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While the first MacWorld of the year 2000 (MacWorld San Francisco)
was conspicuously lacking any hardware announcements from
Cupertino, MacWorld Tokyo was another story entirely. Apple
announced a new graphite colored iBook,
the immediate availability of the long promised 500MHz Power
Mac G4 and last but not least two new PowerBooks.
Of Apple's four square product line strategy, (professional
desktop, consumer desktop, professional portable & consumer
portable) the PowerBook line (professional portable) has gone
the longest without any revision. The "Lombard"
PowerBooks were announced last May with a slim new design
and a 333MHz or 400MHz processor. The new "Pismo"
PowerBooks sport either a 400MHz or 500MHz G3 processor and
a system bus that has been bumped from 66MHz to a blazing
100MHz. Both processors have a full backside cache although
they operate at a 2.5:1 ratio as opposed to the faster 2:1.
This ratio will result cause a slight performance hit but
seems to be the standard across Apple's product line with
the exception of the G4 Power Macs. This may have been necessary
to avoid battery consumption or heat issues. You can always
use freely
available software to try pushing the cache speed higher.
Just as the Lombard 'Books did away with serial and ADB,
the Pismo PowerBook has axed the last "legacy" port
on Apple's hit list, the SCSI port. The good news is that
the new PowerBook includes two 400Mbps FireWire ports for
hooking up high speed devices like hard drives, scanners and
digital video cameras. Those of you accustomed to using your
PowerBooks as an external hard drive (via SCSI Disk Mode)
will be happy to hear that this feature is still available
via FireWire.
Apple's tag line for the PowerBook is "make desktop
movies anywhere." This is interesting considering the
fact that the new PowerBooks come without any video editing
software. Apple recommends purchasing Final
Cut Pro, but the inclusion of iMovie
would have given users a good "out of the box" starting
point. The digital video power users would still want to upgrade
to FCP.  Graphics
professionals and gamers should appreciate the inclusion of
ATI's Rage
Mobility 128 graphics system residing on a 2x AGP
bus for improved bandwidth. As with the Lombard 'Books,
the new PowerBooks sport 8MB SDRAM, enough for dual monitor
support in addition to video mirroring. Although they didn't
make it to the iBook, DVD drives are standard on both of the
new PowerBooks.
The most exciting addition to the PowerBook in our opinion
is the addition of a slot for Apple's AirPort
card for wireless networking and Internet access. Now
every machine Apple ships is AirPort ready. This, coupled
with the release of AirPort software 1.1 which allows you
to use your Mac as a Base Station, is a clear indication that
Apple is truly committed to wireless technology. Below we
provide you with a side-by-side comparison of the Lombard
and Pismo PowerBooks.
PowerBooks Compared
| |
Old PowerBook (Lombard) |
New PowerBook (Pismo) |
| Processor |
333MHz or 400MHz |
400MHz or 500MHz |
| Backside Cache |
1MB @ 133MHz or 160MHz |
1MB @ 160MHz or 200MHz |
| System Bus |
66MHz |
100MHz |
| RAM |
64MB |
64 or 128MB |
| VRAM |
8MB |
8MB |
| Graphics |
ATI Rage LT Pro |
ATI Rage Mobility 128 (2x AGP) |
| Screen Size |
14.1" TFT |
14.1" TFT |
| Hard Drive |
4 or 6GB
(10GB BTO option) |
6 or 12GB
(18GB BTO option) |
| CardBus Connections |
1 |
1 |
| Optical drive |
CD or DVD |
6x DVD |
| USB connectors |
2 |
2 |
| FireWire |
- |
2 |
| SCSI |
HDI-30 |
- |
| Wireless options |
-
Infrared Port |
AirPort slot
Infrared Port |
| Reviews/Information |
MacReviewZone
PowerBookZone
MacUser
UK
MacWorld
MacWorld
SF
Chronicle
LowEndMac
EveryMac
|
Reader
Reviews
Reader
Reviews
MacReviewZone
about.com
IGM
BareFeats
TidBits
MacAddict
Go2Mac
Go2Mac
CNET.com
LowEndMac
Bare Feats
IGM
Macformat
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