Computing Dictionary
Power Mac definition
computer Apple Computer's
personal computer based on the
PowerPC, introduced on 1994-03-14.
The Power Mac G4 (Quicksilver 2002) was the first Power Mac to clock at 1 GHz. In mid-2003, the Power Mac G5 was released, the first Mac to be based on a 64-bit architecture. IBM manufactured the CPU for this new model. The clock speed was initially 1.6 GHz but a dual 2 GHz system was available in September. Existing
680x0 code (both applications and device drivers) run on Power Mac systems without modification via a
Motorola 68LC040 emulator. The performance of these unmodified applications is equivalent to a fast
68040-based
Macintosh, e.g. a fast
Macintosh Quadra.
The Power Mac runs
Macintosh operating system from
System 7.5 to
Mac OS 8.5.
Latest version, as of 2003-11-26: Power Mac G5.
Power Mac Home (http://apple.com/powermac/).
(2003-11-26)
