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  iMacLinux Edition Tuesday, 24 June 2003  


iMac History

Apple® released the first iMac in August 1998. The Revision A iMac was followed quickly by the Revision B, sporting 6MB SGRAM which meant you could achieve 32 bit colour at 1024x768. The Rev.B also fixed some of the problems that plagued many of the Rev.A systems, a faulty CRT. In January 1999, Apple® released the Revision C and in August 1999, Revision D iMacs, these had a faster processor, SDRAM sockets and of course came in those famous colourful varieties. Apple® also released the first slot loading iMac a 350Mhz Blueberry model and the very cool iMac DV/SE in 1999. The DV/SE being the first model to have firewire ports.

In July 2001, Apple® released the iMac DV which came in Indigo and Ruby. The DV was slightly slower than the DV+ units and had smaller hard disk capacity. The DV+ ran at 450MHz and was available in Indigo, Sage and Ruby. At the same time Apple® also released two new high-end Special Edition iMacs in Graphite in Snow, the new DV/SE. These ran at 500MHz, had 30GB Hard disks (10GB more than the DV+). The DV/SE was shipped standard with 128MB, twice that of the DV+. All of these 2000 iMacs sported the new Apple® keyboards and optical Pro mice. Apple® also released a 350MHz Indigo iMac which was the low end of the new group.

In 2001, Apple® released the slightly more colourful 400MHz and 500MHz iMacs. These sported firewire, up to 16MB of video ram and of course had reduced prices. Apple® kept the Indigo colour, but replaced the others with "Flower Power" and "Blue Dalmatian". The 500MHz models sport a PowerPC 750cx processor. At the same time, Apple® modified their DV line, keeping the graphite colour, and dropping the others for the multi-coloured versions. Later in 2001, Apple® released three more sets of iMacs, sporting faster CPUs, more memory and a CD-RW (CD Rewritable) drive as standard. The 500MHz model in Indigo and Snow, the 600MHz model in graphite and snow and the iMac Special Edition also in graphite and snow. Since Apple® put firewire in all their new iMacs, they have dropped the DV suffix.

As of September 2001, all iMacs are G3 based and all work under Linux. We have outlined each iMac below with specifications and other information. Today iMacs have at least 128MB or 256MB from factory. Earlier iMacs were shipped with 32MB or 64MB. All newer iMacs in 2001 and earlier DV versions have VGA out connectors. iMacs where airport is listed below means that there is a slot for the airport card as an optional extra. In 2000, Apple® made the cases more translucent (eg. more like the iMac DV Graphite) than earlier models. iMacs vary in processor speed, hard disk capacity, video chipset/memory and factory installed memory sizes. The latest iMacs lack DVD support. No iMac has been shipped with floppy disk drives, and all have built in speakers.

The iMac has again been subject to a revolution with the new LCD iMac introduced at the keynote to the MacWorld Expo San Francisco 2002. The CRT type iMac has given the relay to an awesome new "device", breaking completely with the classic conception of a computer. The iMac is far from being some kind of box. It has a slim, small base, formed a bit like a half cone with the height of a CD case. Attached to its top it has a freely movable metallic arm wearing the clear 15" LCD screen. It looks a bit like a flower.

On the technical side, a lot has been revamped as well. For the first time, it has a G4 chip as CPU, at 700 and 800 Mhz. It comes with 128 or 256 MB RAM, 40 or 60 GB harddrive, a cristall clear 15" LCD display at 1024*768 resolution max., driven by an NVidia GeForce2 MX graphics chip, equipped with 32MB of fast DDR RAM. For the optical drives, available are either a CDRW (writes CD-R discs at 24x speed, writes CD-RW discs at 10x speed, reads CDs at 32x speed), DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo drive (reads DVDs at 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at 12x speed, writes CD-RW discs at 8x speed, reads CDs at 32x speed) or the SuperDrive (combination DVD-R/CD-RW drive; writes DVD-R discs at 2x speed, reads DVDs at 6x speed, writes CD-R and CD-RW discs at 8x speed, reads CDs at 24x speed).

The available ports are mainly the same as with previous models, except for a 3rd USB port added and a VGA out port.

In the end of April 2002, Apple has released a new Mac type, loosely based on the older CRT iMacs and targeted at the educational market, the eMac. It has a 700Mhz G4, 128 or 512MB RAM, a 17" flat CRT display, a Geforce2 MX with 32 MB VRAM, a CD-Rom or a combo DVD/CDRW drive and starts at $999.

iMac Revision A/B
CPU: PowerPC 750 @ 233MHz
RAM: 2 x 144pin SDRAM SO-DIMM
VRAM: 2Mb (A) 6Mb (B)
IDE: 4GB HDD / 24x CDROM
Ports: 2 x USB, 1 x IrDA, 1 x mezzanine
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem
L1 cache 32k / 32k (data/instr)
L2 cache 512k backside (1 : 2)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 66MHz
iMac Rev A/B

iMac Revision C/D
CPU: PowerPC 750 @ 266/333MHz
RAM: 2 x 144pin SDRAM SO-DIMM
VRAM: 6Mb
IDE: 6GB HDD / 24x CDROM
Ports: 2 x USB
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem
L1 cache 32k / 32k (data/instr)
L2 cache 512k backside (1 : 2)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 66MHz
iMac Rev C/D

iMac Slot-loading
CPU: PowerPC 750 @ 350MHz
RAM: 2 x 168pin PC100 SDRAM
VRAM: 8 MB SGRAM
IDE: 6GB HDD (ATA-33) / 24x CDROM
Ports: 2 x USB, Audio I/O, Airport
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem
L1 cache 32k / 32k (data/instr)
L2 cache 512k backside (1 : 2)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 100MHz

iMac DV/SE
CPU: PowerPC 750 @ 400MHz
RAM: 2 x 168pin PC100 SDRAM
VRAM: 8MB SGRAM
IDE: 10-13GB HDD (ATA-33) / 4x DVD
Ports: 2 x USB, 2 x Firewire, Audio I/O
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem / Airport
L1 cache 32k / 32k (data/instr)
L2 cache 512k backside (1 : 2)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 100MHz
iMac DV/SE

iMac Indigo 350
CPU: PowerPC 750 @ 350MHz
RAM: 2 x 168pin PC100 SDRAM
VRAM: 8MB SGRAM
IDE: 7GB HDD (ATA-66) / 24x CDROM
Ports: 2 x USB, Audio I/O
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem
L1 cache 32k / 32k (data/instr)
L2 cache 512k backside (1 : 2)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 100MHz
iMac Indigo 350MHz

iMac DV
CPU: PowerPC 750 @ 400MHz
RAM: 2 x 168pin PC100 SDRAM
VRAM: 8MB SGRAM
IDE: 10GB HDD (ATA-66) / 24x CDROM
Ports: 2 x USB, 2 x Firewire, Audio I/O
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem / Airport
L1 cache 32k / 32k (data/instr)
L2 cache 512k backside (1 : 2)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 100MHz
iMac DV

iMac DV+
CPU: PowerPC 750 @ 450MHz
RAM: 2 x 168pin PC100 SDRAM
VRAM: 8MB SGRAM
IDE: 20GB HDD (ATA-33) / 4x DVD-ROM
Ports: 2 x USB, 2 x Firewire, Audio I/O, Airport
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem
L1 cache 32k / 32k (data/instr)
L2 cache 512k backside (1 : 2)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 100MHz
iMac DV+

iMac DV/SE
CPU: PowerPC 750 @ 500MHz
RAM: 2 x 168pin PC100 SDRAM
VRAM: 8MB SGRAM
IDE: 30GB HDD (ATA-66) / 4x DVD-ROM
Ports: 2 x USB, 2 x Firewire, Audio I/O
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem / Airport
L1 cache 32k / 32k (data/instr)
L2 cache 512k backside (1 : 2)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 100MHz
iMac DV/SE

iMac
CPU: PowerPC 750 @ 400MHz
PowerPC 750cx @ 500MHz
RAM: 2 x 168pin PC100 SDRAM
VRAM: 8-16MB ATI Rage 128 Pro/Ultra
IDE: 10GB HDD (ATA-66) / 24x CDROM
20GB HDD (ATA-66) / 24x CDRW
Ports: 2 x USB, 2 x Firewire, Audio I/O
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem / Airport
L1 cache 32k / 32k (data/instr)
L2 cache 512k backside (1 : 3)
256k on-chip (1:1)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 100MHz
iMac

iMac SE
CPU: PowerPC 750cx @ 600MHz
RAM: 2 x 168pin PC100 SDRAM
VRAM: 16MB 128bit ATI Rage 128 Ultra
IDE: 40GB HDD (ATA-66) / CD-RW
Ports: 2 x USB, 2 x Firewire, Audio I/O
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem / Airport
L1 cache 32k / 32k (data/instr)
L2 cache 256k on-chip (1 : 1)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 100MHz
iMac SE

iMac
CPU: PowerPC 750cx @ 500MHz
RAM: 2 x 168pin PC100 SDRAM
VRAM: 16MB ATI Rage 128 Ultra
IDE: 20GB HDD (Ultra ATA) / CDRW
Ports: 2 x USB, 2 x Firewire, Audio I/O
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem / Airport
L1 cache 32k / 32k (data/instr)
L2 cache 256k on-chip (1 : 1)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 100MHz
iMac

iMac
CPU: PowerPC 750cx @ 500MHz
RAM: 2 x 168pin PC100 SDRAM
VRAM: 16MB ATI Rage 128 Ultra
IDE: 40GB HDD (Ultra-ATA) / CDRW
Ports: 2 x USB, 2 x Firewire, Audio I/O
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem / Airport
L1 cache 32k / 32k (data/instr)
L2 cache 256k on-chip (1 : 1)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 100MHz
iMac

iMac SE
CPU: PowerPC 750cx @ 700MHz
RAM: 2 x 168pin PC100 SDRAM
VRAM: 16MB ATI Rage 128 Ultra
IDE: 60GB HDD (Ultra-ATA) / CD-RW
Ports: 2 x USB, 2 x Firewire, Audio I/O
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem / Airport
L1 cache 32k / 32k (data/instr)
L2 cache 256 on-chip (1 : 1)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 100MHz
iMac DV/SE

iMac LCD
CPU: PowerPC G4 @ 700/800MHz
RAM: 128/256 MB
VRAM: 32 MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics processor with AGP 2X support
IDE: 40-60GB HDD (Ultra-ATA) and CDRW or combo CDRW/DVD or SuperDrive (DVDRW/CDRW)
Ports: 3 x USB, 2 x Firewire, Audio I/O, VGA video
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem / Airport
L2 cache 256 on-chip (1 : 1)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 100MHz

eMac
CPU: PowerPC G4 @ 700MHz
RAM: 128/256/512 MB
VRAM: 32 MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics processor with AGP 2X support
IDE: 40GB HDD (Ultra-ATA) and CD-Rom or combo CDRW/DVD
Ports: 3 x USB, 2 x Firewire, Audio I/O, VGA video
Comm: 10/100 Ethernet / 56k modem / Airport
L2 cache 256 on-chip (1 : 1)
Data/Bus 64 bit / 100MHz

All pictures on this page are "Courtesy of Apple"

Author:   Olivier Reisch
Version:   3.10
Last Update:   2002-05-01 07:50:07
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