Tom Thompson
Apple is driving RISC technology into the home and education markets with its new
Power Mac 5200/75.
The new system builds upon the LC line while offering more processing power and more features. The 5200/75 uses a PowerPC 603 RISC processor, which delivers roughly the same performance as the PowerPC 601 found in existing Power Macs, but at a lower cost and using less power. The 5200/75 also borrows hardware from the Quadra/Performa 630 to provide versatile multimedia capabilities.
Apple's line of LC Macs address the needs of the education market: They're inexpensive and feature a compact design. The latter is important in schools, because the LC's all-in-one design packs the monitor and computer into a single box, which eliminates setup and theft problems. A
t first glance, the system looks like a monitor on a tall swivel stand. But you'll also find stereo speakers, the floppy drive, and a CD-ROM drive on the monitor bezel. A closer examination reveals monitor control buttons (contrast and brightness), built-in microphone, and head-phone jacks.
When you pivot the monitor around, the usual gaggle of I/O ports come into view: one ADB (Apple Desktop Bus) port for the keyboard and mouse, two mini DIN-9 serial ports, a DB-25 SCSI port, two sound I/O ports, and covers where you add expansion boards. To set up this system, you simply plug in the keyboard, the mouse, and the power cord.
The heart of the 5200/75 is a 603 processor beating at 75 MHz. The processor, Mac ROMs, and 256-KB level 2 cache sit on a 64-bit bus. The ROMs and cache RAM are both mounted on a single SIMM. This tight integration of ROM and cache were necessary because the Power Mac's 68LC040 emulator, which runs parts of the Mac OS and existing applications, was finely tuned for the 601's
32-KB unified cache. This emulator floods the 603's smaller 8-KB caches, unless the level 2 cache is used.
The 5200/75 uses a 32-bit bus to communicate with its peripherals. A second 72-pin SIMM socket lets you add memory up to 64 MB without scrapping existing memory SIMMs. The system uses the same custom ASIC (the Valkyrie) that provides the integrated video support found in the Quadra 630. The 15-inch monitor has an on-the-fly adjustable resolution of 640 by 480 pixels or 832 by 624 pixels and supports maximum display depths of 16 or 8 bits, respectively.
For expansion, the 5200/75 has an LC PDS (processor direct slot), plus slots that accept video-in boards, a TV tuner, and a modem or Ethernet board. Each slot is physically different from the others to avoid setup problems when you install a board. The drawback to this design is that the vendors must build to different connectors depending upon the board's function. However, because the 5200/75 can use expansion boards from the LC, and video
and communications boards from the Quadra 630, this problem might be overstated.
Apple intends to introduce faster versions of the 5200 later this year, and you can expect them to use the PowerPC 603e, which has larger on-chip caches and is pin-compatible with the 603. Other vendors are also expected to introduce PowerPC 603-based systems, including IBM, Motorola, FirePower Systems, and Mac clone vendor Power Computing.
The 5200/75 will ship with 8 MB of 70-nanosecond RAM, a 500-MB IDE drive, and a dual-speed CD-ROM drive as standard equipment, and it will cost $1699 in K-12 markets. A Performa version for the home markets is expected later this year and will include bundled software and a 14.4-Kbps modem. It will probably sell in the $2400 to $2500 range. Apple has already sold over 1 million Macs. With the 5200/75, the company is poised to bring RISC into the home.
HIGH MARKS FOR EDUCATION MAC
BYTE's native RISC benchmarks indicate that on most tests, the new
Power Ma
c 5200 is faster than a Power Mac 6100/60 system. The 5200/75
has a secondary cache, but the 6100/60 does not. The 5200/75 also
uses improved floating-point libraries.
Index Power Mac Power Mac
5200/75 6100/60
Integer Average .780632759 .635500506
FP Average .585809155 .217984227
photo_link (14 Kbytes)
The first PowerPC 603-based Mac offers a simple, clean design that's loaded with features.
RISC Invades the Home and School
