Power Macintosh 5000 series - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Power Macintosh 5000 series is a series of all-in-one (meaning the cases feature an integrated monitor) 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...

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 Macintosh LC

Macintosh LC

The Macintosh LC was Apple Computer's product family of low-end consumer Macintosh personal computers in the early 1990s. The original Macintosh LC was released in 1990 and was the first affordable color-capable Macintosh. Due to its affordability and Apple II compatibility the LC was adopted...

, Power Macintosh

Power Macintosh

Power Macintosh, later Power Mac, was a line of Apple Macintosh workstation-class personal computers based on various models of PowerPC microprocessors that were developed, marketed, and supported by Apple Inc. from March 1994 until August 2006. The first models were the Power Macintosh 6100,...

and Macintosh Performa

Macintosh Performa

The Macintosh Performa series was Apple Computer's consumer product family of Apple Macintosh personal computers sold through department stores and mass-market retailers from 1992 until 1997, when it was superseded by the Power Macintosh 5x00 series...

series of Macintosh computers.

The Power Macintosh 5200 LC was introduced in April 1995 with a PowerPC 603 CPU at 75 MHz as a PowerPC

PowerPC

PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...

-based replacement of the Macintosh LC 500 series

Macintosh LC 500 series

The Macintosh LC 500 series is a series of personal computers that is a part of Apple Computer's LC line of Macintosh computers. It was Apple's mid-1990s upper low end-range series, positioned below the Centris and Quadra but above the Classic II and Color Classic models...

. Later models switched to the PowerPC 603e CPU and used model numbers above 5260, but kept the same motherboard design. Unlike previous education models, which prepended the model number with "LC", the 5200 series uses the Power Macintosh designation of Apples main workstation line of the time and appends the LC to the end of the model name. All models in the 5xxx series featured an integrated 15" (12.8" viewable) monitor.

The 5200 series is closely related to the 6200

Power Macintosh 6200

The Power Macintosh 6200 is a series of mid-range personal computers that are a part of Apple Computer's Power Macintosh and Macintosh Performa series of Macintosh computers...

series, which features the same logic boards in desktop cases without integrated monitors. This means that it also shares the 6200's massive and confusing number of model designations and its unusual architecture with an 64-bit data path PowerPC CPU on an 32-bit data path logic board adapted from the Quadra 605. This is the reason for various performance and stability issues, leading to the 5200 (and the 6200) series computers generally being regarded as having very compromised hardware designs. Mac OS 8.1 and higher smooth out many of the problems with these computers.

Power Macintosh 5200 LC

Introduced in April 1995, the original 5200s use a 75 MHz PowerPC 603 CPU. The Power Macintosh 5200 LC was only sold to the education market, while the Performa models were sold to consumers. In April 1996, they were replaced by the 5260-related models, but some Performa models remained available for a longer time.

Models

Power Macintosh 5200 LC: Sold only to the education market. Features a 500 MB hard drive.
Macintosh Performa 5200CD: The Power Macintosh 5200 LC with a 790 MB or 1 GB hard drive.
Macintosh Performa 5210CD: Identical to the Power Macintosh 5200 LC, sold only in Asia and Europe.

Macintosh Performa 5215CD

Introduced in July 1995, this Performa model uses a 75 MHz PowerPC 603 CPU. The Macintosh Performa 5215CD was only sold to consumers. In April 1996, they were replaced by the 5260-related models, but some Performa models remained available for a longer time.

Models

Macintosh Performa 5215CD: The Performa 5200CD with a different software bundle.
Macintosh Performa 5220CD: The Performa 5215CD with a 500 MB hard drive, sold only in Asia and Europe.

Power Macintosh 5260

The 5260 introduced on April 15, 1996, replaced the 6200's PowerPC 603 CPU with the newer and faster PowerPC 603e, though the rest of the architecture remained unchanged. The Power Macintosh 5400 with a new revised architecture was introduced shortly after, but the 5260 remained available at a lower price.

Models

Power Macintosh 5260/100: North American education model with 100 MHz CPU, 8 or 16 MiB of RAM, and an 800 MB hard disk
Power Macintosh 5260/120: Later North American education model with 120 MHz CPU, 16 MiB of RAM and a 1.2 GB hard disk
Macintosh Performa 5260CD: The Power Macintosh 5260/100, also available with the smaller 800 MB hard disk
Macintosh Performa 5260/120: Consumer version of 5260/120, only sold in Europe and Asia.
Macintosh Performa 5270CD: Identical to the Performa 5260CD, but only sold in Europe and Asia.
Macintosh Performa 5280/120: Consumer version of 5260/120, only sold in Europe and Asia.

Power Macintosh 5300 LC

The 5300 introduced on August 28, 1995, replaced the 6200's PowerPC 603 CPU with the newer and faster PowerPC 603e, though the rest of the architecture remained unchanged. The Power Macintosh 5400 with a new revised architecture was introduced shortly after, but the 5300 also remained available at a lower price.

Models

Power Macintosh 5300 LC: The 5260/120, but with the slower 100 MHz processor of the 5260/100
Macintosh Performa 5300CD: Consumer version of the Power Macintosh 5300 LC.
Macintosh Performa 5300CD DE: Special "Director's Edition" of the 5300CD with additional software.
Macintosh Performa 5320CD: 120 MHz version of the 5300CD, only sold in Europe and Asia.

Power Macintosh 5400

The Power Macintosh 5400 series (also sold under variations of the name Performa 5400) is a range of lower midrange personal computers that are a part of Apple Computer

Apple Computer

's Power Macintosh

Power Macintosh

and Macintosh Performa

Macintosh Performa

families of Macintosh computers. The 5400 is an all-in-one computer with an integrated monitor, and replaced the Power Macintosh 5200 line in that role. It is largely identical to the Power Macintosh 6400 internally, which is essentially the same computer (the "Alchemy" platform) in a tower case. The 5400 was succeeded by the upgraded Power Macintosh 5500.

The Power Macintosh 5400 series saw much success in the educational environment.

Models

Power Macintosh 5400/120: Base education version with 16 MB RAM and an 120 MHz processor.
Power Macintosh 5400/180: Same, but with an 180 MHz processor.
Power Macintosh 5400/200: Education version with 24 MB RAM and a 200 MHz processor
Macintosh Performa 5400CD: Consumer version of the 5400/120.
Macintosh Performa 5400/160: Asia- and Europe-only version with a 160 MHz CPU.
Macintosh Performa 5400/180 (DE): Asia- and Europe-only 180 MHz variant in a black case. The "DE" (Director's Edition) was available only in Australia and had 24 MB of RAM, a built in TV tuner with remote control, and a bigger hard drive.
Macintosh Performa 5410CD: Ethernet-less version of the 5400CD.
Macintosh Performa 5420CD: The 5410CD in the 5400/180's black case.
Macintosh Performa 5430: Asia- and Europe-only variant of the 5400/160, but with 24 MB RAM.
Macintosh Performa 5440: Asia- and Europe-only variant of the 5400/180, only in a normal grey case.

Power Macintosh 5500

The Power Macintosh 5500 – code-named "Phoenix" – was produced by between February 1997 and early '98 and came with an IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

PowerPC

PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...

603ev 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...

operating at either 225, 250 and 275 megahertz

Hertz

The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....

(MHz). The processor made use of 32 kilobyte

Kilobyte

The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...

s (KB) of L1 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...

, with an option for a 256 or 512 KB L2 cache (the latter being available only on the 275 MHz model) cache operating at the stock 50 MHz bus speed.

Apple originally produced the Power Macintosh 5500 or Performa 5500 for the educational market. It was essentially an upgraded Power Macintosh 5400. Though it dropped the name, it is functionally the successor to and last of the Macintosh LC

Macintosh LC

line. The 5500's upgrades included a larger ATA

AT Attachment

Parallel ATA , originally ATA, is an interface standard for the connection of storage devices such as hard disks, solid-state drives, floppy drives, and optical disc drives in computers. The standard is maintained by X3/INCITS committee...

hard disk. The computer came stock with a 2 gigabyte

Gigabyte

The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...

(GB) hard disk, but the 275 MHz model came with a 4 GB drive; a faster SCSI

SCSI

Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...

CD-ROM drive (12x in early models and 24x in the top-end); a better video card in the form of an accelerated ATI

Ati

As a word, Ati may refer to:* Ati, a town in Chad* Ati, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines* Ati-Atihan Festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines* Ati, a queen of the fabled Land of Punt in Africa...

Rage IIc graphics card, containing 2 megabyte

Megabyte

The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...

s (MB) of dedicated VRAM and allowing for a maximum screen resolution of .

5500s came with optional multimedia expansion cards, that connect via internal cables. In European models, these were an S-Video

S-Video

Separate Video, more commonly known as S-Video and Y/C, is often referred to by JVC as both an S-VHS connector and as Super Video. It is an analog video transmission scheme, in which video information is encoded on two channels: luma and chroma...

card and a Philips

Philips

Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....

TV tuner card that also had an audio input. Black 5500s with this configuration were marketed as Director Editions in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

and Australasia

Australasia

Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...

and the 225 MHz version actually had the phrase printed on the case.

Like all other 5000 series PowerMacs, the 5500 is an All-In-One (AIO) computer – that is to say that the logic board

Logic board

A logic board is the Apple equivalent of a motherboard. The term logic board was coined back in the 1980s, when the compact Macs at the time had two separate circuit components. The term "logic board" stuck over the years of Macintosh manufacturing, even in the non-all-in-one Macs...

, hard disk, floppy disk and CD-ROM drives, stereo speakers, monophonic microphone and 15" monitor are built into a single unit. This gives the computer the appearance of a television set – particularly when an aerial is connected to the built-in TV card. Like the 5400 series, the 5500 has one PCI

Peripheral Component Interconnect

Conventional PCI is a computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a computer...

card slot. The 225 and 250 MHz models were produced in beige and black, whilst the rarer 275 MHz models were only black.

The 5500 supports System Software

Mac OS

Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...

versions 7.5.5 through 9.1 – 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...

is not officially supported on this machine. However, it can be run with XPostFacto

XPostFacto

XPostFacto is an open source utility that enables the installation of PowerPC versions of Mac OS X up to Mac OS 10.4 , and Darwin on some PowerPC-based Apple Macintosh systems that are not officially supported for them by Apple....

but this is not recommended, due to the 5500's lack of a G3 processor and RAM ceiling of 128 MB. In the general case, 128 MB of RAM is the minimum required for OS X to run (a G3 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....

can run OS X with this amount of RAM), but only on machines with a G3 processor.

External links

Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC, 5260/100, Performa 5260/120, 5300/100 LC, Macintosh Performa 5200CD, 5210CD, 5215CD, 5220CD, 5260CD, 5260/120, 5270CD, 5280, 5300CD and 5320CD at AppleSpec.
Power Macintosh 5200 LC and Power Macintosh 5260 LC at Low End Mac.
Power Macintosh 5200 LC, Power Macintosh 5260 LC and Power Macintosh 5300 LC at Apple History.
Power Macintosh 5400/120, /180, /200, Macintosh Performa 5400CD, /160, /180, 5410CD, 5420CD, 5430 and 5440 at AppleSpec.
Power Macintosh 5400/120, /180, /200, Macintosh Performa 5400CD, /160, /180, 5410CD, 5420CD, 5430 and 5440 at everymac.com
Power Macintosh 5400 LC at apple-history.com
Power Macintosh 5400 at lowendmac.com
Power Macintosh 5500/225 and /250 at AppleSpec.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.