Think MP Baby! Power Mac G4
(Summer 2000) Information Page
Apple's
G4 line got off to a shaky start. The Graphite towers were
announced at the Seybold Publisher's Conference August, '99
in three configurations, 400MHz, 450MHz and 500MHz. Citing
a short supply of G4 processors from Motorola, Apple lopped
50MHz off each model resulting in a 350, 400 and 450MHz lineup.
The missing 50MHz was finally restored at the Tokyo Macworld
Expo, restoring the original configurations with a few modifications.
For the whole convoluted story, visit our G4
History 101 page.
At Macworld 2000 New York, Steve Jobs showed off the newest
graphite G4 machines. The new configurations? - 400, 450 and
500MHz. The twist is that the two high end machines sport
two processors each! That's right, the two high end
machines are multiprocessor and have two 450MHz or two 500MHz
CPU's each with a full 1MB backside cache. The most striking
performance gains will be seen in programs that are multi
processor aware, Photoshop and portions of the Mac OS for
example. Mac OS X is said to include more comprehensive MP
support than current or past OS versions.
What
else is new? Not a whole lot, if truth be known. The built
in Ethernet port has been bumped from 10/100Base-T to 10/100/1000Base-T
for blindingly fast network connections. This will be appreciated
by folks transferring huge graphics or multimedia files across
a LAN. All of the new G4's also include Apple's new "Apple
Display Connector" or ADC for providing their new monitors
with power, video and a USB feed, all in one cable. This goes
a long way towards eliminating desktop clutter and is another
example of Apple's dedication to detail. Traditional VGA connectors
are available to support older monitors of course. The hard
drives have been bumped up from 10, 20 and 27GB on the previous
G4 machines to 20, 30 and 40GB on the new.
For
Great Prices On Upgrades Check The Quality Vendors Below
After taking nearly two years of (deserved) heat for their
ridiculous mouse and keyboard, Apple has finally scrapped
both. The new Pro Mouse is optical and should provide smooth
tracking. As there are no moving parts to clean, maintenance
should be almost nonexistent. Lacking a button, the whole
mouse pivots to click. Response can be adjusted to suit each
user's preference. The 108 key Pro Keyboard uses the popular
extended layout and includes keys for adjusting volume and
ejecting disks.
To check out the differences between the various models,
take a look at our specs chart
below.
A list of features common to all machines follows:
ATI Rage 128 Pro
- On 2x AGP graphics slot with 16MB RAM with VGA and ADC
connections.
2 FireWire
Ports - For connecting high speed peripherals (digital video
cameras, scanners, hard drives, CD burners etc.) at speeds
up top 400Mbps. The previous G4's had an additional internal
FireWire port for a total of 3. If the internal port is
still present, Apple is not advertising the fact. If you
have any more information send
it my way and I will add it.
2 independent USB
ports, 12Mbps each - For connecting peripherals like keyboards,
printers, scanners, digital cameras etc.
Three 64 bit, 33MHz PCI slots and one 2x AGP - The AGP
slot currently hosts the ATI card but you are free to swap
it out for another down the road.
DVD drive - Either DVD-ROM (400MHz and 450MHz MP) or DVD-RAM
(500MHz MP) for playing and/or recording DVD software and
movie titles.
Ultra ATA/66 hard drive - At either 20, 30 or 40GB. The
30 and 40GB drives spin at 7200rpm the 20 at 5400.
Support for up to 1.5 GB PC100 SDRAM - 999MB per application.
Slot for AirPort card - For wireless networking and Internet
access.
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Apple's
G4 line got off to a shaky start. The Graphite towers were
announced at the Seybold Publisher's Conference August, '99
in three configurations, 400MHz, 450MHz and 500MHz. Citing
a short supply of G4 processors from Motorola, Apple lopped
50MHz off each model resulting in a 350, 400 and 450MHz lineup.
The missing 50MHz was finally restored at the Tokyo Macworld
Expo, restoring the original configurations with a few modifications.
For the whole convoluted story, visit our 
What
else is new? Not a whole lot, if truth be known. The built
in Ethernet port has been bumped from 10/100Base-T to 10/100/1000Base-T
for blindingly fast network connections. This will be appreciated
by folks transferring huge graphics or multimedia files across
a LAN. All of the new G4's also include Apple's new "Apple
Display Connector" or ADC for providing their new monitors
with power, video and a USB feed, all in one cable. This goes
a long way towards eliminating desktop clutter and is another
example of Apple's dedication to detail. Traditional VGA connectors
are available to support older monitors of course. The hard
drives have been bumped up from 10, 20 and 27GB on the previous
G4 machines to 20, 30 and 40GB on the new. 
For
Great Prices On Upgrades Check The Quality Vendors Below
