with significantly faster processors and faster memory modules. While the 5 series took over the all-in-one housing with the tried and tested 15 inch monitor from its predecessor, the 6 series was converted to a mini tower. This included a subwoofer and could accommodate two PCI cards. The series included processors from 180 to 300 MHz, and there were even G3 processor cards from third parties later. With the appearance of the iMac, these entry-level models were also replaced.

Power Macintosh G3 beige (code names Gossamer and Artemis)

→ Main article : Power Macintosh G3 Tower

Power Macintosh 7200, 7300, 7500, 7600, G3 (desktop case)

Power Macintosh 8600, 9600, and G3 (mini tower case)

The G3 came on the market in two generations. This paragraph describes the first models, these had a gray (Apple jargon: "Platinum") housing.

The Power Macintosh G3, introduced in late 1997, heralded a paradigm shift at Apple. In terms of the basic considerations of the computer structure, the G3 was actually closer to Apple's private user line at the time ("Performa"), recognizable firstly by the far lower internal expandability (compared to the housings of professional Macs) and secondly by the internal hard drive connection (for the first time via IDE instead of SCSI ). However, it turned out that the sheer computing power of the G3, due to the faster processor and the 16 MHz faster system bus, was clearly superior to the previously fastest computer, the expensive top dog Power Mac 9600. The computer, designed more as a home user device, was thus more powerful than Apple originally intended.

There are three variants: desktop, mini-tower (both with the code name Gossamer) and the all-in-one (code name Artemis ). The desktop (lying down) is the most common, the mini-tower (noticeable due to its two-part shape) is much rarer due to the considerable surcharge at the time.

The computers have a graphics chip from ATI on the motherboard as well as SCSI and network (10 MBit Ethernet), two serial interfaces and ADB connections on the motherboard. The “beige desktop” was available with G3 processors from 233 MHz upwards; 366 MHz processors were even installed in the tower. There are three PCI slots; retrofitting a graphics card, USB, Firewire, 10/100 Ethernet or faster IDE / SATA connections is unproblematic. The main memory can be upgraded up to 768 MB with standard SD-RAM (from 66 to 133 MHz).

The IDE interfaces contained in the chipset only support the "Multiword DMA" mode and therefore limit the data transfer rate to a maximum of 16 megabytes / s, but "large" hard disks (up to 128  GiB , corresponding to 137 GB) are also supported. The so-called "Old-World-Macs" meet all the requirements for the operation of Mac OS X 10.2 ("Jaguar," 2002), provided that at least 128 MB of RAM are available. The latest officially supported version of the operating system is 10.2.8, but Mac OS X Panther (10.3, 2003) and Mac OS X Tiger (10.4, 2005) and the like. a. can be installed using the shareware program XPostFacto .

All-In-One (codenamed Artemis)

In the distance, this unusual model was reminiscent of the first cube Mac. Its main feature is the 15 ″ monitor integrated into the housing. The computers of the Power Mac 5000 series are to be regarded as its immediate predecessors. His exclusive field of work was the education market. The immediate successor to this extraordinary G3 was Apple's world success, the iMac .

• Construction period: April 3, 1998 to January 1, 1999
• Processor: PPC750 - 233 MHz, 266 MHz
• 4 GB EIDE hard drive
• 2 internal IDE strands
• ATI Rage Pro with 2 MB SGRAM (maximum 6 MB)
• 15 ″ CRT monitor with 13.8 ″ visible diagonal, 28 mm perforated mask
• built-in microphone as standard
• built-in stereo speakers as standard.

Power Macintosh with PCI (-X / e) slots ("New World")

Power Macintosh G3 blue and white (Yosemite)

Power Mac G3 / Yosemite, built in 1999

The later version of the Power Mac G3 had a (mini) tower housing with colorless and grünblau- translucent was disguised plastic (in the Apple jargon is called the device "blue and white" English. "Blue and White" ) and the characteristic handles. The device was sometimes mockingly referred to as " Smurf " or " Tupperware " or "Tuppermac".

The device had two USB and FireWire ports each (USB 1.1 and FW 400). ADB was still in place to be able to plug in the old keyboard or other existing ADB devices. The graphics were moved from the motherboard to a 66 MHz PCI slot, the concept of the “personality card” abandoned. A newly developed IDE chip, UDMA 33, ensured faster data transfer to the hard disk, while the other drives were still connected via the old, slower IDE channel. As with the beige G3, the inside of the case was particularly easy to access; the side wall of the housing could be folded down with a handle. On top of it was the motherboard with the memory modules, the processor, etc. The drives (including up to three hard drives, which are attached to the bottom of the case) remained in the housing, making them very easily accessible. The design is so well thought out that the side flap can be opened during operation (Apple advises against it).

There are revisions 1 and 2 of the blue and white G3. Revision 1 has a defective IDE chip that causes data transmission errors on almost all larger (more than 8 GByte) hard drives. To avoid this problem, you need a PCI-IDE card (ATA or SATA), which is also necessary in order to be able to use large hard disks (with more than 128 or 137 GByte). As an alternative, pure software (emergency) solution, a hard disk driver from another manufacturer can be used, in which the DMA mode can be manually switched to "Multi-Word" (e.g. HardDiskToolkit from FWB). The second revision of the blue and white Power Mac G3 has a device ("U bracket") to install a further ("IDE slave") hard disk above the two existing bays (up to four hard disks fit into the housing), an improved IDE Chip (without the data error problems of revision 1) and a slightly faster graphics card (Rage 128 with a higher clock frequency).

The “Yosemite” is Apple's first PC with a Firewire interface; this is also not integrated in the chipset, but housed on a small additional board. A striking number of computer owners complain about partial or complete failure of the Firewire interface or about unreliable data transfer. As with the defective IDE interface, a FireWire PCI plug-in card can help.

The blue and white Power Mac G3 is the oldest Macintosh to support the Mac OS X Tiger (10.4, 2005) operating system . Since the G3 processors are no longer supported by Mac OS X Leopard (10.5, 2007), 10.4.11 is the last operating system version that can still be used.

Power Mac G4

Power Mac G4 / PCI Graphics / AGP Graphics / Gigabit Ethernet / Digital Audio

Power Mac G4 / Quicksilver,
built in 2001/2002

Power Mac G4 / MDD FW800, manufactured in 2002

In summer 1999, two models of the Power Mac G4 were announced as successors to the blue and white G3: One version with PCI graphics and one with AGP graphics (Apple's official differentiation).

The Power Mac G4 had the same shape as the blue and white G3, but was made of translucent plastic and silver-colored sides. This combination of colors was called "Graphite". The models had the PowerPC-7400 processor (also called "G4", hence the Apple name "Power Mac G4") from Motorola with AltiVec (Apple jargon: Velocity Engine ). Some programs from Apple, such as iDVD or GarageBand , generally require the G4 processor (or a newer one).

The only difference between the model with PCI graphics (“Yikes”) and the previous model (G3 “Yosemite”) was the use of the G4 processor. The graphics card was still a 16 MB ATI Rage 128 in the PCI slot and the main board ("Logic Board") was identical to that of its predecessor. The computer was initially offered with 400 MHz, but due to problems with the fastest series (see next paragraph), all G4s with 50 MHz were sold less after a short time. The PCI-G4 therefore ran at 350 MHz. Just like the Yosemite G3, the computers had USB and Firewire interfaces. It was speculated that Apple wanted to continue using a larger number of motherboards from the previous model, and so the “Yikes” model was sold out by the end of 1999. So Yikes buyers had to make do with an outdated IDE controller with UDMA-33 and the FSB clock of 100 MHz, which is unchanged compared to the Yosemite.

The model with AGP graphics ("Sawtooth") was available a little later. Actually, Apple initially wanted to offer variants, a simple one with 450 MHz and a better equipped one with 500 MHz. Because Motorola could not deliver the 500 MHz CPU in sufficient quantities, Apple downgraded all G4 computers by 50 MHz in September 1999 (shortly after the market launch). The AGP models were only available with 400 and 450 MHz, the PCI model (see previous paragraph) with 350 MHz. It was not until February 2000 that Apple delivered the G4 Macs with the originally announced clock frequencies of 450 and 500 MHz.

From July 2000, the G4 with the designation "Gigabit Ethernet" received a Gigabit Ethernet connection for the first time and the option of Apple flat screens (15 ″, 17 ″ and 22 ″, later also 20 ″ and 23 ″) in acrylic design to the ADC connection of the graphics card. The advantage of the ADC connection is the connection of the video signal (DVI), the power supply and the USB signal in a single cable. Up to the penultimate Power Mac G5 series (Early 2005) it was possible to use the ADC connection without an adapter.

The FSB of the "AGP Graphics" and the "Gigabit Ethernet" ran at 100 MHz (only from "Digital Audio" with 133 MHz). The new motherboard was specially developed for the G4 processor and its bus protocol, making the computer significantly faster than the model with PCI graphics. The IDE controller could address hard disks with UDMA-66. There was also a separate controller for each of the two USB ports, while on the Yikes the two USB ports were supplied by just one controller. As a result, both USB ports could be used at full speed from the AGP graphic.

The last of the graphite-colored G4 computers was the "Digital Audio". This no longer had a microphone connection, but instead had an active Apple Pro speaker connection (2.5 mm jack, four-pin) next to the speaker connection. Furthermore, the G4 had a 4 × AGP slot for the first time.

Later models were often equipped with two processors, as the processor manufacturer Motorola was only able to increase the clock rates of the PowerPC 74xx (alias G4) slightly over several years, thereby increasing the performance gap to Intel-compatible PCs. The dual processor concept should reduce this gap. Later PowerPC processors were also manufactured by IBM.

A special form of the Power Mac G4 was the Power Mac G4 Cube , which with its fanless concept and its cube-shaped exterior in a plastic housing was a completely new development. However, it was very expensive and difficult to expand, which is why sales were discontinued after only one year. The design is also considered to be flawed, as there were often stress cracks in the case and the cube generally had to struggle with heat problems due to the lack of a fan. Nevertheless, more than ten years after its introduction, the Cube was still a sought-after collector's item. It is exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in New York .

The 2nd edition of the Power Mac G4 "Quicksilver" from 2002 (hence also "Quicksilver 2002") was for the first time able to handle IDE hard drives with more than 128 GiB (137 GB) storage capacity, since its open firmware required support for LBA 48 had been expanded. Larger hard drives still work in all G4 Power Macs with AGP (because they use a KeyLargo IDE chip), but only with a complicated circumvention of the LBA28 limit of 128 GB and great caution when partitioning.

The first Power Mac that could no longer boot Mac OS 9 was the 2003 model with FireWire -800 support. Because of the great demand for Mac OS 9 bootability, Apple then re-launched the dual-bootable “Mirrored Drive Doors” with minor modifications, which were sold until around mid-2004. This enabled both classic Mac OS in the form of Mac OS 9.2.2 and the modern Mac OS X from version 10.2 ("Jaguar," 2002) to be started.

The dual processor Mac "FW 800" (2003) with 1.42 GHz was the most powerful Power Mac G4 that Apple had ever built. Equipped with a front side bus clocked at 167 MHz and the 2 MB L3 cache per processor, its performance data should be comparable to a low clocked Power Mac G5 (1.6 GHz).

The Sawtooth motherboard in particular proved to have a promising future. a. because the CPU board was socketed. So a computer originally equipped with a G4 of 400 MHz could still be used eight years after its appearance (end of 1999, end of 2007) with z. B. two G4 processors (7448) can be equipped with 1.8 GHz each. There were also more powerful graphics cards for the AGP × 2 slot, up to the ATI 9800 Pro. An upgrade to 2 GB RAM, Serial ATA hard drives and USB 2.0 PCI expansion cards is also possible.

The last Mac with a G4 processor was the Mac mini , like the Cube, a compact computer. In contrast to the expensive Cube, which delivered the same performance as the tower models, the Mac mini is a comparatively inexpensive entry-level model. The PowerPC mini was only available with the G4 processor; the G5 CPUs were reserved for the more expensive and larger Apple computers. The equipment was also saved; in contrast to all other Macs, Apple delivered the mini without a keyboard and mouse. The Mac mini G4 was initially available with 1.25 and 1.42 GHz clock frequencies. The smaller version had a 40 GB hard drive and a CD combo drive (reading DVDs, reading and writing CDs). The 1.42 GHz version had a CD / DVD burner and an 80 GB hard drive, and Bluetooth and Airport were already built in. One point of criticism was that the device only had two USB ports. The Mac mini with Intel CPU (produced since 2006) therefore has four USB ports. It is positive that the Mac mini is very quiet; the built-in fan only starts when the computer is used intensively.

Mac OS X Leopard (10.5, 2005) requires a CPU speed of at least 867 MHz. Thus, installations of Leopard on slower models are no longer provided, although this is relatively easy with the appropriate means. However, the performance of this version of Mac OS X, which consistently uses acceleration functions of the graphics card to display, is noticeably limited on older Power Macs whose graphics cards do not offer these functions.

Model overview Power Mac G4

In addition to the motherboards, there are also names for the computers in order to be able to distinguish between the different models, which are unofficial but come from Apple:

Tower case:

• 1999: "PCI Graphics" ("Yikes"), officially translated: "PCI graphics card"
• 1999: "AGP Graphics" ("Sawtooth"), officially translated: "AGP graphics card"
• 1999: "Gigabit Ethernet"
• 2001: "Digital Audio"

• 2001: "Quicksilver"
• 2002: "Quicksilver 2002"

• 2002: "Mirrored Drive Doors" ("MDD" for short), officially translated: "Mirrored drive covers" or "two drive covers"
• 2003: " FireWire 800 " ("FW 800" or "MDD FW 800" for short)
• 2003: "Mirrored Drive Doors 2003"

Compact housing:

• 2000: Cube

• 2005: Mac mini

With the exception of the Mac mini, the computers were always referred to as “Power Mac G4” together with the respective model name. B. "Power Mac G4 Gigabit Ethernet".

Power Mac G5

Power Mac G5 "cheese grater"

The Power Mac G5 introduced the aluminum previously introduced for the PowerBooks as a housing material in the Power Macintosh series (because of the eye-catching perforated grid design on the front, experts often jokingly referred to it as the “cheese grater” ). He used new PowerPC 970 processors from IBM, marketed by Apple as the G5 . The Power Mac G5 had a sophisticated ventilation system with nine fans in four independent cooling zones. The processors themselves were cooled by passive coolers. From mid-2004, Apple installed a liquid cooling system as standard in the top model with dual 2.5 GHz processors for the first time (since April 2005 only the dual CPU 2.7 GHz top model has been water-cooled, since October 2005 only the quad with two dual processors ). If the side part of the housing was removed, a plexiglass cover could be used to look inside during operation.

The last single-processor model (with 1.8 GHz, Apple called “Late 2004”, with PCI bus and 600 MHz FSB) was introduced in October 2004. The architecture differed fundamentally from all other G5 Power Macs, as the system structure is similar to the iMac G5 (Rev A). Instead of a PMU, this model has an SMU as well as U3lite and Shasta controllers. As early as June 2005 (it was still available in Europe until July 2005), the device, which had never worked reliably until then, was probably discontinued due to series errors.

It was not until the beginning of 2005 - long after the error became known - that Apple released a firmware update that made the computers work reliably.

From October 2005 to August 2006 there were three models (with a dual-core 2.0 GHz CPU, with a dual-core 2.3 GHz CPU and the most expensive model with two dual-core CPUs each with 2 , 5 GHz, all with PCI-Express) available. All of these models used the U4 / K2 chip combination with a PCI Express bridge. Many copies of this model series - especially those with 2 × 2.3 GHz - have a series defect in the power supply; For devices with specific serial numbers, defective power supplies from Apple were exchanged free of charge until January 2010, even outside the regular warranty period.

All quad-core and dual-core Power Mac G5 models also support up to four graphics cards that can be installed in the PCI Express slots and on each of which up to two 23 ″ Apple cinema displays could be connected.

The Power Mac G5 was the first 64-bit computer from Apple, although initially only a 32-bit operating system and 32-bit software were available. On the operating system side, Mac OS X 10.2 (version "10.2.7 G5" was delivered together with the very first Power Mac G5 models) and Mac OS X Panther (10.3) only support 32-bit programs, from Mac OS X Tiger (10.4 , 2005) 64-bit command line programs were possible. It was not until Mac OS X Leopard (10.5, 2007) that 64-bit programs were also made possible graphically, but almost no use was made of them, since most applications were supposed to remain compatible with the Power Mac G4.

On August 7, 2006, the last Macs with PowerPC were replaced by computers with Intel processors; The successor to the Power Mac G5 is the Mac Pro .

Model overview Power Mac G5

Essentially, the following variants of the Power Mac G5 were built by Apple:

• September 2003: original model (PCI or PCI-X)
• June 2004: slightly revised model with slightly lower power consumption, first liquid cooling in the top model
• October 2004: Single processor model "Late 2004" with iMac architecture (1.8 GHz with 600 MHz FSB, PCI slots)
• April 2005: same as June 2004, but with higher processor speeds
• October 2005: Dual-core models "Late 2005" with PCI Express slots

See also

• Macintosh models

Web links

Commons : Power Macintosh  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christoph Dernbach: Hello, I'm Macintosh - for the 35th birthday of the Mac. In: Heise online . January 24, 2019 . P. 2: Power Macs with PowerPC. Retrieved June 16, 2020 .; Quote: "In retrospect, the transformation to a new RISC architecture must be seen as a technical masterpiece ...".
2. ↑ LowEndMac: Maximum Hard Drive Size (English), Dan Knight, April 6, 2014; accessed on January 21, 2017.
3. ↑ Blog : Using 128 GiB or Larger ATA Hard Drives (English), Pareis, December 16, 2007; accessed on January 21, 2017.
4. ↑ The last of its kind. NewerTechnologys MAXPower G4 - 7448 / 2.0 Ghz. spamamdienstag.de, accessed on November 18, 2010 . 
5. ↑ ATI Radeon 9800 Pro AGP Mac Edition. Low End Mac, accessed November 18, 2010 . 
6. ↑ Unsupported Leopard Installation . Low End Mac, December 24, 2007; accessed December 31, 2011 . 
7. ↑ Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) 1.8GHz models stop responding randomly . Apple Inc. , October 4, 2008, accessed November 18, 2010 . 
8. ↑ Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) System Firmware Update for Mac OS X 10.3.9 . Apple Inc. , January 14, 2005, accessed November 18, 2010 . 
9. ^ Power Mac G5 Repair Extension Program for Power Supply Issues . Apple Inc. , November 30, 2007, archived from the original on July 22, 2008 ; accessed on November 18, 2010 (English, exchange program ran until January 31, 2010). 
10. ↑ Andreas Stiller, Herbert Schmid: From SPEC, apples and pears. In: Heise online . July 14, 2003 . Retrieved June 16, 2020 .; Quote: "Apple's" world's first "64-bit bit, however, only comes with a 32-bit operating system for the time being."
11. ↑ Introduction to 64-Bit Transition Guide . Apple Inc. , September 1, 2010, accessed February 20, 2012 .