Power Macintosh

Power Macintosh, later Power Mac, is 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, 7100, and 8100, which offered speeds ranging from 60 to 110 MHz. These machines replaced Apple's Quadra series of personal computers, and were housed in cases very similar to systems sold by Apple up to that point. The Power Mac went on to become the mainstay of Apple's top-end offerings for twelve years, through a succession of case designs, four major generations of PowerPC chips, and a great deal of press coverage, design accolades, and technical controversy. In August 2006, the Power Mac's retirement was announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference by Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller, making way for its Intel-based replacement, the Mac Pro.

The following are recent Power Mac lines based on the New World ROM.

The Power Macintosh G3 All-In-One was replaced with the series.

The ROM and Mac OS operating system released with the new Power Mac machines included an Mac 68K emulator to enable programs written for Motorola 68k series CPUs, including nearly all prior Mac software, to run without changes. (A similar scheme is employed to run 68K software on modern x86 Alpha Microsystems machines.) As the Power Mac was originally intended to be a part of the high end of Apple's product line, for a number of years the company continued to offer less expensive 68k-based computers alongside the more expensive Power Mac lineup. However, for many of these so-called 68K transition Macs, Apple offered an upgrade path in the form of a PowerPC Macintosh Processor Upgrade Card and aggressively marketed it to assure a wary consumer of their investment. In April 1996, Apple discontinued the Macintosh LC 580 (released in 1995), the last remaining desktop model of the 68k-based Macintosh line. The PowerBook 190cs, the last 68k-based PowerBook, was discontinued in October 1996. All subsequent Macintosh computers would be based on PowerPC processors until January 2006, when Apple switched to Intel processors. (In 2005, Apple released an Intel-based Power Mac development system to Apple developers at WWDC.)

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