Fifteen years before and after Apple's PowerBook
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As the flagship notebook computer product of Apple, PowerBook enjoys a very high reputation in the notebook industry. Not only does it have a very high status in the hearts of MacFans, but Apple's notebook is a myth in the minds of notebook manufacturers! Because Apple is an opponent that they will never understand, you can only see his classics, and can't guess its future. Every 15 years, Apple notebooks will release a new wave of products, which will set off a wave in the market.
Ancestors of Mac Portable PowerBook 1989
The prototype of Apple's first generation of PowerBook notebooks can be traced back to 1986, when many people did not know what the computer was, and at that time Apple began to develop laptops with great foresight. In November 1989, the MacUser magazine cover girl, wearing a swimsuit, lying on the beach and enjoying the Mac Portable mobile office brings unlimited feelings. The cover of this magazine marks the entry of Apple notebooks into the market, and Apple's first generation of PowerBook--Mac Portable was born!
Mac Portable was released on September 20, 1989, at a price of $7,300. Although it was a portable computer, it was not at all light due to the computer manufacturing process at the time. Mac Portable is 10.28cm thick, with length and width of 38.73cm and 37.67cm respectively. The overall weight is 16~17 pounds, which means that the weight of a Mac Portable is about 7.5kg. It seems that "portable" must become a man at that time. The patent has been made. The Mac Portable is equipped with a 9.8-inch 640 x 480 pixel black and white "active matrix drive" LCD screen. The CPU uses Motorola's 68000, which was clocked at only 16MHz. The host is equipped with 1M of memory, users can extend to 9M by themselves (although the memory is a dedicated 30ns SRAM card, and the notebook has only one memory slot); 40M 3.5-inch hard disk, there is a Modem interface that allows users to add a modem themselves. . An ADB interface is provided behind the host to install a small numeric keypad or a trackball, an 8-finger serial communication interface, and a SCSI communication interface. The entire notebook uses a 6V voltage 5Ah sealed lead-acid battery, which can be used for 5~10 hours. At that time, the operating system supported by Mac Portable was 6.0.4~7.5.5.
Objectively speaking, the design of Mac Portable was not very successful. First, the portable computer with DOS operating system was about 5 kg, and the weight of Mac Portable reached 7.5 kg. Secondly, in order to pursue the battery life of Mac Portable, Apple uses a sealed lead-acid battery. This battery structure is generally used in automotive batteries, and it is inconvenient for charging and using it. Finally, because Mac Portable used the most advanced computer technology at the time, the cost could not be reduced, and the price of $7,300 was unacceptable to the average user. Although Apple introduced the Backlit version of Mac Portable in February 1991, it only increased the memory to 2M and adjusted the memory type. On October 21, 1991, with the release of the PowerBook 100 (Derringer), Mac Portable has since retired from the historical arena.
The gunpowder-like Derringer 1991
On October 21, 1991, Apple released its true PowerBook 100, and named it: Derringer (meaning a big cockroach that can be carried in a pocket. Still using Motorola 16MHzr 68000 CPU, 2M memory (up to Expanded to 8M, using a special 100ns memory), 20M or 40M hard drive, it uses a 9-inch passive array black and white LCD screen, display resolution of 640 × 400. The host is equipped with a Modem expansion interface, and a SCSI interface and a serial communication interface, the improved sealed lead-acid battery can be used for 2~4 hours. What is the most improved of the PowerBook 100, it is only 4.57cm thick, the length and width are 27.94cm and 21.59cm respectively. 2.3kg, which is only one-third of Mac Portable.
It is not difficult to see that after learning the price of Mac Portable, Apple chose a series of cost-effective methods such as cheap passive array LCD panel and low-speed memory on the hardware selection of PowerBook 100, so that the PowerBook 100 sold only 2,500. Dollar.
As Apple expected, the PowerBook 100 received rave reviews as soon as it was launched, selling 400,000 units a year, which was an astronomical figure at the time. At that time, many computer users loved it, and many people would use the PowerBook 100 as an honor.
From the release of the PowerBook 100 in October 1991 to the discontinuation of the PowerBook 190cs in September 1996, the PowerBook 100 series has 13 models available, the CPU has been upgraded from 16MHz to 33MHz, the memory has been upgraded to 8M, the hard disk capacity has reached 500M, and the color 10.4 inch display. With a dual PC-Card interface, the PowerBook integrates state-of-the-art technology and maximizes the power of the Motorola CPU. The success of the PowerBook 100 series has laid a solid foundation for the development of Apple notebooks, which can be said to be a milestone in the history of Apple's development. And since then, the name of the PowerBook has been used as a synonym for Apple's high-end notebooks and has been extended to this day.
PowerBook Duo pursues the avant-garde series 1992
In October 1992, Apple introduced the PowerBook Duo based on the Motorola 68030 CPU. Duo and PowerBook 160 are released at the same time, and both use 68030. This is not a coincidence, because Duo is another branch series that is related to PowerBook like its name. Apple developed Duo to meet the needs of the fashion avant-garde family, designed for consumer users.
PowerBook Duo 210 uses 25MHz 68030CPU, 230 uses 30MHz68030CPU, both models are equipped with 68882 FPU, built-in 4M memory, up to 24M, 80M hard drive, 4-bit black and white passive array display can be 640 × 400 resolution, its biggest feature is the subtraction of the floppy disk drive and other less common equipment, the notebook thickness is reduced to 3.55cm, width and length are 27.69cm and 21.59cm, respectively, the weight is reduced to 1.9 Kg. The Duo 210 is priced at $2,250, while the Duo 230 is priced at $2,610.
The biggest feature of the PowerBook Duo is its lightweight design. Since Duo's products are the highest at the time, Apple calls it "BOB W", Best Of Both Workds. A year after the launch of the Duo 210, Apple quickly launched the 280 and 280C in 1993. The PowerBook Duo 2300c released on August 28, 1995 is Apple's only notebook with a PowerPC CPU and the last of the PowerBook Duo series. The released notebook computer, Duo 2300C CPU uses 100MHz frequency PowerPC 603e, and the highest configuration 56M memory, can support 1.1G hard disk. Although equipped with a 9.5-inch color "active matrix drive" LCD screen, the size of the notebook is almost the same as the first generation Duo, the weight is only about 2.17kg.
The PowerBook Duo series itself is very powerful, and the body design is excellent. Unfortunately, the notebook is no matter how high speed, it can't exceed the speed of the desktop computer, and the price is so expensive that the Duo sales situation is not ideal. The Duo model is In 1996, he withdrew from Apple's historical stage.
Blackbird's short-lived 1994
Apple has been using Motorola's 68030 series CPU since the PowerBook 140. This is the most popular series of notebook models released by Apple. From the PowerBook 140 to the PowerBook 180, 10 notebooks were released, and four PowerBook Duo were released during this period. A new series of notebooks. So when Apple started to use the 68040 CPU in 1994, a new series was born, and that was Blackdird.
On May 16, 1994, Apple released the latest Blackdird series of notebooks including the PowerBook 520, PowerBook 520C, PowerBook 540, and PowerBook 540C. PowerBook 520 inherits the technology and design of the previous generation PowerBook 170. It uses Motorola's latest 25MHz 68040 processor, 4M memory, 512K memory, 240M hard disk, and the PowerBook 520 adds 12 F functions to the notebook keyboard. The key, and replaced the previous trackball with a new mouse touchpad, it uses a 9.5-inch 4-digit display with a resolution of 640×480. For the first time, a 16-bit stereo speaker was designed on the machine cover, and an Ethernet card was built in. In terms of battery, it uses a dual-battery interface, so that the two batteries can work continuously for 4 hours and weigh only 3.2 kg. The PowerBook 520C replaces the display with a two-line scanning 8-bit color screen based on the 520, and the hard disk is increased to 320M. The PowerBook 540 is equipped with a 33MHz 68040 processor, while the PowerBook 540C replaces the hard drive with a 500M on a 540 basis, and is equipped with an 8-bit color display. The high-end laptop sold for $4,840 at the time. Now I can buy four ordinary laptops.
Apple's Blackbird series has given all competitors a heavy blow with its powerful processing power and introduction of multimedia concepts. In 1995, Apple's note-selling sales were strong, and Apple shifted its processor from 68040 to PowerPC. So Blackbird has since retired from the historical stage.
The shadow of the history of PowerBook 5300 Apple 1995
In 1995, Apple wanted to develop a new product line with the PowerBook 603e processor. The 5300 was born in this context.
On March 25, 1995, the PowerBook 5300 was released. At that time, the price reached $6,500. From the price point of view, the 5300 was considered a high-end product at that time. It uses the latest 100 or 117MHz PowerPC 603e processor and 32M memory. Up to 64M, up to 1.1G hard drive, two PC Card slots, 10.4-inch color display, and a professional graphics card. The thickness is 5 cm, and the length and width are 29.21 cm and 21.59 cm, respectively. Due to the use of a lithium battery, the weight is only 2.9 kg. It can be seen that Apple had high hopes for 5300 in the year, they want to use the 5300 series to open up a bigger market. But contrary to expectations, the 5300 not only did not become a hit, but brought an unprecedented disaster to Apple.
"Chengdu Xiaohe, defeat also Xiaohe" because of the use of the immature lithium battery, so that the 5300 will be listed on the market, the battery will burn even when it is used. In order to solve this problem, Apple had to replace the 5300 with Ni-MH batteries, but some problems caused by the design still plagued 5300 users, and Apple was hit on the PowerPC603e! The company had to stop the 5300 series and reclaim all the problem machines, for which Apple paid at least $500 million.
PowerBook 1400 painstaking thoughts 1996
The failure of the 5300 slowed the pace of Apple's notebook development. After a year of redesign and preparation, Apple introduced the PowerBook 1400 on October 1, 1996, and built the optical drive into the notebook for the first time until 1997. In May of the release of the PowerBook 2400 and 3400, Apple introduced three notebooks based on the PowerPC603e processor.
As a mature PowerPC processor model, the 1400/2400/3400 performance is very stable, and different configurations make them cover different consumer markets, maximizing the needs of various consumers. The PowerBook 2400C is only 1.99kg, the lightest PowerBook ever. The highest configuration of the PowerBook 3400 has a 240MHz CPU, 40MHz bus width, 16M memory (up to 144M), 256K L2 cache, 1M memory. The highest 3G hard drive capacity, 12X optical drive and 12.1-inch color 800×600 display, which can be considered a fever-level configuration at the time.
The market response for the PowerBook 1400/2400/3400 is very good, and sales are increasing. Consumers have also slowly forgotten the negative impact of the 5300. Apple finally got out of the shadow of the 5300 incident.
PowerBook G3 "Big Black" re-creates glory 1997
At the beginning of 1997, the success of the PowerBook 2400 and 3400 laid a good foundation for Apple's notebook market. Moreover, consumers are more and more like the high-performance and high-performance models, and the sales of high-equipped machines are getting better and better. So on November 10, 1997, Apple introduced the PowerBook G3, the most powerful notebook at the time.
G3 is a new generation of classic models developed on the basis of PowerBook 3400. It uses 250MHz PowerPC750 processor, 50MHz system bus, up to 160M EDO memory, 10MHz working frequency 512K L2 cache, 2M memory, 5G EIDE hard drive, 20x speed removable optical drive, built-in network card and Modem, and designed a 1Mbps transmission rate infrared interface, two PCCard expansion slots, 12.1 inches 16-bit 800 × 600 color display, the battery can work continuously for 2 hours .
Thanks to the built-in optical drive and large screen, the body and weight of the notebook have increased. The PowerBook G3 is 6.09cm thick, 29.21cm and 24.13cm long and wide, and weighs about 3.3kg.
As Apple's market expects, the PowerBook G3 will receive rave reviews as soon as it is published. And from the inside of Apple, on September 16, 1997, Jobs became Apple's iCEO. The Apple legend returned to Apple's hometown and immediately released the G3, which also shows that G3 was an ace of Apple at that time. . In 1998, Apple finally came out of the trough and regained profits. In the first quarter of 1998, the revenue was $47 million.
In the next two years, Apple will continue to upgrade and innovate on the PowerBook G3 platform, until the 2000 PowerBook G3 series models launched a total of five. The PowerBook Duo (pismo), which was finally released in 2000, uses the 500MHz PowerPC 750 as the CPU. The system bus reaches 100MHz, 128M memory, 1M L2 cache, ATI Rage Mobility 128 display card, 10G DMA-66 hard disk. 14.1" 1024 x 768 display, 2x DVD drive, built-in 100M network card and modem, and in the "Pismo" first use the "FireWire" interface instead of the SCSI interface that has been used in the past, so that the laptop can not only be connected to the "FireWire" External ink hard drive, and can easily connect a variety of DV digital devices, and support wireless networking AirPort, the entire notebook is only 2.8kg, size is 26.4 × 32.3 × 4.3cm, the price is 2499 ~ 3499 US dollars.
The entry of PowerBook into the Chinese market is also started by the PowerBook G3. Xiaobian personally feels that it is Apple's first notebook with excellent mobility, performance and functions. It is four years later, you can still see someone using it. The "big black" G3.
PowerBook Titanium Titanium "hot pot machine" 2001
On January 9, 2001, Apple introduced the latest generation of PowerBook G4 (Titanium). The new generation G4 has the name "titanium" because it uses titanium as the outer casing of the notebook. It uses 400MHz PowerPC. The 7410 is a processor that converts a conventional optical drive into a suction-designed DVD-ROM. Although it is equipped with a 15.2-inch 16:9 widescreen display, the body is only 2.6cm thick and weighs only 2.3kg. G4 does not aggregate from the speed of operation or the design can be said to be a leap. So when you first see it, you will have a feeling of suffocation. Even today's lightest PCs have about 2.8kg of similar laptops. It can be said that the Titanium G4 created the world's best at that time.
In October of the same year, Titanium was upgraded for the first time. The Gigabit NIC was installed at the request of the users, and the PowerPC 7450 processor was used. The display card was also replaced with the stronger ATI 7500, and the COMBO drive was also configured.
After three minor upgrades, on April 29, 2002, Apple added the DVI digital interface to the new "Titanium" and fully positioned the PowerBook G4 for video and graphic design. On November 6th, Apple released the last notebook of the "Titanium" series, which has built-in long-wearing Suspended SuperDrive, which can perform 8x DVD reading and 2x DVD burning. This is for video workers. It can be said that it is a gospel, and you will not be bothered by the lack of hard disk capacity. It uses a 1GHz CPU, and the graphics card uses the most advanced ATI 9000 graphics card at that time. Since then, "Titanium" has established Apple's position in the video and graphic design industry, becoming the notebook of choice in the design field.
However, "titanium" has brought a lot of troubles after adopting high-speed CPU. The biggest problem is that the overheated CPU will transfer heat to the entire computer casing, so the domestic users gave the "titanium" G4 a sound. Nickname "hot pot machine". Moreover, since most of the "titanium gold" G4 casing is made of 99.95% titanium metal, and the surface of the titanium metal is not good for the paint, the surface of the "titanium" G4 will be partially lacquered after a long period of use. . This allowed the apple to abandon the titanium in the design of the outer casing and use the aluminum alloy material for the aircraft. Since then, Apple's "aircraft" was born.
"Aircraft" lets you fly quickly 2003
On January 7, 2003, Apple introduced two new PowerBook G4s, the PowerBook G4 (12) with a 12-inch display and the PowerBook G4 (17) with a 17-inch display. Both machines are equipped with an aluminum alloy case, built-in Bluetooth and wireless AirPort Extreme (IEEE802.11g standard), 1GHz G4 processor, 133MHz system bus, 256M memory, 40G4200 to ATA100 hard drive, and installed the latest nVidia G3Force4 420 graphics card And a suction-type SuperDrive.
The new G4's outer casing is made of aluminum alloy for aircraft manufacturing, so the hardness is very high, and because of the good castability and flexibility of this synthetic metal, it can be processed into a thickness without guaranteeing its hardness. Up to 1 mm of aluminum, this greatly reduces the weight of the body. So the "Aircraft" series, although the case of all the current advanced technology, but the weight of the 12-inch G4 machine is only 2.1kg, and the 17-inch G4 is only 3.1kg, can be said to once again create the world. Domestic users refer to the 12-inch small PowerBook G4 as "small aircraft", while the 17-inch is called "big aircraft."
After that, Apple continued to upgrade the PowerBook G4, adding the Firewire 800 interface and USB2.0 interface... On September 16, 2003, Apple introduced the new PowerBook G4 15-inch notebook (in the aircraft), its release Officially ended the historical mission of the old Titanium G4 notebook.
The new version of the PowerBook G4 (15) not only completely adopts the design of the new PowerBook aluminum series, but also changes the original screen hinge that is not strong enough into the latest L-shaped design, and also has only the "big plane". Adaptive backlit keyboard. At this point, the PowerBook G4 product line is complete, the three large, medium and small notebook configurations are also high to low, whether it is high-end processing or general applications, you will have a satisfactory choice.
In June 2004, Apple introduced the latest "Aircraft" series notebooks. The 15-inch and 17-inch PowerBook G4s are now equipped with PowerPC G4 processors up to 1.5GHz and offer amazing results with the ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics processor. Graphics performance. For customers who need the highest graphics performance, the 1.5GHz 15-inch and 17-inch PowerBooks can now be custom configured with up to 128MB of graphics memory.
The new 12-inch PowerBook G4 features a 1.33 GHz PowerPC processor, an NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 graphics card with 64MB of dedicated video memory, and a larger 60GB Uitra ATA hard drive. And all new PowerBook G4 laptops include Apple's award-winning digital lifestyle app suite iLife'04, including iTunes for managing digital music, iPhoto for organizing and sharing digital photos, and digital cinema production. iMovie, iDVD for creating and burning Hollywood-style movies, and the innovative music app GarageBand, turn your Mac into a professional-quality instrument and recording studio.
At present, the price of the "small aircraft" is RMB 17,900, the price of the "high aircraft" is RMB 24,900, and the price of the "big aircraft" is RMB 27,900.
PowerBook G5 Rhapsody 2005
At present, Apple's Power Mac G5 has been on the market for more than a year. With the 64-bit PowerPC 970 processor and the latest system bus, it has become the leader in desktop workstations. There are amazing performances in multimedia, graphics, images and many other aspects. Will Apple install the G5 processor in the next generation of PowerBook notebooks? We cannot speculate on this point.
However, if the G5 processor is used, its heat dissipation will become a new problem. It is estimated that the most popular liquid cooling system is already on the workbench of Apple's R&D staff. Apple is the perfect combination of technology and art. We can't guess what a new generation of PowerBook will look like. However, looking at the history of PowerBook's 15 years of development, each generation of products and each series will give people a refreshing feeling. We only have Know that the next generation of PowerBook must be better than the current one, better than the current one.