Macintosh Quadra 700

The Macintosh Quadra 700 was a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from October 1991 to March 1993. It was introduced alongside the Quadra 900 as the first computers in the Quadra series using Motorola 68040 processor.[2] It is also the first computer from Apple to be housed in a mini-tower form factor, which in 1991 was becoming a popular alternative to standard desktop-on-monitor cases that were common through the 1980s.

Macintosh Quadra 700
A Macintosh Quadra 700
Also known as"Shadow", "IIce"[1]
DeveloperApple Computer, Inc.
Product familyMacintosh Quadra
Release dateOctober 21, 1991 (1991-10-21)
Introductory priceUS$5,700 (equivalent to $10,700 in 2019)
DiscontinuedMarch 15, 1993 (1993-03-15)
Operating systemSystem 7.0.1 - Mac OS 8.1, A/UX or, with PowerPC upgrade, Mac OS 9.1
CPUMotorola 68040 @ 25 MHz
Memory4 MiB, expandable to 68 MiB (80 ns 30-pin SIMM)
DimensionsHeight: 5.5 inches (14 cm)
Width: 11.9 inches (30 cm)
Depth: 14.4 inches (37 cm)
Mass13.6 pounds (6.2 kg)
PredecessorMacintosh IIci
SuccessorMacintosh Centris 650
Macintosh Quadra 800
Related articlesMacintosh Quadra 900

The Quadra 700 originally had a list price of US$5,700, but had dropped to under $4,700 for a base model by the time its replacement, the Macintosh Quadra 800, went on sale in early 1993.[2] The Centris 650, also introduced around the same time, offered incrementally more performance than the Quadra 700 in a desktop-style case at a price point closer to $3,000.[3]

Hardware

Form factor: The Quadra 700 case is largely the same as the popular Macintosh IIcx and Macintosh IIci models; this made it possible for users of those models to upgrade to the more powerful Quadra 700. Users sometimes placed the older case vertically in a mini-tower orientation and the Quadra 700 recognized this by having the Apple logo and model name printed in the vertical orientation. The IIcx and IIci were designed to allow their rubber feet to be moved to the side for vertical orientation as well.

CPU: Motorola 68040 @ 25 MHz. The clock oscillator runs at 50 MHz; replacing it with a faster oscillator (up to 74 MHz) results in a performance increase.[4]

Memory: The Quadra 700 could be upgraded to 68 megabytes of RAM, which with its 25 MHz processor made it a very useful computer for scientific or design work.

Expansion: Two Nubus slots and a PDS slot; processor upgrades from Apple and other manufacturers were sold for the 700 when the PowerPC 601 accelerator cards came along in 1994.

Storage: 80 and 160 MB hard disks were available at launch. A faster 230 MB unit became available in mid-1993 when the Quadra 950 was introduced.[5]

Video: Like the IIci, the 700 has integrated graphics built into the system board but, unlike the earlier model, it uses dedicated VRAM for its video memory.[6] The onboard video came with 512 kilobytes VRAM soldered to the motherboard, and supported resolutions up to 1152x870. The video memory was expandable to 2 megabytes via 6 256-kilobyte 100 nS VRAM SIMMs in each of VRAM SIMM expansion slots on the motherboard. Expanding the video memory to 2 megabytes allowed for 24-bit (Millions) color at resolutions up to 832x624.

Sound: The sound was 8-bit stereo.

Ports: I/O was available with dual serial ports, an AAUI ethernet port, mic in, and a DB-25 SCSI connector. The Quadra 700, along with the 900, are the first Macintosh models with built-in support for Ethernet networking.[1]

Operating system: System 7.0.1 was included as standard. This is the earliest Macintosh model to support Mac OS 8.

  • This Macintosh, along with some other models, was one of the computers featured in the film Jurassic Park (1993).

Timeline of Macintosh Quadra and Centris models
See also: Timeline of Macintosh models
Power MacintoshMacintosh LC IIIMacintosh Quadra 630Macintosh Quadra 950Macintosh Quadra 650Macintosh Quadra 610Macintosh Quadra 900Macintosh Quadra 840AVMacintosh Quadra 800Macintosh Quadra 700Macintosh Quadra 660AVMacintosh Quadra 650Macintosh Quadra 610Macintosh Quadra 605Macintosh IIvx
gollark: Doubtful.
gollark: Which is obviously not ideal.
gollark: I recall reading that Israel had more AI startups than the entire EU.
gollark: They should have more of it and better stuff then.
gollark: Since their approach to encouraging more of it in the EU is apparently just to come up with more regulations for it? And not support for startups or offering access to GPU clusters or something actually helpful.

References
  1. Pogue, David; Schorr, Joseph (1999). MacWorld Mac Secrets, 5th Edition. IDG Books. ISBN 0-7645-4040-8.
  2. Webster, Bruce (December 1991). "Macintosh Quadras - Power But No Pizzazz". MacWorld. pp. 140–147. Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  3. Gruman, Galen (April 1993). "Centris 610 & 650 - Two new midrange performers replace the venerable Mac II line". MacWorld Magazine. pp. 106–113.
  4. "Overclocking the Mac Quadra Series - Quadra 700".
  5. Poole, Lon (July 1992). "Quadra 950 - Apple accelerates the Quadra 900 and gives it a new name". MacWorld Magazine. pp. 144–153.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.