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136-642: The Power Macintosh , later Power Mac , is a family of personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer, Inc as the core of the Macintosh brand from March 1994 until August 2006. Described by Macworld as "the most important technical evolution of the Macintosh since the Mac II debuted in 1987", it is the first computer with the PowerPC CPU architecture, the flagship product of

272-500: A 486 or Pentium ; these models are therefore capable of running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications, typically Windows 3.1 (for earlier PC Compatible machines pre-1995) or Windows 95 (for later PC Compatible machines since 1995). Machines with "MP" in their name denote machines that include two CPUs. These early models had two distinct generations. The first generation uses the PowerPC 601 and 603 processors and used

408-442: A TV set or an appropriately sized computer display , and is often used as a digital photo viewer, music and video player, TV receiver, and digital video recorder. HTPCs are also referred to as media center systems or media servers . The goal is to combine many or all components of a home theater setup into one box. HTPCs can also connect to services providing on-demand movies and TV shows. HTPCs can be purchased pre-configured with

544-401: A kit form and in limited volumes, and were of interest mostly to hobbyists and technicians. Minimal programming was done with toggle switches to enter instructions, and output was provided by front panel lamps. Practical use required adding peripherals such as keyboards, computer displays , disk drives , and printers . Micral N was the earliest commercial, non-kit microcomputer based on

680-511: A multitasking operating system . Eventually, due to the influence of the IBM PC on the personal computer market , personal computers and home computers lost any technical distinction. Business computers acquired color graphics capability and sound, and home computers and game systems users used the same processors and operating systems as office workers. Mass-market computers had graphics capabilities and memory comparable to dedicated workstations of

816-553: A portable computer prototype called SCAMP (Special Computer APL Machine Portable) based on the IBM PALM processor with a Philips compact cassette drive, small CRT , and full function keyboard. SCAMP emulated an IBM 1130 minicomputer in order to run APL/1130. In 1973, APL was generally available only on mainframe computers, and most desktop sized microcomputers such as the Wang 2200 or HP 9800 offered only BASIC . Because SCAMP

952-469: A touchscreen display, which can be controlled using either a stylus pen or finger. Some tablets may use a hybrid or convertible design, offering a keyboard that can either be removed as an attachment, or a screen that can be rotated and folded directly over top the keyboard. Some tablets may use desktop-PC operating system such as Windows or Linux, or may run an operating system designed primarily for tablets. Many tablet computers have USB ports, to which

1088-835: A 4096-color palette, stereo sound, Motorola 68000 CPU, 256 KB RAM, and 880 KB 3.5-inch disk drive, for US$ 1,295. IBM's first PC was introduced on 12 August 1981 setting what became a mass market standard for PC architecture. In 1982 The Computer was named Machine of the Year by Time magazine. Somewhat larger and more expensive systems were aimed at office and small business use. These often featured 80-column text displays but might not have had graphics or sound capabilities. These microprocessor-based systems were still less costly than time-shared mainframes or minicomputers. Workstations were characterized by high-performance processors and graphics displays, with large-capacity local disk storage, networking capability, and running under

1224-667: A 447-pin ceramic staggered pin grid array (SPGA). The pin out of the R4000MC is different from the R4000SC, with some pins which are unused on the R4000SC used for signals to implement cache coherency on the R4000MC. The pin-out of the R4000PC is similar to that of the PGA-packaged R4200 and R4600 microprocessors. This characteristic enables a properly designed system to use any of the three microprocessors. The R4400

1360-401: A 64-bit virtual address, but only implements 40 of the 64 bits, allowing 1 TB of virtual memory ; the remaining bits are checked to ensure that they contain zero. The R4000 uses a 36-bit physical address , thus is able to address 64 GB of physical memory . The R4000 (SC and MC configurations only) supports an external secondary cache with a capacity of 128 KB to 4 MB. The cache

1496-494: A Quad-core 2.5 GHz system. Not only was this the first Apple computer with four processing cores, it was the first to incorporate PCI Express instead of PCI-X for internal expansion. It also required an IEC 60320 C19 power connector that was more common on rackmounted server hardware, instead of the industry-standard C13 connector used with personal computers. The official end to the Power Macintosh line came at

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1632-473: A comparably-specced Pentium II-450 in an Office applications suite test, while Photoshop 5.0 was faster by 26%. And in 2003, Maximum PC ran a variety of gaming, Photoshop and LightWave 3D benchmarks, and reported that the Dual 1.25 GHz G4 system was about half the speed of a dual-processor Intel Xeon Prestonia 2.8 GHz system. A related criticism leveled at Power Mac systems from this time, particularly

1768-410: A computer that could fit on a desk was remarkably small, leading to the desktop nomenclature. More recently, the phrase usually indicates a particular style of computer case . Desktop computers come in a variety of styles ranging from large vertical tower cases to small models which can be tucked behind or rest directly beneath (and support) LCD monitors . While the term desktop often refers to

1904-557: A computer with a vertically aligned computer tower case , these varieties often rest on the ground or underneath desks. Despite this seeming contradiction, the term desktop does typically refer to these vertical tower cases as well as the horizontally aligned models which are designed to literally rest on top of desks and are therefore more appropriate to the desktop term, although both types qualify for this desktop label in most practical situations aside from certain physical arrangement differences. Both styles of these computer cases hold

2040-617: A costly external transceiver to connect to a network. By the early 1990s, the networking industry was coalescing around the 10BASE-T connector, leading Apple to include this port alongside AAUI in mid-1995, starting with the Power Macintosh 9500 . The Power Macintosh G3 excluded the AAUI port. The Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) was released in the second half of 1999; it was the first Power Macintosh to include only industry-standard internal and external expansion. For some years afterwards,

2176-502: A cross-platform media player called the Kaleida Media Player . Of the alliance, John Sculley said, "The Macintosh strategy paid off very well for us in the 1980s, but we didn't think we could establish the next generation of computing by using that model in the 1990s. Working with IBM, and making it available to everyone, we can have a much wider impact with these technologies than we did with the Macintosh." Development of

2312-510: A desk, including a keyboard, a small one-line display, and printer. The Wang 2200 microcomputer of 1973 had a full-size cathode ray tube (CRT) and cassette tape storage. These were generally expensive specialized computers sold for business or scientific uses. 1974 saw the introduction of what is considered by many to be the first true personal computer, the Altair 8800 created by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) . Based on

2448-444: A desktop with a monitor on top. The Quadra 630 form factor is a horizontally-oriented design with a height of 4.3 inches , suitable for placing a monitor on top. The Performa 6400 form factor is a mini-tower design, suitable for being placed beside a monitor. The IIvx form factor is a horizontally-oriented desktop form factor with a height of 6 inches , suitable for placing a monitor on top. The Power Macintosh 7500 form factor

2584-415: A few years before. Even local area networking, originally a way to allow business computers to share expensive mass storage and peripherals, became a standard feature of personal computers used at home. An increasingly important set of uses for personal computers relied on the ability of the computer to communicate with other computer systems, allowing interchange of information. Experimental public access to

2720-534: A full 64-bit architecture. It also introduced a significantly revised enclosure design, replacing the use of plastics with anodized aluminum alloy. Reviews were generally positive. InfoWorld described the G5 as "Apple's best work yet", and said it "delivers on the present need for rapid computing, deep multitasking, and responsive user interfaces — as well as the future need for mainstream computers that rapidly process and analyze massive data sets." PC Magazine again awarded

2856-615: A functional operating system, many of the elements originally developed by the Jaguar hardware and software teams were brought to market in mid-1993 with the Centris 660AV and Quadra 840AV , including the Apple Adjustable Keyboard , Apple AudioVision 14 Display , GeoPort , and PlainTalk . The new case designs introduced with the Centris 610 and Quadra 800 had also originated in the Jaguar team. By mid-1991, there

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2992-432: A graphics card installed. For this reason, desktop computers are usually preferred over laptops for gaming purposes. Unlike desktop computers, only minor internal upgrades (such as memory and hard disk drive) are feasible owing to the limited space and power available. Laptops have the same input and output ports as desktops, for connecting to external displays, mice, cameras, storage devices and keyboards. Laptops are also

3128-520: A hardware specification called Handheld PC was later released by Microsoft that run the Windows CE operating system. R4000 The R4000 is a microprocessor developed by MIPS Computer Systems that implements the MIPS III instruction set architecture (ISA). Officially announced on 1 October 1991, it was one of the first 64-bit microprocessors and the first MIPS III implementation. In

3264-483: A height of 5.4 inches , suitable for horizontal placement with a monitor on top. The Power Macintosh 5200 is an all-in-one form factor with specifications and internal designs similar to the Quadra 630. Collectively these machines are sometimes referred to as the "Power Macintosh/Performa 5000 series". The Centris 610 form factor is a low-profile "pizza-box" design with a height of 3.4 inches , intended to be placed on

3400-472: A high-powered Compaq or Dell computer against the Power Macintosh in a series of benchmarks and scripted tasks, usually in Adobe Photoshop . These presentations often showed the Power Macintosh besting Intel's Pentium chips by margins significantly exceeding 50%, but independent benchmarks did not bear this out. InfoWorld reviewer Jennifer Plonka reported that the 400 MHz G3 was 11% slower than

3536-487: A hinged second panel containing a flat display screen. Closing the laptop protects the screen and keyboard during transportation. Laptops generally have a rechargeable battery , enhancing their portability. To save power, weight and space, laptop graphics chips are in many cases integrated into the CPU or chipset and use system RAM, resulting in reduced graphics performance when compared to desktop machines, that more typically have

3672-408: A keyboard or mouse can be connected. Smartphones are often similar to tablet computers , the difference being that smartphones always have cellular integration. They are generally smaller than tablets, and may not have a slate form factor. The ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) is a small tablet computer . It was developed by Microsoft , Intel and Samsung , among others. Current UMPCs typically feature

3808-540: A larger screen or use with video projectors. IBM PC-compatible suitcase format computers became available soon after the introduction of the PC, with the Compaq Portable being a leading example of the type. Later models included a hard drive to give roughly equivalent performance to contemporary desktop computers. The development of thin plasma display and LCD screens permitted a somewhat smaller form factor, called

3944-465: A little more expensive compared to desktops, as the miniaturized components for laptops themselves are expensive. Notebook computers such as the TRS-80 Model 100 and Epson HX-20 had roughly the plan dimensions of a sheet of typing paper ( ANSI A or ISO A4 ). These machines had a keyboard with slightly reduced dimensions compared to a desktop system, and a fixed LCD display screen coplanar with

4080-739: A microprocessor, the Intel 8008 . It was built starting in 1972, and a few hundred units were sold. This had been preceded by the Datapoint 2200 in 1970, for which the Intel 8008 had been commissioned, though not accepted for use. The CPU design implemented in the Datapoint 2200 became the basis for x86 architecture used in the original IBM PC and its descendants. In 1973, the IBM Los Gatos Scientific Center developed

4216-620: A new Macintosh product that would combine a Motorola 68030 processor with an AMD Am29000 (29k) RISC chip. Apple had already released a product built on the 29k, the Macintosh Display Card 8•24 GC, a so-called " Macintosh Toolbox accelerator" NuBus card that provides significantly faster drawing routines than those included on the Macintosh ROM. The team's experiments resulted in a 68020 emulator implemented in RISC, but

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4352-481: A new naming scheme: devices without an integrated phone are called Windows Mobile Classic instead of Pocket PC, while devices with an integrated phone and a touch screen are called Windows Mobile Professional. Palmtop PCs were miniature pocket-sized computers running DOS that first came about in the late 1980s, typically in a clamshell form factor with a keyboard. Non-x86 based devices were often called palmtop computers, examples being Psion Series 3 . In later years

4488-522: A number of third parties created dongles that provided backwards compatibility to users of newer Power Mac systems with old hardware. This included companies like Griffin Technology, MacAlly Peripherals, Rose Electronics and many others. In some cases, these companies produced adapters that matched the aesthetic design of the Power Mac. Shortly after Steve Jobs ' return to Apple in 1997, Jony Ive

4624-409: A play on the name of Apple's upcoming Macintosh LC computer. By January 1991, the engineering team had produced a prototype of a Macintosh LC with its 68020 CPU being swapped out for an 88100 and a 68020 emulator. This prototype was able to use an unmodified Macintosh Toolbox ROM and could boot into System 7 . A few months later, a second prototype was created, utilizing a Macintosh IIsi case with

4760-406: A preview of features that would later become staples of personal computers: e-mail , hypertext , word processing , video conferencing , and the mouse . The demonstration required technical support staff and a mainframe time-sharing computer that were far too costly for individual business use at the time. Early personal computers‍—‌generally called microcomputers‍—‌were often sold in

4896-500: A project code-named "Aquarius", even to the point where a Cray-1 supercomputer was purchased to assist with designing the chip. The company lacked the financial and manufacturing resources to produce a working product and the project was cancelled in 1989. By early 1990, Apple was in contact with a number of RISC vendors to find a suitable hardware partner. The team that had created the IIfx independently started experimenting with creating

5032-615: A shared mainframe computer system was demonstrated as early as 1973 in the Community Memory project, but bulletin board systems and online service providers became more commonly available after 1978. Commercial Internet service providers emerged in the late 1980s, giving public access to the rapidly growing network. In 1991, the World Wide Web was made available for public use. The combination of powerful personal computers with high-resolution graphics and sound, with

5168-495: A single-chip version of IBM's POWER1 RISC architecture. Motorola was also present at Apple's request. IBM had already been working on such a chip, called the RISC Single Chip (RSC), to reduce the production cost of their entry-level RS/6000 workstation systems. In these meetings, a number of changes were proposed to RSC that would facilitate lower costs, lower power usage, and higher yield production suitable for both

5304-556: A succession of enclosure designs, a rename to "Power Mac", five major generations of PowerPC chips, and a great deal of press coverage, design accolades, and controversy about performance claims. It was discontinued as part of the Mac transition to Intel processors announced in 2005, making way for its replacement, the Mac Pro . The first Power Macintosh models were released in March 1994, but

5440-655: A television already in the home as the computer display, with low-detail blocky graphics and a limited color range, and text about 40 characters wide by 25 characters tall. Sinclair Research , a UK company, produced the ZX Series‍—;‌the ZX80 (1980), ZX81 (1981), and the ZX Spectrum ; the latter was introduced in 1982, and totaled 8 million unit sold. Following came the Commodore 64 , totaled 17 million units sold,

5576-406: A time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems . Workstations are used for tasks such as computer-aided design , drafting and modeling, computation-intensive scientific and engineering calculations, image processing, architectural modeling, and computer graphics for animation and motion picture visual effects. Before the widespread use of PCs,

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5712-477: A virtual address for an instruction is generated and the instruction translation lookaside buffer (TLB) begins the translation of the address to a physical address. In the second stage (IS), translation is completed and the instruction is fetched from an internal 8 KB instruction cache. The instruction cache is direct-mapped and virtually indexed, physically tagged . It has a 16- or 32-byte line size. Architecturally, it could be expanded to 32 KB. During

5848-601: A wide range of users, not just experienced electronics hobbyists who had the soldering skills to assemble a computer kit. The Apple I as delivered was still technically a kit computer, as it did not have a power supply, case, or keyboard when it was delivered to the Byte Shop. The first successfully mass-marketed personal computer to be announced was the Commodore PET after being revealed in January 1977. However, it

5984-583: A year before being discontinued, and was not considered a sales success (150,000 units were sold, about one-third of Apple's projections), but the distinctive design of both the computer and its accompanying Harman Kardon speakers prompted the Museum of Modern Art in New York City to retain them in their collection. The PowerPC chips in the G3 and G4 became a central part of Apple's branding and marketing for

6120-542: Is a desktop computer that generally comprises a high-performance video card , processor and RAM, to improve the speed and responsiveness of demanding video games . An all-in-one computer (also known as single-unit PCs) is a desktop computer that combines the monitor and processor within a single unit. A separate keyboard and mouse are standard input devices, with some monitors including touchscreen capability. The processor and other working components are typically reduced in size relative to standard desktops, located behind

6256-526: Is a further development of the R4000. It was announced in early November 1992. Samples of the microprocessor had been shipped to selected customers before then, with general availability in January 1993. The R4400 operates at clock frequencies of 100, 133, 150, 200, and 250 MHz. The only major improvement from the R4000 is larger primary caches, which were doubled in capacity to 16 KB each from 8 KB each. It contained 2.3 million transistors. The R4400

6392-476: Is a horizontally-oriented desktop design with a height of 6.15 inches , suitable for placing a monitor on top. The Quadra 800 form factor is a mini-tower design, with a width of 7.7 inches . The Power Macintosh 9600 form factor is a mini-tower design with a width of 9.7 inches . Starting with the Power Macintosh G3, Apple changed its product naming to include the generation of PowerPC CPU, with

6528-495: Is a portable computer that provides the full capabilities of a desktop computer . Such computers are currently large laptops. This class of computers usually includes more powerful components and a larger display than generally found in smaller portable computers, and may have limited battery capacity or no battery. Netbooks , also called mini notebooks or subnotebooks , were a subgroup of laptops suited for general computing tasks and accessing web-based applications . Initially,

6664-412: Is accessed via a dedicated 128-bit data bus. The secondary cache can be configured either as a unified cache or as a split instruction and data cache. In the latter configuration, each cache can have a capacity of 128 KB to 2 MB. The secondary cache is physically indexed, physically tagged and has a programmable line size of 128, 256, 512 or 1,024 bytes. The cache controller is on-die. The cache

6800-473: Is built from standard static random access memory (SRAM). The data and tag buses are ECC-protected. The R4000 uses a 64-bit system bus called the SysAD bus. The SysAD bus was an address and data multiplexed bus, that is, it used the same set of wires to transfer data and addresses. While this reduces bandwidth, it is also less expensive than providing a separate address bus, which requires more pins and increases

6936-466: Is most often proprietary, or free and open-source software , which is provided in ready-to-run , or binary form. Software for personal computers is typically developed and distributed independently from the hardware or operating system manufacturers. Many personal computer users no longer need to write their programs to make any use of a personal computer, although end-user programming is still feasible. This contrasts with mobile systems, where software

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7072-400: Is often available only through a manufacturer-supported channel, and end-user program development may be discouraged by lack of support by the manufacturer. Since the early 1990s, Microsoft operating systems (first with MS-DOS and then with Windows ) and Intel hardware – collectively called Wintel – have dominated the personal computer market, and today the term PC normally refers to

7208-424: Is written back to the register files when completed in stage eight (WB). Results may be bypassed if possible. The R4000 has an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a shifter, multiplier and divider and load aligner for executing integer instructions. The ALU consists of a 64-bit carry-select adder and a logic unit and is pipelined. The shifter is a 32-bit barrel shifter . It performs 64-bit shifts in two cycles, stalling

7344-568: The AIM alliance . Existing software for the Motorola 68k processors of previous Macintoshes do not run on it natively, so a Mac 68k emulator is in System 7.1.2. It provides good compatibility, at about two-thirds of the speed of contemporary Macintosh Quadra machines. The Power Macintosh replaced the Quadra and was initially sold in the same enclosures. Over the next twelve years, it evolved through

7480-536: The Apple I computer circuit board, which was fully prepared and contained about 30 chips. The Apple I computer differed from the other kit-style hobby computers of era. At the request of Paul Terrell , owner of the Byte Shop , Jobs and Wozniak were given their first purchase order, for 50 Apple I computers, only if the computers were assembled and tested and not a kit computer. Terrell wanted to have computers to sell to

7616-590: The Bendix G15 and LGP-30 of 1956, and the Soviet MIR series of computers developed from 1965 to 1969. By the early 1970s, people in academic or research institutions had the opportunity for single-person use of a computer system in interactive mode for extended durations, although these systems would still have been too expensive to be owned by a single person. The personal computer was made possible by major advances in semiconductor technology. In 1959,

7752-656: The Galaksija (1983) introduced in Yugoslavia and the Amstrad CPC series (464–6128). In the same year, the NEC PC-98 was introduced, which was a very popular personal computer that sold in more than 18 million units. Another famous personal computer, the revolutionary Amiga 1000 , was unveiled by Commodore on 23 July 1985. The Amiga 1000 featured a multitasking, windowing operating system, color graphics with

7888-624: The IBM Personal Computer incorporated the designation into its model name, the term originally described personal computers of any brand. In some contexts, PC is used to contrast with Mac, an Apple Macintosh computer. Since none of these Apple products were mainframes or time-sharing systems, they were all personal computers but not PC (brand) computers. In 1995, a CBS segment on the growing popularity of PC reported: "For many newcomers PC stands for Pain and Confusion." The "brain" [computer] may one day come down to our level [of

8024-820: The Macintosh IIvx 's desktop case, and a high-end 8100 based on the Quadra 800 's mini-tower case. A fourth project, the Macintosh Processor Upgrade Card , was started in July 1993 to provide a straightforward upgrade path to owners of Centris- and Quadra-based Macintosh computers. The importance of this was especially significant for the Quadra 700, 900, and 950, which were not going to receive full logic board replacements. Computers upgraded in this fashion received new names such as "Power Macintosh Q650" and "Power Macintosh 900". The original plan

8160-506: The Macintosh clone market also prompted Apple to produce its own inexpensive machine using parts and production techniques that were common in both the clone market and the Wintel desktop market at the time. The Power Macintosh 4400 (sold as a 7220 in Asia and Australia) employed bent sheet metal instead of plastic for its case internals, and included a standard ATX power supply . Alongside

8296-667: The PowerPC 601 chip started in October 1991 and was completed in 21 months, with volume production starting in July 1993. The first computers to ship with a PowerPC chip were a line of IBM RS/6000 workstations in September 1993. Many Macintosh application developers used these machines for the development of the initial PowerPC ports of their products, as Macintosh-based PowerPC development tools were not ready. The PowerPC 603 (which focused on lowering power usage) and 604 (which focused on high performance) projects were also underway at

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8432-405: The lunchbox computer. The screen formed one side of the enclosure, with a detachable keyboard and one or two half-height floppy disk drives, mounted facing the ends of the computer. Some variations included a battery, allowing operation away from AC outlets. A laptop computer is designed for portability with clamshell design, where the keyboard and computer components are on one panel, with

8568-460: The silicon integrated circuit (IC) chip was developed by Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor , and the metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) transistor was developed by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs . The MOS integrated circuit was commercialized by RCA in 1964, and then the silicon-gate MOS integrated circuit was developed by Federico Faggin at Fairchild in 1968. Faggin later used silicon-gate MOS technology to develop

8704-661: The "1977 trinity". Mass-market, ready-assembled computers had arrived, and allowed a wider range of people to use computers, focusing more on software applications and less on development of the processor hardware. In 1977 the Heath company introduced personal computer kits known as Heathkits , starting with the Heathkit H8 , followed by the Heathkit H89 in late 1979. With the purchase of the Heathkit H8 you would obtain

8840-581: The 2006 Worldwide Developers Conference, where Phil Schiller introduced its replacement, the Mac Pro . The G5's enclosure design was retained for the Mac Pro and continued to be used for seven more years, making it among the longest-lived designs in Apple's history. The Power Macintosh models can be broadly classified into two categories, depending on whether they were released before or after Apple introduced its "four quadrant" product strategy in 1998. Before

8976-423: The 29k project was dropped in mid-1990 due to financial infeasibility. Apple evaluated CPU architectures including MIPS , SPARC , i860 , and ARM —which would be much later used across many Apple product families. Negotiations with Sun included the condition that Sun would use the Macintosh interface for its SPARC workstation computers in exchange for Apple using Sun's SPARC processors in Macintosh workstations;

9112-527: The 32 floating-point registers become 32 bits wide when used to hold single-precision floating-point numbers. When used to hold double-precision numbers, there are 16 floating-point registers (the registers are paired). The FPU can operate in parallel with the ALU unless there is a data or resource dependency, which causes it to stall. It contains three sub-units: an adder, a multiplier and a divider. The multiplier and divider can execute an instruction in parallel with

9248-400: The 5200 LC was well received by critics for its design, performance, and cost, both it and the 6200 suffered from stability issues (and in the case of the 5200, display issues as well) that could only be solved by bringing the machine to an Apple dealer for replacement parts. By mid-1995, the burgeoning Power Macintosh line had all but completely supplanted every prior Macintosh line, with only

9384-484: The 6100/60 noted that "Not only has Apple finally regained the performance lead it lost about eight years ago when PCs appeared using Intel's 80386 CPU, but it has pushed far ahead." The performance of 680x0 software is slower due to the emulation layer, but MacWorld's benchmarks showed noticeably faster CPU, disk, video, and floating-point performance than the Quadra 610 it replaced. By January 1995, Apple had sold 1 million Power Macintosh systems. Speed-bumped versions of

9520-555: The 8-bit Intel 8080 Microprocessor, the Altair is widely recognized as the spark that ignited the microcomputer revolution as the first commercially successful personal computer. The computer bus designed for the Altair was to become a de facto standard in the form of the S-100 bus , and the first programming language for the machine was Microsoft's founding product, Altair BASIC . In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak sold

9656-401: The 8100/100, to 7:37 for the 8500/120. They also noted that the 8500 runs an average of 24 to 44 percent faster than a similarly clocked Intel Pentium chip, increasing to double on graphics and publishing tasks. The transition to PCI continued into 1996, with the introduction of the all-in-one 5400, desktop 6300/160 (usually sold as a Performa 6360), and mini-tower 6400 models. The success of

9792-535: The G4 Mirrored Drive Doors, was the increased fan noise level compared to older systems. By the time the Power Mac G5 was unveiled at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in July 2003, Apple's desktop range had fallen significantly behind competing computers in performance. The G5 closed much of this gap by moving to the PowerPC 970 processor with clock speeds up to 2.0 GHz, and

9928-400: The Macintosh and future RS/6000 products. In early July, executives at the three companies reached an agreement which was formally announced to the public in October. In addition to the new RISC architecture, which was given the name PowerPC , this " AIM alliance " had several goals, including creating an operating system based on Pink, an object-oriented scripting language called ScriptX, and

10064-458: The Macintosh team. This separation included operating system development, with the newly conceived " Pink " operating system considered for the new computer. Jaguar was also not intended to be a high-volume, mainstream system. Gassée's preference, as it was with the upcoming Macintosh IIfx , was to create a product that would compete in the high-end workstation market, previously not an area of strength for Apple. The decision to use RISC architecture

10200-472: The Power Mac G5 with its Award for Technical Excellence for 2003. However, the G5's heavy weight (10 pounds more than the previous year's Quicksilver Power Mac G4), limited internal expansion options, issues with ground loop , and noise in the single-processor models' power supply units resulted in significant criticism of the product. Apple also continued to make unsubstantiated performance claims about

10336-493: The Power Macintosh line were introduced at the beginning of 1995, followed in April by the first PowerPC 603 models: an all-in-one model called the Power Macintosh 5200 LC and a replacement for the Quadra 630 called the Power Macintosh 6200 . Performa variants of these machines were sold as well, continuing the practice of re-branding other Macintosh models for sale in department stores and big-box electronics retailers. While

10472-651: The Power Macintosh. For example, the Blue and White G3 features the letters "G3" on the side that are fully one-third the height of the entire case, a significant departure from the small labels typically used on prior Macintosh computers. And when the Power Mac G4 was introduced, print ads included pictures of the G4 chip and mentioned its AltiVec instruction set by its own marketing name, "Velocity Engine". A related element of Apple's marketing strategy, especially after mid-2001,

10608-444: The R4000 was fabricated by partners in their own processes, which had a 0.8 μm minimum feature size. The R4000 generates the various clock signals from a master clock signal generated externally. For the operating frequency, the R4000 multiplies the master clock signal by two by use of an on-die phase-locked loop (PLL). The R4000PC is packaged in a 179-pin ceramic pin grid array (CPGA). The R4000SC and R4000MC are packaged in

10744-464: The R4000: the R4000PC, an entry-level model with no support for a secondary cache; the R4000SC, a model with secondary cache but no multiprocessor capability; and the R4000MC, a model with secondary cache and support for the cache coherency protocols required by multiprocessor systems. The R4000 is a scalar superpipelined microprocessor with an eight-stage integer pipeline. During the first stage (IF),

10880-523: The R4400MC at $ 2,150 in quantities of 10,000. The R4400 is used by: The R4000 and R4400 microprocessors were interfaced to the system by custom ASICs or by commercially available chipsets. System vendors such as SGI developed their own ASICs for their systems. Commercial chipsets were developed, fabricated and marketed by companies such as Toshiba with their the Tiger Shark chipset, which provided

11016-593: The VR4400. The first version, a 150 MHz part, was announced in November 1992. Early versions were fabricated in a 0.6 μm process. In mid-1995, a 250 MHz part began sampling. It was fabricated in a 0.35 μm four-layer-metal process. NEC also produced the MR4401, a ceramic multi-chip module (MCM) that contained a VR4400SC with ten 1 Mbit SRAM chips that implemented a 1 MB secondary cache. The MCM

11152-549: The Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Linux operating system , and low-voltage Intel Atom or VIA C7-M processors. A pocket PC is a hardware specification for a handheld-sized computer ( personal digital assistant , PDA) that runs the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system . It may have the capability to run an alternative operating system like NetBSD or Linux . Pocket PCs have many of

11288-473: The ability to be programmed in both APL and BASIC for engineers, analysts, statisticians, and other business problem-solvers. In the late 1960s such a machine would have been nearly as large as two desks and would have weighed about half a ton. Another desktop portable APL machine, the MCM/70 , was demonstrated in 1973 and shipped in 1974. It used the Intel 8008 processor. A seminal step in personal computing

11424-418: The adder, but they use the adder in their final stages of execution, thus imposing limits to overlapping execution. Thus, under certain conditions, it can execute up to three instructions at any time, one in each unit. The FPU is capable of retiring one instruction per cycle. The adder and multiplier are pipelined. The multiplier has a four-stage multiplier pipeline. It is clocked at twice the clock frequency of

11560-477: The capabilities of desktop PCs . Numerous applications are available for handhelds adhering to the Microsoft Pocket PC specification, many of which are freeware . Microsoft-compliant Pocket PCs can also be used with many other add-ons like GPS receivers , barcode readers, RFID readers and cameras. In 2007, with the release of Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft dropped the name Pocket PC in favor of

11696-577: The chassis and CPU card to assemble yourself, additional hardware such as the H8-1 memory board that contained 4k of RAM could also be purchased in order to run software. The Heathkit H11 model was released in 1978 and was one of the first 16-bit personal computers; however, due to its high retail cost of $ 1,295 was discontinued in 1982. During the early 1980s, home computers were further developed for household use, with software for personal productivity, programming and games. They typically could be used with

11832-673: The common people] and help with our income-tax and book-keeping calculations. But this is speculation and there is no sign of it so far. In the history of computing , early experimental machines could be operated by a single attendant. For example, ENIAC which became operational in 1946 could be run by a single, albeit highly trained, person. This mode pre-dated the batch programming, or time-sharing modes with multiple users connected through terminals to mainframe computers. Computers intended for laboratory, instrumentation, or engineering purposes were built, and could be operated by one person in an interactive fashion. Examples include such systems as

11968-414: The complexity of the system. The SysAD bus can be configured to operate at half, a third or a quarter of the internal clock frequency. The SysAD bus generates its clock signal by dividing the operating frequency. The R4000 contains 1.2 million transistors. It was designed for a 1.0 μm two-layer metal complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) process. As MIPS was a fabless company,

12104-631: The deal was canceled due to Apple's concern that Sun could not produce enough processors. Negotiations with MIPS to use the R4000 processor also included the condition that the Macintosh interface would be available as an alternative to the Advanced Computing Environment . This deal was canceled due to Microsoft being a major partner in the ACE Consortium, as well as concerns about manufacturing capability. The Intel i860

12240-406: The development of Power Macintosh technology dates back to mid-1988. Jean-Louis Gassée , president of Apple's product division, started the "Jaguar" project to create a computer that would be the fastest desktop computer on the market, capable of voice commands. This was originally envisioned to be a new computer line altogether, not a Macintosh, and the Jaguar team was initially kept independent of

12376-432: The early 1990s, when RISC microprocessors were expected to replace CISC microprocessors such as the Intel i486 , the R4000 was selected to be the microprocessor of the Advanced Computing Environment (ACE), an industry standard that intended to define a common RISC platform. ACE ultimately failed for a number of reasons , but the R4000 found success in the workstation and server markets. There are three configurations of

12512-476: The end of 1993, it was becoming clear that Intel's PCI bus was going to be the widely adopted future of internal expansion. Apple's position as a relatively small player in the larger personal computer market meant that few device manufacturers invested in creating both NuBus- and PCI-compatible versions of their cards. The first PCI-based system was the range-topping Power Macintosh 9500 , introduced in May 1995. This

12648-486: The entire lifetime of the Power Mac G4. The introduction of the Blue and White G3 mini-tower also marked the end of the desktop and all-in-one Power Macintosh case designs, the latter being replaced by the iMac . A second model called the Power Mac G4 Cube was introduced in 2000, which fitted the specifications of a mid-range Power Mac G4 into a cube less than 9" in each axis. This model was on sale for about

12784-451: The first pre-PowerPC model of Macintosh to use a particular form factor, followed by a slash and the speed of the CPU. For example, the Power Macintosh 6300/120 uses the Quadra 630 's form factor and has a 120 MHz CPU. Machines with "AV" in their name denote variants that include extended audio-video capabilities. Machines with "PC Compatible" or "DOS Compatible" in their name include a separate card with an x86-compatible CPU, typically

12920-479: The first single-chip microprocessor , the Intel 4004 , in 1971. The first microcomputers , based on microprocessors, were developed during the early 1970s. Widespread commercial availability of microprocessors, from the mid-1970s onwards, made computers cheap enough for small businesses and individuals to own. In what was later to be called the Mother of All Demos , SRI researcher Douglas Engelbart in 1968 gave

13056-647: The high-end Quadra 950 and two low-cost education models (the all-in-one Macintosh LC 580 and desktop LC 630 ) remaining in production. The competitive marketplace for "accelerator cards" that had existed for earlier Macintosh systems largely disappeared due to the comparatively low price of Apple's Macintosh Processor Upgrade Card (US$ 600). DayStar Digital sold upgrade cards for the IIci and various Quadra models, and full motherboard replacements were available from Apple as well. Macintosh clones from companies like DayStar Digital and Power Computing were also coming to

13192-556: The infrastructure provided by the Internet, and the standardization of access methods of the Web browsers , established the foundation for a significant fraction of modern life, from bus time tables through unlimited distribution of free videos through to online user-edited encyclopedias. A workstation is a high-end personal computer designed for technical, mathematical, or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one person at

13328-576: The integer pipeline, and access the on-chip 8 KB data cache. The R4000 has an on-die IEEE 754-1985 -compliant floating-point unit (FPU), referred to as the R4010. The FPU is a coprocessor designated CP1 (the MIPS ISA defined four coprocessors, designated CP0 to CP3). The FPU can operate in two modes, 32- or 64-bit which are selected by setting a bit, the FR bit, in the CPU status register. In 32-bit mode,

13464-630: The introduction of the Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White) in 1999, Apple had shipped Power Macintosh-labelled machines in nine different form factors, some of which were carry-overs from pre-PowerPC product lines, such as the Quadra/Centris 610 and the IIvx . This was reduced to one model in the new product strategy, with the exception of the Power Mac G4 Cube in 2000 and 2001. Apple named Power Macintosh models from this period after

13600-519: The introduction of the IBM PC, portable computers consisting of a processor, display, disk drives and keyboard, in a suit-case style portable housing, allowed users to bring a computer home from the office or to take notes at a classroom. Examples include the Osborne 1 and Kaypro ; and the Commodore SX-64 . These machines were AC-powered and included a small CRT display screen. The form factor

13736-549: The keyboard. These displays were usually small, with 8 to 16 lines of text, sometimes only 40 columns line length. However, these machines could operate for extended times on disposable or rechargeable batteries. Although they did not usually include internal disk drives, this form factor often included a modem for telephone communication and often had provisions for external cassette or disk storage. Later, clamshell format laptop computers with similar small plan dimensions were also called notebooks . A desktop replacement computer

13872-478: The market at this time, undercutting Apple's prices. When the Power Macintosh was introduced, it included the same internal and external expansion connections as other Macintosh models, all of which (save for audio input and output) were either wholly proprietary to, or largely exclusive to Apple computers. Over the next five years, Apple replaced all these ports with industry-standard connectors. The first generation of Power Macintoshes had shipped with NuBus, but by

14008-467: The microprocessor for adequate performance and uses dynamic logic to achieve the high clock frequency. Division has a 23- or 36-cycle latency for single- or double-precision operations and square-root has a 54- or 112-cycle latency. Division and square-root uses the SRT algorithm. The memory management unit (MMU) uses a 48-entry translation lookaside buffer to translate virtual addresses . The R4000 uses

14144-455: The monitor, and configured similarly to laptops. A nettop computer was introduced by Intel in February 2008, characterized by low cost and lean functionality. These were intended to be used with an Internet connection to run Web browsers and Internet applications. A Home theater PC (HTPC) combines the functions of a personal computer and a digital video recorder . It is connected to

14280-588: The name of the form factor or a key feature afterwards in brackets. The all-in-one models would eventually be spun off into the iMac line, whilst the compact form factor models would be spun off into the Mac Mini . Personal computer Institutional or corporate computer owners in the 1960s had to write their own programs to do any useful work with computers. While personal computer users may develop their applications, usually these systems run commercial software , free-of-charge software (" freeware "), which

14416-657: The new Power Mac. This resulted in the Advertising Standards Authority for the United Kingdom banning Apple from using the phrase "the world's fastest, most powerful personal computer" to describe the Power Mac G5 after independent tests carried out by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre determined the claim to be false. Another claim made by Steve Jobs at the 2003 Worldwide Developers Conference

14552-478: The now-completed Motorola 88100 chip. Jaguar wasn't initially intended to be a high-volume mainstream system. Instead, mass-market RISC systems would follow sometime later. After Gassée left Apple in early 1990, the goal of the Jaguar project was refocused to be a mainstream Macintosh system instead of a new platform. The Jaguar project was folded into the Macintosh team in early 1991. While the Jaguar project itself never came to fruition, and Taligent never resulted in

14688-416: The old NuBus / PDS expansion slots, while the second generation uses the faster 603e, 604 and 604e chips as well as industry-standard PCI expansion slots. The second generation also makes use of Open Firmware , allowing them to more easily boot alternate operating systems (including OS X via XPostFacto ), though use of various hacks was still necessary . The Power Macintosh 4400 is a desktop case with

14824-488: The only Power Macintosh to include both ADB and USB. Another port that was retired during this time is the Apple Attachment Unit Interface . This was a proprietary version of the industry-standard Attachment Unit Interface connector for 10BASE5 Ethernet that Apple had created to avoid confusion with the 15-pin connector that Apple used for connecting external displays. The AAUI port required

14960-458: The operating system, particularly QuickDraw . The first public demonstration of the new Power Macintosh — specifically, a prototype of what would become the Power Macintosh 6100 – was at an Apple Pacific sales meeting in Hawaii in October 1992. The demo was a success, and in the following months, the product plan expanded to include three models: the entry-level 6100, a mid-range 7100 housed in

15096-509: The pipeline as a result. This design was chosen to save die area. The multiplier and divider are not pipelined and have significant latencies: multiplies have a 10- or 20-cycle latency for 32-bit or 64-bit integers, respectively; whereas divides have a 69- or 133-cycle latency for 32-bit or 64-bit integers, respectively. Most instructions have a single cycle latency. The ALU adder is also used for calculating virtual addresses for loads, stores and branches. Load and store instructions are executed by

15232-503: The primary defining characteristic of netbooks was the lack of an optical disc drive, smaller size, and lower performance than full-size laptops. By mid-2009 netbooks had been offered to users "free of charge", with an extended service contract purchase of a cellular data plan. Ultrabooks and Chromebooks have since filled the gap left by Netbooks. Unlike the generic Netbook name, Ultrabook and Chromebook are technically both specifications by Intel and Google respectively. A tablet uses

15368-498: The required hardware and software needed to add television programming to the PC, or can be assembled from components. Keyboard computers are computers inside of keyboards, generally still designed to be connected to an external computer monitor or television . Examples include the Atari ST , Amstrad CPC , BBC Micro , Commodore 64 , MSX , Raspberry Pi 400 , and the ZX Spectrum . The potential utility of portable computers

15504-435: The same time. In July 1992, the decision was made to scale back the ambition of the initial system software release; instead of attempting to create a completely new kernel, Apple focused on producing a version of System 7 where portions of the existing Macintosh Toolbox ROM were rewritten to use native PowerPC code instead of emulating a 680x0. This provided a significant performance boost for certain highly utilized parts of

15640-618: The same time. This was a departure from prior practice at Apple; they had typically released upgrade packages months after the introduction of new Macintoshes. The Power Macintosh was formally introduced at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in Manhattan on March 14. Pre-orders for the new Power Macintosh models were brisk, with an announced 150,000 machines already having been sold by that date. MacWorld's review of

15776-418: The systems hardware components such as the motherboard , processor chip and other internal operating parts. Desktop computers have an external monitor with a display screen and an external keyboard, which are plugged into ports on the back of the computer case. Desktop computers are popular for home and business computing applications as they leave space on the desk for multiple monitors . A gaming computer

15912-476: The third stage (RF), the instruction is decoded and the register file is read. The MIPS III defines two register files, one for the integer unit and the other for floating-point. Each register file is 64 bits wide and contained 32 entries. The integer register file has two read ports and one write port, while the floating-point register file has two read ports and two write ports. Execution begins at stage four (EX) for both integer and floating-point instructions; and

16048-428: The transition to PCI, Apple began a gradual transition away from SCSI hard disks to IDE as a cost-saving measure, both for themselves and for users who wanted to upgrade their hard drives. The low-end 5200 and 6200 were the first to adopt IDE internal drives, though Apple's proprietary 25-pin external SCSI connector remained. The beige Power Macintosh G3 models being the last to include SCSI drives as standard, and it

16184-524: The ubiquitous Wintel platform. Alternatives to Windows occupy a minority share of the market; these include the Mac platform from Apple (running the macOS operating system), and free and open-source , Unix-like operating systems, such as Linux . Other notable platforms until the 1990s were the Amiga from Commodore , and the PC-98 from NEC . The term PC is an initialism for personal computer. While

16320-508: Was apparent early on. Alan Kay described the Dynabook in 1972, but no hardware was developed. The Xerox NoteTaker was produced in a very small experimental batch around 1978. In 1975, the IBM 5100 could be fit into a transport case, making it a portable computer, but it weighed about 50 pounds. Such early portable computers were termed luggables by journalists owing to their heft. Before

16456-429: Was appointed senior vice president of industrial design. Building on the critical and commercial success of the iMac , Ive and his team created an entirely new case design for the Power Macintosh G3, combining many of the aesthetic principles of the iMac (curves, translucent plastics, use of color) with the ease-of-access characteristics of the company's popular " Outrigger " Macintosh models from previous years. The result

16592-705: Was back-ordered and not available until later that year. Three months later (April), the Apple II (usually referred to as the Apple) was announced with the first units being shipped 10 June 1977, and the TRS-80 from Tandy Corporation / Tandy Radio Shack following in August 1977, which sold over 100,000 units during its lifetime. Together, especially in the North American market, these 3 machines were referred to as

16728-502: Was eliminated from consideration due to its high complexity. Apple did not consider IBM's POWER1 processor as an option, believing that IBM would not be willing to license it to third parties. In mid-1990, Apple chose the Motorola 88110 , an as-yet unfinished chip that combined the 88100 CPU and 88200 FPU into a single package. For the rest of the year, Apple's engineers developed a 68k emulator that would work with this future chip. This project became known as "RLC", short form "RISC LC",

16864-402: Was followed shortly afterwards by the introduction of the "Power Surge" line of second-generation Power Macintosh systems – the Power Macintosh 7200 , 7500 and 8500 . The 8500 and 9500 were built around the new PowerPC 604 , offering speeds starting at 120 MHz. InfoWorld 's review of the 8500 showed a speed improvement in their "business applications suite" benchmark from 10 minutes with

17000-401: Was intended to allow these systems to be taken on board an airplane as carry-on baggage, though their high power demand meant that they could not be used in flight. The integrated CRT display made for a relatively heavy package, but these machines were more portable than their contemporary desktop equals. Some models had standard or optional connections to drive an external video monitor, allowing

17136-472: Was internal concern at Apple that the 88100 may not be the correct processor to move forward with as no other computer manufacturers had committed to using the processor. Using IBM's POWER was again considered, but it was a seven-chip design at the time, which was not desirable from a cost perspective. Engineers from Apple and IBM's Advanced Workstations and Systems Division met in Austin, Texas to discuss creating

17272-519: Was licensed by Integrated Device Technology (IDT), LSI Logic , NEC , Performance Semiconductor, Siemens AG and Toshiba . IDT, NEC, Siemens and Toshiba fabricated and marketed the microprocessor. LSI Logic used the R4400 in custom products. Performance Semiconductor sold their logic division to Cypress Semiconductor where the MIPS microprocessor products were discontinued. NEC marketed their version as

17408-572: Was pin-compatible with the R4x00PC. The first version, a 150 MHz part, was announced in 1994. In 1995, a 200 MHz part was announced. Toshiba marketed their version as the TC86R4400. A 200 MHz part containing 2.3 million transistors and measuring 134 mm fabricated in a 0.3 μm process was introduced in mid-1994. The R4400PC was priced at $ 1,600 , the R4400SC at $ 1,950 , and

17544-411: Was representative of a shift in the computer industry in 1987 and 1988, where RISC-based systems from Sun Microsystems , Hewlett-Packard , and IBM were significantly outpacing the performance offered by systems based on Motorola 's 68020 and 68030 processors and Intel 's 80386 and 80486 CPUs . Initially, Apple invested considerable time and effort in an attempt to create their own RISC CPU in

17680-401: Was that the company would be selling a 3 GHz G5 by mid-2004; this never happened. Three generations of Power Mac G5 were released before it was discontinued during the Mac transition to Intel processors . The announcement of the transition came in mid-2005, but the third generation of G5 systems was introduced towards the end of 2005. Most notably in this generation was the introduction of

17816-406: Was the Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White) , a machine that received considerable plaudits from reviewers, including PC Magazine ' s Technical Excellence Award for 1999. "The Power Mac provides the fastest access to the insides of a computer we've ever seen," they wrote. "Just lift a handle and a hinged door reveals everything inside." This case design, code-named "El Capitan", was retained through

17952-453: Was the 1973 Xerox Alto , developed at Xerox 's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) . It had a graphical user interface ( GUI ) which later served as inspiration for Apple's Macintosh , and Microsoft's Windows operating system. The Alto was a demonstration project, not commercialized, as the parts were too expensive to be affordable. Also in 1973 Hewlett Packard introduced fully BASIC programmable microcomputers that fit entirely on top of

18088-500: Was the first to emulate APL/1130 performance on a portable, single user computer, PC Magazine in 1983 designated SCAMP a "revolutionary concept" and "the world's first personal computer". This seminal, single user portable computer now resides in the Smithsonian Institution , Washington, D.C.. Successful demonstrations of the 1973 SCAMP prototype led to the IBM 5100 portable microcomputer launched in 1975 with

18224-477: Was the last Macintosh to include the external SCSI connector. When the Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White) was introduced in early 1999, the port was replaced by two FireWire 400 ports. The Blue and White G3 was also the last Macintosh to include Apple Desktop Bus ports, a proprietary technology created by Steve Wozniak to connect keyboards, mice and software protection dongles such as those from Avid Technology . Two USB ports were also included, making this

18360-485: Was to highlight what they described as the " Megahertz myth ", challenging the belief that a processor's clock speed is directly correlated with performance. This had become important with the introduction of Intel's Pentium 4 , which featured significantly higher clock speeds than competing chips from Sun, IBM, and AMD , but without a corresponding performance benefit. The company's public presentations – Stevenotes in particular – often featured lengthy segments pitting

18496-602: Was to release the first Power Macintosh machine on January 24, 1994, exactly ten years after the release of the first Macintosh . Ian Diery, who was EVP and general manager of the Personal Computer Division at the time, moved the release date back to March 14 in order to give manufacturing enough time to build enough machines to fill the sales channels and to ensure that the Macintosh Processor Upgrade Card would be available at

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