The Power Mac G4 is a series of personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1999 to 2004 as part of the Power Macintosh line. Built around the PowerPC G4 series of microprocessors, the Power Mac G4 was marketed by Apple as the first “personal supercomputers”,[1] reaching speeds of 4 to 20 gigaFLOPS. This was the first existing Macintosh product to be officially shortened as “Mac”, and is the last Mac able to boot into classic Mac OS.
The enclosure style introduced with the Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White) was retained through its entire five year production run of the Power Mac G4, albeit with significant changes to match Apple’s evolving industrial design and to accommodate increasing cooling needs. The G4 and the enclosure were retired with the introduction of the Power Mac G5.
The 500 MHz version was reintroduced on February 16, 2000, accompanied by 400 MHz and 450 MHz models. DVD-RAM and Zip drives featured on these later 450 MHz and 500 MHz versions and were an option on the 400 MHz.
The Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) model was introduced at Macworld Expo New York on July 19, 2000; the new revision included dual-processor 450 MHz and 500 MHz versions, and a low-end single CPU 400 MHz model. It was also the first personal computer to include gigabit Ethernet as standard. Most people saw this revision as a stopgap release, because higher clocked G4s were not available; the G4’s Motorola XPC107 “Grackle” PCI/Memory controller prevented the G4 from hitting speeds higher than 500 MHz.[citation needed] The dual 500 MHz models featured DVD-RAM optical drive. Zip drives were optional on all models. These models also introduced Apple’s proprietary Apple Display Connector video port.
Video:
Here’s the actual item in my museum
<my photo>
The Power Mac G4 Blue Tower basics:
CPU: PowerPC | OS: Version 10.0: "Cheetah" | Purchased: eBay | Series: G4 | Series: PowerMac
