The Macintosh Quadra 650 and the Macintosh Centris 650 are two closely related personal computer

Personal computer

A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

s that are a part of Apple Computer

Apple Computer

Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...

's Quadra

Macintosh Quadra

The Macintosh Quadra series was Apple Computer's product family of professional high-end Apple Macintosh personal computers built using the Motorola 68040 CPU. The first two models in the Quadra line were introduced in 1991, and the name was used until the Power Mac was introduced in 1994...

 and Centris

Macintosh Centris

Macintosh Centris is a line of Macintosh computers, introduced in 1993, that were built around the Motorola 68LC040 and 68040 CPUs. The name was chosen to indicate that the consumer was selecting a Macintosh in the center of Apple's product line: lower performance than the Quadra computers, but...

 series of Macintosh computers, respectively. When the Centris 650 was introduced in February 1993 alongside the smaller Centris 610

Macintosh Quadra 610

The Macintosh Quadra 610 and Macintosh Centris 610 are two closely related personal computers that are a part of Apple Computer's Quadra and Centris series of Macintosh computers, respectively. When the Centris 610 was introduced in February 1993 alongside the larger Centris 650, it was intended as...

, it was intended as the start of the new midrange Centris line of computers, a niche formerly occupied by the Quadra 700 which was discontinued. However, that proved confusing, and the Centris 650 was renamed to Quadra 650 in October 1993, with the CPU upgraded from a 25 MHz to 33 MHz. The Quadra 650 was discontinued without a direct replacement in September 1994, although the Power Macintosh 7100

Power Macintosh 7100

The Power Macintosh 7100 was a mid-range Apple Macintosh personal computer that was designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from March 1994 to January 1996. The PowerMac 7100 was faster and more expandable than the Power Macintosh 6100, and was a part of the original Power Macintosh line...

, introduced a few months earlier, which used the same case as the 650 (originally used on the Macintosh IIvx

Macintosh IIvx

The Macintosh IIvx was the last of the Macintosh II series of Macintosh computers from Apple. The IIvx included either a 40, 80, 160 or 400 MB hard drive, three NuBus slots, and a Processor Direct Slot. It was the first Macintosh to have a metal case and the first case design of any personal...

), had a similar target audience.

There are two versions of the Centris 650: One with 4 MiB of RAM soldered to the logic board and an FPU

Floating point unit

A floating-point unit is a part of a computer system specially designed to carry out operations on floating point numbers. Typical operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square root...

-less Motorola 68LC040 CPU, and one with 8 MiB of logic board RAM, a full Motorola 68040

Motorola 68040

The Motorola 68040 is a microprocessor from Motorola, released in 1990. It is the successor to the 68030 and is followed by the 68060. There was no 68050. In keeping with general Motorola naming, the 68040 is often referred to as simply the '040 ....

, and added an onboard AAUI port for Ethernet

Ethernet

Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....

. The higher-end model also came with 1MB VRAM installed, enabling 16-bit color at 640x480 resolution. The availability of 16-bit color was significant, as it was the standard bit depth of Apple's then-new Quicktime

QuickTime

QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...

video standard. The Quadra 650 is also available in the 4 MiB and 8 MiB onboard RAM variations, but always has the 68040 and AAUI.

External links

• Centris 650 and Quadra 650 specifications at AppleSpec
• Centris 650 and Quadra 650 at apple-history.com
• Centris 650 and Quadra 650 at Low End Mac
• Centris 650 and Quadra 650 at EveryMac.com