Apple Power Macintosh G3

[Vin214]

• Manufacturer: Apple Computer Inc.
• Model: Power Macintosh G3 Desktop
• Released: Nov. 15, 1997
• Type: Personal Computer
• Cost at release: ~$5,000 (adjusted for inflation)
• MIPS: ~525

Hardware Specifications

• CPU: PowerPC 750, marketed by Apple as the PowerPC G3
• Memory: 168-pin PC66 SDRAM DIMMs32 MB or 64 MB, depending on configuration
• Video: ATI Rage II+ graphics hardware, typically with 2 MB of VRAM
• Audio: 16-bit stereo audio, internal speaker, microphone input, audio-in, audio-out, and built-in speaker output.
• Hard drive: Usually a 4 GB IDE/ATA hard disk in base configurations
• Optical drive: 24× ATAPI CD-ROM drive
• Optional removable storage: Internal 100 MB Iomega Zip drive on certain configurations
• Floppy drive: 1.44 MB SuperDrive in most original configurations
• IDE/ATA: Internal IDE bus for hard disk and CD-ROM devices
• SCSI: Built-in external DB-25 SCSI port for legacy drives, scanners, and other Macintosh peripherals
• Expansion slots: Three 33 MHz PCI slots
• Personality-card slot: One slot for optional Apple audio/video “personality” cards, such as the Whisper card
• Networking: Ports and networking: built-in 10BASE‑T Ethernet, two serial/AppleTalk ports, ADB, and GeoPort and optional internal modem

Operating System & Programming Languages 

• Operating systems
  • Original operating system: Mac OS 8.0
  • Later classic Mac OS: Mac OS 8.1, 8.5, 8.6, and Mac OS 9.0–9.2.2
  • Maximum supported Mac OS X: Mac OS X 10.2.8 Jaguar
  • Other possibilities: PowerPC Linux distributions including historical versions of Yellow Dog Linux, Debian, and LinuxPPC could be installed by experienced users, although hardware support varied and modern distributions are generally impractical on a 233/266 MHz G3 with limited RAM.
• Programming languages
  • The computer could run essentially any programming language for which a 68k/PowerPC Mac OS or PowerPC Mac OS X compiler/interpreter existed. Common choices included:
  • C and C++: The most important native development languages, supported by Metrowerks CodeWarrior, Apple’s MPW environment, and later Apple Developer Tools under Mac OS X.
  • Pascal: Turbo Pascal–style and Macintosh-oriented Pascal tools were available; it remained relevant in education and older Mac software development.
  • Objective-C: Available through Apple’s NeXT-derived development tools under Mac OS X, and the principal language for Cocoa development.
  • Java: Apple provided Java runtimes and development support for classic Mac OS and early Mac OS X; it was popular for cross-platform software in the late 1990s.
  • BASIC: Microsoft BASIC, FutureBASIC, REALbasic, and similar environments enabled rapid applications and educational programming.
  • Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk, and shell scripting: Available especially under Mac OS X and PowerPC Linux, useful for automation, text processing, web work, and scientific or Unix-style tasks.
  • AppleScript: Built into the Macintosh environment for automating applications and desktop workflows.
  • HTML, JavaScript, and CGI scripting: The G3 could be used for early web authoring and web-server development, with tools such as BBEdit, Adobe PageMill, and scripting environments.
  • Assembly language: PowerPC assembly could be written for performance-critical Macintosh software, though it was naturally more specialized than C/C++.

Notables

• Built by Apple Computer around the PowerPC 750 (“G3”), a processor developed through the Apple–IBM–Motorola PowerPC alliance an important alternative to Intel’s x86 PC ecosystem.
• The beige Power Macintosh G3 Desktop launched in late 1997 and was Apple’s first desktop Macintosh to use the G3; its dedicated “backside” L2 cache was a major performance feature, helping it feel unusually fast for its 233–266 MHz clock speeds.
• It was one of the last major beige “Old World ROM” Macs, retaining classic Mac technologies such as ADB, serial ports, GeoPort, SCSI, and Mac floppy support before Apple moved toward USB-based “New World” designs.
• The desktop model was nicknamed the “Molar Mac” because its squat beige case, viewed from the front, resembles a human molar tooth; the Mini Tower version is often called the “Beige G3.”
• Its unusual hybrid character is its historical charm: it combined a modern G3 RISC CPU, PCI slots, IDE hard-drive support, Ethernet, and fast cache with an older SCSI/ADB/serial-era Macintosh architecture.
• Apple used it to popularize the late-1990s “megahertz myth” argument: a processor with a lower MHz number could outperform a higher-clocked rival if its architecture and cache system were better designed.
• Steve Jobs publicly demonstrated a 266 MHz Power Mac G3 performing Photoshop and QuickTime tasks against a 300 MHz Pentium II Compaq workstation; reports noted the G3 won those multimedia demonstrations, although the comparisons were favorable to Apple’s software strengths.
• It represents a pivotal recovery-era Apple machine: less visually revolutionary than the iMac G3, but an important bridge between the compatibility-heavy classic Macintosh and Apple’s later streamlined USB/FireWire hardware strategy.

Donated By: T. Warren Christopher