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In a surprise announcement, considering it did not come during a media event of some kind, Apple has announced they are shipping faster Blue & White PowerMacs. The high end of the line is now 450 MHz with the bottom now starting at 350 MHz. According to Apple:
Apple Computer, Inc. today cranked up the speed of its highly successful Power Macintosh G3 computers, which now feature the fastest PowerPC G3 microprocessors yet—running at 350MHz, 400MHz, and 450MHz. In addition, the Power Macintosh G3 line now includes Mac OS 8.6, the latest version of the Macintosh operating system. Pricing remains unchanged, starting at an aggressive estimated retail price (ERP) of U.S. $1,599.
- Power Macintosh G3—U.S. ERP $1,599 350MHz/64MB DRAM/1MB level 2 backside cache/ATI RAGE 128 with 16MB Video SDRAM/6GB Ultra ATA hard drive/24x-speed CD-ROM drive (maximum)
- Power Macintosh G3—U.S. ERP $1,999 400MHz/1MB level 2 backside cache/64MB DRAM/ATI RAGE 128 with 16MB Video SDRAM/6GB Ultra ATA hard drive/DVD-Video
- Power Macintosh G3—U.S. ERP $2,499 400MHz/1MB level 2 backside cache/128MB DRAM/ATI RAGE 128 with 16MB Video SDRAM/12GB Ultra ATA hard drive/24x-speed CD-ROM drive (maximum)/ZIP drive
- Power Macintosh G3—U.S. ERP $2,999 450MHz/1MB level 2 backside cache/128MB DRAM/ATI RAGE 128 with 16MB Video SDRAM/9GB Ultra 2 SCSI 7200rpm hard drive/24x-speed CD-ROM drive (maximum)
- New Macintosh Server G3 configurations are also available and standard configurations include:
- Macintosh Server G3—U.S. ERP $3,299 400MHz/1MB level 2 backside cache/128MB SDRAM/ATI RAGE 128 with 16MB Video SDRAM/9GB Ultra2 SCSI 7,200rpm hard drive/24x-speed CD-ROM drive (maximum) /AppleShare IP 6.2
- Macintosh Server G3—U.S. ERP $4,999 450MHz/1MB level 2 backside cache/256MB SDRAM/ATI RAGE 128 with 16MB Video SDRAM/2x9GB Ultra2 SCSI 10,000rpm hard drives/24x-speed CD-ROM drive (maximum)/AppleShare IP 6.2
- Macintosh Server G3 with Mac OS X Server software—U.S. ERP $4,999 450MHz/1MB level 2 backside cache/256MB SDRAM/ATI RAGE 128 with 16MB Video SDRAM/2x9GB Ultra2 SCSI 10,000rpm hard drives/24x-speed CD-ROM drive (maximum)/4-port 10/100BASE-T Ethernet controller
The new line is available immediately from the Apple Store.
The Mac Observer Spin: This is a pleasant surprise. It is great to see Apple finally break the 400 MHz barrier, though it took too long.
Here's the interesting part however. With Apple announcing a faster Blue & White in between trade shows and keynote speeches, what does that mean Steve JObs will be announcing at MacWorld Expo New York in July? The P1 comes to mind.
Apple
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