EMac
Encyclopedia
The eMac, short for education Mac, was a Macintosh
desktop computer made by Apple Inc. It was originally aimed at the education
market, but was later made available as a cheaper mass market
alternative to Apple's second-generation LCD display iMac
.
The eMac design closely resembles the first-generation iMac
. Compared to the first iMac, eMacs feature a PowerPC G4
processor that is significantly faster than the previous generation G3
processors, as well as a 17-inch flat CRT
display
.
The eMac was pulled from retail on October 12, 2005 and was sold exclusively to educational institutions thereafter. It was finally discontinued by Apple on July 5, 2006 and replaced by a cheaper, low-end iMac
that, like the eMac, was originally sold exclusively to educational institutions.
after discontinuation). The new iMac's LCD
display made it somewhat expensive compared to its G3 predecessor that sported a cheaper CRT display, so the eMac was considered the more affordable upgrade for those looking for more processing power than the first iMac. The eMac was originally intended exclusively for education buyers, but the demand for it was high enough that it was made available for general retail one month later.
The eMac featured a 17 inches (431.8 mm) flat-screen CRT
monitor, a Freescale
PowerPC G4 processor running at 700 or 800 MHz, Nvidia
GeForce2
MX graphics, and built-in 18-watt stereo speakers. The retail models were priced at US$1,099 and US$1,499 which filled the price gap between the US$799 iMac G3 and the US$1499 iMac G4.
Apple discontinued the iMac G3 line in March 2003 but did not fill the "cheap" price point until May 2003, when the eMac line was updated and its price brought down to old iMac levels. That revision brought the processor
speed to 800 MHz and 1 GHz and replaced the GeForce2 MX with an ATI
Radeon
7500
graphics card.
The eMac was further improved in October 2003, when the 800 MHz model was eliminated and the 1 GHz model was brought down in price. The more expensive 1 GHz model that included a SuperDrive
was also made cheaper. This model was notable for being one of the least expensive brand-name computer
s at the time that could burn
DVD
s. It was both the last revision of the eMac able to run Apple's OS 9 operating system natively and the last Macintosh model sold that retained this capability.
The next revision to the eMac line came in April 2004, with DDR SDRAM
, a faster processor running at 1.25 GHz, and a better ATI
Radeon 9200
video chipset. The most recent revision came in May 2005, with an even faster CPU running at 1.42 GHz, improved graphics and larger standard hard disk
s.
On October 12, 2005, Apple once again restricted sales of the eMac to educational institutions and returned to its "E is for Education" marketing plan that had been attached to the product from the original restriction to education buyers. The company re-implemented this restrictive measure for unspecified reasons. Some analysts believe Apple wanted to force the general public to purchase the more costly Mac mini
or iMac which had higher profit margins. Also, the eMac was the only CRT display product left in Apple's lineup which made it somewhat bulky compared to new offerings which had compact form factors due to LCD screens. The falling cost of LCD displays would also gradually bring down the prices of the iMac G5
. However, the eMac was still available for sale to the general public through some third-party retailer websites.
On July 5, 2006, the entire eMac line which was discontinued. An "educational configuration" of the iMac Core Duo was introduced that same day, which has a Combo drive rather than a SuperDrive and a smaller hard disk of 80 GB.
eMacs natively boot Mac OS 9.2.2
and Mac OS X
beginning with OS X 10.1.4. With the exception of some non-SuperDrive-equipped 1 GHz units, models 1 GHz and faster can not boot OS 9, while eMacs slower than 1.0 GHz do not officially support 10.5 (requirements are an 867 MHz G4 with 512 MB ram). No model of eMac can run OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard") or higher, because Snow Leopard requires an Intel based processor.
In early 2006, some users started to experience system freezes in their second revision eMacs – by now around 18 months old. The fault was found to lie with a bad batch of capacitors
which had also caused faults with the iMac G5 and many other brands of electronics, manufactured in a similar time frame. In June 2006 Apple introduced the eMac Repair Program. However, despite relating directly to the capacitor problem, the symptoms listed under the Repair Program do not include "freezing". Apple agreed to extend the warranty for this failure only on any affected eMacs up to 3 years old. However, some users have reported that Apple is accepting eMacs for repair even older than the 3 years stated .
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
desktop computer made by Apple Inc. It was originally aimed at the education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
market, but was later made available as a cheaper mass market
Mass market
The mass market is a general business term describing the largest group of consumers for a specified industry product. It is the opposite extreme of the term niche market.-General:...
alternative to Apple's second-generation LCD display iMac
IMac G4
The iMac G4 was a computer that was produced by Apple from the beginning of 2002 to mid 2004. It replaced the aging iMac G3. The computer had a new design compared to older Macs. It had a 15-inch LCD which was mounted on an adjustable arm above a hemisphere containing a full-size, tray-loading...
.
The eMac design closely resembles the first-generation iMac
IMac G3
The iMac G3 was the first model of the iMac line of personal computers made by Apple Inc. , and the originator of the Legacy-free PC market category. Like the first Macs, the iMac G3 is an all-in-one personal computer, encompassing both the monitor and the system unit in a single enclosure...
. Compared to the first iMac, eMacs feature a PowerPC G4
PowerPC G4
PowerPC G4 is a designation used by Apple Computer to describe a fourth generation of 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors. Apple has applied this name to various processor models from Freescale, a former part of Motorola....
processor that is significantly faster than the previous generation G3
PowerPC G3
The PowerPC 7xx is a family of third generation 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors designed and manufactured by IBM and Motorola . This family is called the PowerPC G3 by its well-known customer Apple Computer...
processors, as well as a 17-inch flat CRT
Cathode ray tube
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
display
Computer display
A monitor or display is an electronic visual display for computers. The monitor comprises the display device, circuitry, and an enclosure...
.
The eMac was pulled from retail on October 12, 2005 and was sold exclusively to educational institutions thereafter. It was finally discontinued by Apple on July 5, 2006 and replaced by a cheaper, low-end iMac
IMac
The iMac is a range of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers built by Apple. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its introduction in 1998, and has evolved through five distinct forms....
that, like the eMac, was originally sold exclusively to educational institutions.
Overview
Apple introduced the eMac in April 2002 as a lower-cost alternative to the recently released second-generation G4-powered iMac (known during its lifespan as "the new iMac", and as iMac G4IMac G4
The iMac G4 was a computer that was produced by Apple from the beginning of 2002 to mid 2004. It replaced the aging iMac G3. The computer had a new design compared to older Macs. It had a 15-inch LCD which was mounted on an adjustable arm above a hemisphere containing a full-size, tray-loading...
after discontinuation). The new iMac's LCD
Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....
display made it somewhat expensive compared to its G3 predecessor that sported a cheaper CRT display, so the eMac was considered the more affordable upgrade for those looking for more processing power than the first iMac. The eMac was originally intended exclusively for education buyers, but the demand for it was high enough that it was made available for general retail one month later.
The eMac featured a 17 inches (431.8 mm) flat-screen CRT
Cathode ray tube
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
monitor, a Freescale
Freescale Semiconductor
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. is a producer and designer of embedded hardware, with 17 billion semiconductor chips in use around the world. The company focuses on the automotive, consumer, industrial and networking markets with its product portfolio including microprocessors, microcontrollers,...
PowerPC G4 processor running at 700 or 800 MHz, Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
GeForce2
GeForce2
The GeForce2 is the second generation of NVIDIA's GeForce graphics processing units. Introduced in early 2000, it is the successor to the GeForce 256....
MX graphics, and built-in 18-watt stereo speakers. The retail models were priced at US$1,099 and US$1,499 which filled the price gap between the US$799 iMac G3 and the US$1499 iMac G4.
Apple discontinued the iMac G3 line in March 2003 but did not fill the "cheap" price point until May 2003, when the eMac line was updated and its price brought down to old iMac levels. That revision brought the processor
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
speed to 800 MHz and 1 GHz and replaced the GeForce2 MX with an ATI
ATI Technologies
ATI Technologies Inc. was a semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985 as Array Technologies Inc., the company was listed publicly in 1993 and was acquired by Advanced Micro...
Radeon
Radeon
Radeon is a brand of graphics processing units and random access memory produced by Advanced Micro Devices , first launched in 2000 by ATI Technologies, which was acquired by AMD in 2006. Radeon is the successor to the Rage line. There are four different groups, which can be differentiated by...
7500
Radeon R100
The Radeon R100 is the first generation of Radeon graphics chips from ATI Technologies. The line features 3D acceleration based upon Direct3D 7.0 and OpenGL 1.3, and all but the entry-level versions offloading host geometry calculations to a hardware transform and lighting engine, a major...
graphics card.
The eMac was further improved in October 2003, when the 800 MHz model was eliminated and the 1 GHz model was brought down in price. The more expensive 1 GHz model that included a SuperDrive
SuperDrive
SuperDrive is a trademark used by Apple Inc. for two different storage drives: from 1988–99 to refer to a high-density floppy disk drive capable of reading all major 3.5" disk formats; and from 2001 onwards to refer to a combined CD/DVD reader/writer....
was also made cheaper. This model was notable for being one of the least expensive brand-name computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
s at the time that could burn
Optical disc authoring
Optical disc authoring, including DVD and Blu-ray Disc authoring , is the process of assembling source material—video, audio or other data—into the proper logical volume format to then be recorded onto an optical disc .-Process:To burn an optical disc, one usually first creates an...
DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s. It was both the last revision of the eMac able to run Apple's OS 9 operating system natively and the last Macintosh model sold that retained this capability.
The next revision to the eMac line came in April 2004, with DDR SDRAM
DDR SDRAM
Double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory is a class of memory integrated circuits used in computers. DDR SDRAM has been superseded by DDR2 SDRAM and DDR3 SDRAM, neither of which are either forward or backward compatible with DDR SDRAM, meaning that DDR2 or DDR3 memory modules...
, a faster processor running at 1.25 GHz, and a better ATI
ATI Technologies
ATI Technologies Inc. was a semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985 as Array Technologies Inc., the company was listed publicly in 1993 and was acquired by Advanced Micro...
Radeon 9200
Radeon R200
The Radeon R200 is the second generation of Radeon graphics chips from ATI Technologies. The architecture features 3D acceleration based upon Microsoft Direct3D 8.1 and OpenGL 1.3, a major improvement in features and performance compared to the preceding Radeon R100 design. The GPU also includes 2D...
video chipset. The most recent revision came in May 2005, with an even faster CPU running at 1.42 GHz, improved graphics and larger standard hard disk
Hard disk
A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
s.
On October 12, 2005, Apple once again restricted sales of the eMac to educational institutions and returned to its "E is for Education" marketing plan that had been attached to the product from the original restriction to education buyers. The company re-implemented this restrictive measure for unspecified reasons. Some analysts believe Apple wanted to force the general public to purchase the more costly Mac mini
Mac Mini
The Mac Mini is a small form factor desktop computer manufactured by Apple Inc. Like earlier mini-ITX PC designs, it is uncommonly small for a desktop computer: 7.7 inches square and 1.4 inches tall. It weighs 2.7 pounds...
or iMac which had higher profit margins. Also, the eMac was the only CRT display product left in Apple's lineup which made it somewhat bulky compared to new offerings which had compact form factors due to LCD screens. The falling cost of LCD displays would also gradually bring down the prices of the iMac G5
IMac G5
The iMac G5 was a series of desktop Macintosh computers designed and built by Apple Inc. using the PowerPC chip architecture. It was the last line of iMac computers that used a PowerPC chip, making it the last of the iMacs that could run Mac OS 9 applications. In August 2004, the iMac design was...
. However, the eMac was still available for sale to the general public through some third-party retailer websites.
On July 5, 2006, the entire eMac line which was discontinued. An "educational configuration" of the iMac Core Duo was introduced that same day, which has a Combo drive rather than a SuperDrive and a smaller hard disk of 80 GB.
eMacs natively boot Mac OS 9.2.2
Mac OS 9
Mac OS 9 is the final major release of Apple's Mac OS before the launch of Mac OS X. Introduced on October 23, 1999, Apple positioned it as "The Best Internet Operating System Ever," highlighting Sherlock 2's Internet search capabilities, integration with Apple's free online services known as...
and Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
beginning with OS X 10.1.4. With the exception of some non-SuperDrive-equipped 1 GHz units, models 1 GHz and faster can not boot OS 9, while eMacs slower than 1.0 GHz do not officially support 10.5 (requirements are an 867 MHz G4 with 512 MB ram). No model of eMac can run OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard") or higher, because Snow Leopard requires an Intel based processor.
Technical problems
A number of eMac machines have suffered from what was known as "Raster Shift", a strange phenomenon where the bottom third or half of the screen goes black, with the rest of image shifting upward and out of the top boundary of the display. Serious static also accompanies the problem, rendering the viewable part of the screen virtually useless. In response to the problem, Apple offered a solution which involved the replacement of a video cable inside the eMac's case.In early 2006, some users started to experience system freezes in their second revision eMacs – by now around 18 months old. The fault was found to lie with a bad batch of capacitors
Capacitor plague
The capacitor plague was a problem with a large number of premature failures of aluminium electrolytic capacitors with non solid or liquid electrolyte of certain brands especially from Taiwan manufacturers . The first flawed capacitors were seen in 1999, but most of the affected capacitors failed...
which had also caused faults with the iMac G5 and many other brands of electronics, manufactured in a similar time frame. In June 2006 Apple introduced the eMac Repair Program. However, despite relating directly to the capacitor problem, the symptoms listed under the Repair Program do not include "freezing". Apple agreed to extend the warranty for this failure only on any affected eMacs up to 3 years old. However, some users have reported that Apple is accepting eMacs for repair even older than the 3 years stated .
Specifications
| Component | eMac | eMac (ATI Graphics) | eMac (USB 2.0) | eMac (2005) |
| Codename | "P69" | "Northern Lights" | N/A | "Q86J" |
| Display Display device A display device is an output device for presentation of information in visual or tactile form... |
17-inch (16-inch viewable) flat CRT, maximum resolution supported 1280 x 960 | |||
| Graphics Computer graphics Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware.... |
nVidia GeForce 2 MX with AGP 2x support; 32MB of DDR SDRAM video memory | ATI Radeon 7500 with AGP 4x support; 32MB dedicated DDR SDRAM video memory | ATI Radeon 9200 with AGP 4x support; 32MB dedicated DDR SDRAM video memory | ATI Radeon 9600 with AGP 4x support; 64MB dedicated DDR SDRAM video memory (32MB DDR SDRAM video for education model) |
| Hard drive | 40GB | 40GB, 60GB, 80GB | 40GB, 80GB | 40GB, 80GB, 120GB, 160GB |
| Processor Central processing unit The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in... |
700 MHz or 800 MHz PowerPC G4 (7441/7451) | 800 MHz or 1 GHz PowerPC G4 (7445) | 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4 (7447A) 1 GHz model for education market only |
1.42 GHz PowerPC G4 (7447A) 1.25 GHz model for education market only |
| Cache Cache In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere... |
64 KB L1, 256 KB L2 (1:1) | 64 KB L1, 512 KB L2 on chip (1:1) | ||
| Front side bus Front side bus A front-side bus is a computer communication interface often used in computers during the 1990s and 2000s.It typically carries data between the central processing unit and a memory controller hub, known as the northbridge.... |
100 MHz | 133 MHz | 167 MHz | |
| Memory | 128MB of PC133 SDRAM Expandable up to 1GB |
128MB of PC133 SDRAM (256MB on superdrive model) Expandable up to 1GB |
256MB of PC2700 (333 MHz) DDR SDRAM Expandable up to 2GB (officially only 1GB is supported) |
256MB of PC2700 (333 MHz) DDR SDRAM (512 MB on superdrive model) Expandable up to 2GB (officially only 1 GB is supported) |
| AirPort AirPort AirPort and AirPort Extreme are local area wireless networking products from Apple Inc. based on the IEEE 802.11 standard .... |
Built-in antennas and card slot for optional 11 Mbit/s AirPort Card; IEEE 802.11b compliant | Built-in antennas and expansion slot for optional 54 Mbit/s AirPort Extreme Card | ||
| Bluetooth Bluetooth Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security... |
N/A | Optional Bluetooth 1.1 | ||
| Internal CD drive | n/a | 32x read | n/a | 32x read |
| Internal Combo drive Combo Drive A Combo drive is a type of optical drive that combines CD-R/CD-RW recording capability with the ability to read DVD media. The term is used almost exclusively by Apple Inc. as a name for the low-end substitute for their high-end SuperDrive, which was designed to both read and write DVD and DVD... |
8x DVD and 32x CD read; 32x CD-R and 10x CD-RW write | 12x DVD and 32x CD read; 32x CD-R and 10x CD-RW write | 12x DVD and 32x CD read; 32x CD-R and 24x CD-RW write | |
| Internal SuperDrive SuperDrive SuperDrive is a trademark used by Apple Inc. for two different storage drives: from 1988–99 to refer to a high-density floppy disk drive capable of reading all major 3.5" disk formats; and from 2001 onwards to refer to a combined CD/DVD reader/writer.... |
6x DVD and 24x CD read; 2x DVD-R, 8x CD-R, and 4x CD-RW write | 8x DVD and 32x CD read; 4x DVD-R, 16x CD-R, and 8x CD-RW write | 10x DVD and 32x CD read; 8x DVD-R, 24x CD-R, and 10x CD-RW write | 12x DVD and 32x CD read; 8x DVD+/-R, 4x DVD+/-RW, 2.4x DVD+R DL, 24x CD-R, 8x CD-RW write |
| Standard Features | 3 Built-in USB 1.1 and 2 Firewire 400 ports, Built-in 18-watt Harmon Kardon stereo speakers, Built-in microphone, Built-in modem, Mini-VGA Mini-VGA Mini-VGA connectors are used on some laptops and other systems in place of the standard VGA connector, although most laptops use a standard VGA connector. Apple and HP have separate implementations using the same name... Port |
3 Built-in USB 2.0 and 2 Firewire 400 ports, Built-in 16-watt stereo speakers, Built-in microphone, Mini-VGA Mini-VGA Mini-VGA connectors are used on some laptops and other systems in place of the standard VGA connector, although most laptops use a standard VGA connector. Apple and HP have separate implementations using the same name... Port, Audio Input, Audio Output |
3 Built-in USB 2.0 and 2 Firewire 400 ports, Built-in 18-watt stereo speakers, Built-in microphone, External VGA port VGA connector A Video Graphics Array connector is a three-row 15-pin DE-15 connector. The 15-pin VGA connector is found on many video cards, computer monitors, and some high definition television sets... , actually Apple's own Mini-DVI Port (requiring Mini-VGA Adapter Mini-VGA Mini-VGA connectors are used on some laptops and other systems in place of the standard VGA connector, although most laptops use a standard VGA connector. Apple and HP have separate implementations using the same name... ) |
|
| Shipped Operating System | Mac OS X 10.1.4 Mac OS X v10.1 Mac OS X version 10.1, code named "Puma", is the second major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system. It superseded Mac OS X v10.0 and preceded Mac OS X v10.2. Version 10.1 was released on 25 September 2001 as a 'free update' to version 10.0... “Puma” and Mac OS 9.2.2 |
Mac OS X 10.2.6 Mac OS X v10.2 Mac OS X version 10.2 "Jaguar" is the third major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system. It superseded Mac OS X v10.1 code name Puma and preceded Mac OS X Panther... “Jaguar” |
Mac OS X 10.3.3 “Panther" | Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" |
| Maximum Operating System | Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” and Mac OS 9.2.2 Unofficially, can run Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” |
Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” (1ghz model) Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" and Mac OS 9.2.2 (800Mhz Model) Unofficially, 800 MHz can run Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” |
Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” | |
| Weight | 50 pounds (22.7 kg) | |||
| Introduced | ||||