   #copyright

Macintosh

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Computing hardware and
infrastructure

   The Macintosh 128K, the first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984,
   upgraded to a 512K "Fat Mac"
   The Macintosh 128K, the first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984,
   upgraded to a 512K "Fat Mac"

   Mac (formerly Macintosh) currently refers to any personal computer
   designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Inc.. Named
   after the McIntosh variety of apple, the original Macintosh was
   released on January 24, 1984. It was the first commercially successful
   personal computer to use a graphical user interface (GUI) and mouse
   instead of the then-standard command line interface. The current range
   of Macs varies from Apple's entry level Mac mini desktop, to a
   mid-range server, the Xserve. Mac systems are mainly targeted at the
   home, education, and creative professional markets. Production of the
   Mac is based upon a vertical integration model in that Apple
   facilitates all aspects of its hardware and creates its own operating
   system that is pre-installed on all Macs. This is in contrast to PCs
   pre-installed with Microsoft Windows, where one vendor provides the
   operating system and multiple vendors create the hardware. (In both
   cases, the hardware can run other operating systems; modern Macs, like
   PC's, are capable of running operating systems such as Linux, FreeBSD
   and Windows.)

   Original Macintosh computers used the Motorola 68k family of
   microprocessors, but later models switched to Motorola and IBM's
   PowerPC range of CPUs in 1994. Apple began a transition from the
   PowerPC line to Intel's x86 architecture in 2006, which for the first
   time allowed Macs to run native operating system binaries for the x86
   architecture. Current Macs use the Intel Core, Intel Core 2 and Intel
   Xeon 5100 series microprocessors. All current Mac models come
   pre-installed with a native version of the latest Mac OS X, which is
   currently at version 10.4.9 and is commonly referred to by its code
   name of "Tiger". Apple will be releasing Mac OS X v10.5, codenamed
   "Leopard", in October of 2007.

History

1979 to 1984: Development

   The Macintosh project started in early 1979 with Jef Raskin, an Apple
   employee, who envisioned an easy-to-use, low-cost computer for the
   average consumer. In September 1979, Raskin was authorized to start
   hiring for the project, and he began to look for an engineer who could
   put together a prototype. Bill Atkinson, a member of Apple's Lisa team
   (which was developing a similar but higher-end computer), introduced
   him to Burrell Smith, a service technician who had been hired earlier
   that year as Apple employee #282. Over the years, Raskin assembled a
   large development team that designed and built the original Macintosh
   hardware and software; besides Raskin, Atkinson and Smith, the team
   included Chris Espinosa, Joanna Hoffman, George Crow, Jerry Manock,
   Susan Kare, and Andy Hertzfeld.

   Smith’s first Macintosh board was built to Raskin’s design
   specifications: it had 64 kibibytes (KiB) of RAM, used the Motorola
   6809E microprocessor, and was capable of supporting a 256×256 pixel
   black-and-white bitmap display. (The final product used a 9-inch,
   512x342 monochrome display.) Bud Tribble, a Macintosh programmer, was
   interested in running the Lisa’s graphical programs on the Macintosh,
   and asked Smith whether he could incorporate the Lisa’s Motorola 68000
   microprocessor into the Mac while still keeping the production cost
   down. By December 1980, Smith had succeeded in designing a board that
   not only used the 68000, but bumped its speed from 5 to 8 megahertz
   (MHz); this board also had the capacity to support a 384×256 bitmap
   display. Smith’s design used fewer RAM chips than the Lisa, which made
   production of the board significantly more cost-efficient. The final
   Mac design was self-contained and had far more programming code in ROM
   than most other computers; it had 128 KiB of RAM, in the form of
   sixteen, 64  kilobit (Kb) RAM chips soldered to the logicboard. Though
   there were no memory slots, its RAM was expandable to 512 KiB by means
   of soldering sixteen 256 Kib RAM chips in place of the
   factory-installed chips.

   The innovative design caught the attention of Steve Jobs, co-founder of
   Apple. Realizing that the Macintosh was more marketable than the Lisa,
   he began to focus his attention on the project. Raskin finally left the
   Macintosh project in 1981 over a personality conflict with Jobs, and
   the final Macintosh design is said to be closer to Jobs’ ideas than
   Raskin’s. After hearing of the pioneering GUI technology being
   developed at Xerox PARC, Jobs negotiated a visit to see the Xerox Alto
   computer and Smalltalk development tools in exchange for Apple stock
   options. The Lisa and Macintosh user interfaces were partially
   influenced by technology seen at Xerox PARC and were combined with the
   Macintosh group's own ideas. Jobs also commissioned industrial designer
   Hartmut Esslinger to work on the Macintosh line, resulting in the "Snow
   White" design language; although it came too late for the earliest
   Macs, it was implemented in most other mid- to late-1980s Apple
   computers. However, Jobs’s leadership at the Macintosh project was
   short-lived; after an internal power struggle with new CEO John
   Sculley, Jobs was fired from Apple in 1985, went on to found NeXT,
   another computer company, and did not return until 1997. CEO John
   Sculley raised the price from US$1,995 to US$2,495 to pay for a massive
   marketing campaign.

1984: Introduction

   The Macintosh was officially announced on January 22, 1984, with the
   now-famous 1984 Super Bowl commercial directed by Ridley Scott. This
   commercial showed a woman, played by Anya Major, who defiantly throws a
   sledgehammer at a Big Brother-like video screen (which represented
   IBM). This symbolized Apple's bringing 'power to the people' by
   challenging the text-based computers that dominated the market at the
   time.

   The Mac itself went on sale for US$2,495, two days after the ad aired.
   It came bundled with two useful programs designed to show off its
   interface: MacWrite and MacPaint. Although the Mac garnered an
   immediate, enthusiastic following, it was too radical for some. Because
   the machine was entirely designed around the GUI, existing text-mode
   and command-driven programs had to be redesigned and rewritten; this
   was a challenging undertaking that many software developers shied away
   from, and resulted in an initial lack of software for the new system.
   Many users, accustomed to the arcane world of command lines, labeled
   the Mac a mere “toy.”

1985 to 1989: The desktop publishing era

   In 1985, the combination of the Mac, Apple’s LaserWriter printer, and
   Mac-specific software like Boston Software’s MacPublisher and Aldus
   PageMaker (superseded by Adobe InDesign) enabled users to design,
   preview, and print page layouts complete with text and graphics, an
   activity known as desktop publishing. Desktop publishing was unique to
   the Macintosh, but eventually became available for PC users as well.
   Later, programs such as Macromedia FreeHand, QuarkXPress, and Adobe
   Illustrator strengthened the Mac’s position as a graphics computer and
   helped to expand the emerging desktop publishing market.

   The limitations of the first Mac soon became clear: it had very little
   memory, even compared with other personal computers in 1984, and could
   not be expanded easily; and it lacked a hard drive and the means to
   attach one easily. Although by 1985 the Mac’s base memory had increased
   to 512 KiB, and it was possible, although inconvenient and difficult,
   to expand the memory of a 128 KiB Mac, Apple realized that the Mac
   needed improvement in these areas. The result was the Macintosh Plus,
   released on January 10, 1986 for US$2,600. It offered one mebibyte
   (MiB) of RAM, expandable to four, and a then-revolutionary SCSI
   parallel interface, allowing up to seven peripherals—such as hard
   drives and scanners—to be attached to the machine. Its floppy drive was
   increased to an 800  KB capacity. The Plus was an immediate success and
   remained in production until October 15, 1990; on sale for just over
   four years and ten months, it was the longest-lived Mac in Apple's
   history.
   The Macintosh II, the first expandable Macintosh.
   The Macintosh II, the first expandable Macintosh.

   Other issues remained, particularly the low processor speed and limited
   graphics ability, which had hobbled the Mac’s ability to make inroads
   into the business computing market. Updated Motorola CPUs made a faster
   machine possible, and in 1987 Apple took advantage of the new Motorola
   technology and introduced the Macintosh II, which used a 16 MHz
   Motorola 68020 processor. This marked the start of a new direction for
   the Macintosh, as now, for the first time, it had open architecture
   with several expansion slots, support for colour graphics and a modular
   break out design similar to that of the IBM PC and inspired by Apple’s
   other line, the expandable Apple II series. Alongside the Macintosh II,
   the Macintosh SE was released, the first compact Mac with an internal
   expansion slot (a processor direct slot) specific to the machine. The
   SE shared the Macintosh II's “Snow White” design language, as well as
   the new Apple Desktop Bus mouse and keyboard that had first appeared on
   the Apple IIGS some months earlier.

   With the new Motorola 68030 processor came the Macintosh IIx in 1988,
   which had benefited from internal improvements, including an on-board
   MMU. It was followed in 1989 by a more compact version with fewer slots
   (the Macintosh IIcx) and a version of the Mac SE powered by the 16 MHz
   68030 (the Macintosh SE/30). Later that year, the Macintosh IIci,
   running at 25 MHz, was the first Mac to be “ 32-bit clean,” allowing it
   to natively support more than 8 MiB of RAM, unlike its predecessors,
   which had “32-bit dirty” ROMs (8 of the 32 bits available for
   addressing were used for OS level flags). System 7 was the first
   Macintosh operating system to support 32-bit addressing. Apple also
   introduced the Macintosh Portable, a 16 MHz 68000 machine with an
   active matrix flat panel display. The following year the 40 MHz
   Macintosh IIfx, starting at about US$9,900, was unveiled. Apart from
   its fast processor, it had significant internal architectural
   improvements, including faster memory and a pair of dedicated 6502 CPUs
   for I/O processing.

1990 to 1998: Growth and decline

   The Macintosh Classic, Apple's early 1990s budget model.
   The Macintosh Classic, Apple's early 1990s budget model.

   Microsoft Windows 3.0, which began to approach the Mac in both
   performance and feature set, was released in May 1990 and was a usable,
   less expensive alternative to the Macintosh platform. Apple's response
   was to introduce a range of relatively inexpensive Macs in October
   1990. The Macintosh Classic, essentially a less expensive version of
   the Macintosh SE, sold for US$999, making it the least expensive Mac
   until the re-release (and subsequent price cut) of the 400 MHz iMac in
   February 2001. The 68020-powered Macintosh LC, in its distinctive
   “pizza box” case, was available for US$1800; it offered colour graphics
   and was accompanied by a new, low-cost 512×384-pixel monitor. The
   Macintosh IIsi, essentially a 20 MHz IIci with only one expansion slot,
   cost US$2500. All three machines sold well, although Apple’s profit
   margin was considerably lower than on earlier machines.

   1991 saw the much-anticipated release of System 7, a 32-bit rewrite of
   the Macintosh operating system that improved its handling of colour
   graphics, memory addressing, networking, and co-operative multitasking,
   and introduced virtual memory. Later that year, Apple introduced the
   Macintosh Quadra 700 and 900, the first Macs to employ the faster
   Motorola 68040 processor. They were joined by improved versions of the
   previous year’s hits, the Macintosh Classic II and Macintosh LC II. The
   latter was upgraded to use a 16 MHz 68030 CPU.

   At the same time, the first three models in Apple’s enduring PowerBook
   range were introduced—the PowerBook 100, a miniaturized Macintosh
   Portable; the 16 MHz 68030 PowerBook 140; and the 25 MHz 68030
   PowerBook 170. They were the first portable computers with the keyboard
   behind a palm rest, and with a built-in pointing device (a trackball)
   in front of the keyboard.

   In 1992, Apple started to sell a low-end Mac, the Performa, through
   nontraditional dealers. At Apple dealers, a mid-range version of the
   Quadra series called the Macintosh Centris was offered, only to be
   quickly renamed Quadra when buyers became confused by the range of
   Classics, LCs, IIs, Quadras, Performas, and Centrises. Apple also
   unveiled the miniaturized PowerBook Duo range. It was intended to be
   docked to a base station for desktop-like functionality in the
   workplace. The PowerBook Duo was dropped from the Apple product line in
   early 1997.

   The next evolutionary step in Macintosh CPUs was a switch to the RISC
   PowerPC architecture developed by the AIM alliance of Apple Computer,
   IBM, and Motorola. Since its introduction, the Power Macintosh line
   proved to be highly successful, with over a million units sold by late
   1994, three months ahead of Apple’s one-year goal. In the same year,
   Apple released the second-generation PowerBook models, the PowerBook
   500 series, which introduced the novel trackpad.

   Despite these technical and commercial successes, Microsoft and Intel
   began to rapidly erode Apple's market share with the Windows 95
   operating system and Pentium processors respectively. These
   significantly enhanced the multimedia capability and performance of the
   PC, and brought Windows still closer to the Mac GUI. In response, Apple
   started the Macintosh clone program to regain its foothold in the
   desktop computer market. This succeeded in increasing the Macintosh's
   market share somewhat, but at the cost of undermining Apple's bottom
   line. The company saw regular losses over the period when clones were
   manufactured. As a result, when Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 he
   pulled the plug on the whole operation, reasoning that despite the
   machines often providing more value to the consumer, Apple was losing a
   lot of money in the clone market. This decision caused significant
   financial losses for companies like Motorola which had invested
   substantial resources in starting up their own Mac-compatible lines.

1998 to the present: New beginnings

   In 1998, a year after Steve Jobs had returned to the company, Apple
   introduced an all-in-one Macintosh that was similar to the original
   Macintosh 128K: the iMac, a new design that did away with most Apple
   standard connections, such as SCSI and ADB, in favour of two USB ports.
   It featured an innovative new design; its translucent plastic case,
   originally Bondi blue, and later many other colors, is considered an
   industrial design hallmark of the late 1990s. The iMac proved to be
   phenomenally successful, with 800,000 units sold in 1998, making the
   company an annual profit of US$309 million — Apple's first profitable
   year since Michael Spindler took over as CEO in 1995. At MacWorld 2000,
   San Francisco, Steve Jobs stated that they had sold over 1.35 million
   iMacs the previous quarter; one every six seconds. The Power Macintosh
   was redesigned with a similar 'blue and white' aesthetic.

   In 1999, Apple introduced a new operating system, Mac OS X Server 1.0
   (codenamed Rhapsody), with a new GUI and powerful Unix underpinnings.
   Its NeXT-like GUI left many Mac users disappointed, and wondering what
   the next generation of the Mac OS GUI would look like. Mac OS X was
   based on OPENSTEP, the operating system developed by Steve Jobs’
   post-Apple company, NeXT. Mac OS X was not released to the public until
   September 2000, as the Mac OS X Public Beta, with an Aqua interface,
   much different from Mac OS X Server 1.x. It cost US$29.99 and allowed
   adventurous Mac users to sample Apple’s new operating system and
   provide feedback to the company on what they wanted to see in the
   actual release. The final release of OS X, 10.0 (nicknamed Cheetah),
   was released on March 24, 2001. Subsequent releases were 10.1 Puma,
   (September 25, 2001), 10.2 Jaguar, (August 24, 2002), 10.3 Panther,
   (October 24, 2003), and 10.4 Tiger, (April 29, 2005). Version 10.5
   Leopard is scheduled to be released to the public October 2007.
   The MacBook Pro is the first Mac notebook to use an Intel processor. It
   was released at Macworld 2006.
   The MacBook Pro is the first Mac notebook to use an Intel processor. It
   was released at Macworld 2006.

   In mid-1999, Apple introduced the iBook, a new consumer-level, portable
   Mac that was designed to be similar in appearance to the iMac that had
   been introduced a year earlier. Six weeks after the iBook’s unveiling,
   more than 140,000 orders had been placed, and by October the computer
   was as much a sales hit as the iMac. Apple continued to add new
   products to their lineup, such as the eMac and PowerBook G4, as well as
   make two major upgrades of the iMac. On January 11, 2005, Apple
   announced the release of the Mac mini priced at US$499, the least
   expensive Mac to date.

   In recent years, Apple has seen a significant boost in sales of Macs.
   Many claim that this is due, in part, to the success of the iPod, a
   halo effect whereby satisfied iPod owners purchase more Apple
   equipment. The iPod digital audio players have recaptured a brand
   awareness of the Mac line that had not been seen since its original
   release in 1984. From 2001 to 2005, Mac sales increased continuously on
   an annual basis. On October 11, 2005, Apple released its fourth quarter
   results, reporting shipment of 1,236,000 Macs— a 48% increase from the
   same quarter the previous year. Starting with the introduction of the
   iMac Core Duo and the MacBook Pro on January 10, 2006, Apple has
   gradually switched from PowerPC microprocessors to microprocessors
   manufactured by Intel. Apple completed that transition on August 7,
   2006 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, with the
   introduction of the Mac Pro, which is based on Intel's Xeon
   microprocessor.

Timeline of Macintosh models

   [USEMAP:32305.png]

Current product line

   Image Name Type Market Description
   The Mac mini Mac mini Desktop Consumer The Mac mini is the least
   expensive Mac currently in production. It ships without a monitor,
   keyboard, or mouse. It comes in two versions, both with Core Duo
   processors.
   The iMac iMac Desktop Consumer The iMac is Apple’s current flagship
   consumer desktop computer, powered by the mobile version of the Intel
   Core 2 Duo CPU. It is an all-in-one unit with screen sizes available at
   17", 20", and 24".
   The Mac Pro Mac Pro Desktop Professional The Mac Pro, Apple’s most
   expensive, high-end workstation computer, replaces the Power Mac G5.
   The current models feature two dual-core Intel Xeon ('Woodcrest') CPUs
   or two quad core Intel Xeon ('Clovertown') CPUs. They do not include
   displays.
   The white MacBook MacBook Portable Consumer The MacBook is Apple’s
   consumer portable. It uses an Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at
   slightly slower speeds (2.0 GHz or 2.16 GHz) than the CPUs in the
   MacBook Pro line. It replaces both the iBook G4 and the 12-inch
   PowerBook, which used PowerPC G4 processors.
   The MacBook Pro MacBook Pro Portable Professional The MacBook Pro is a
   high-end portable workstation computer which runs on an Intel Core 2
   Duo processor at 2.16 GHz, or 2.33 GHz, with 15.4 or 17-inch screens.
   The 17-inch model only comes at 2.33 GHz.
   The Xserve Xserve Server Enterprise The Xserve is an enterprise-grade
   1U rack-mount server, specifically marketed towards mission-critical
   data centers and enterprise client services, is mostly used in
   clusters, for distributed computing (e.g., protein analysis). It uses
   Intel Xeon "Woodcrest" processors.

Hardware

   The current Mac product family uses Intel x86 processors. All Mac
   models ship with at least 512 MiB RAM as standard. Current Mac
   computers use an ATI Radeon, nVidia GeForce or Intel GMA graphics
   processor and include either a Combo Drive, a DVD player and CD burner
   all-in-one; or the SuperDrive, a dual-function DVD and CD burner. Macs
   include two standard data transfer ports: USB, standardized in 1998
   with the iMac; and FireWire, a technology developed by Apple to support
   higher-performance devices; while USB is ubiquitous today, FireWire is
   mainly reserved for high-performance devices such as hard drives or
   video cameras.

   In-keeping with the philosophy of making computing as easy as possible,
   the majority of Mac computers shipped with a single-button mouse. This
   changed in August 2005, when Apple released the four-button Mighty
   Mouse (a wireless version was made available on July 25, 2006) and
   began to ship it with new desktop Macs. Starting with a new iMac G5
   released in October 2005, Apple started to include built-in iSight
   cameras to appropriate models, and a media centre interface called
   Front Row that can be operated by remote control for accessing media
   stored on the computer.

   In 2007 a new form-factor development, not supported by Apple, is a Mac
   turned into a tablet PC by aftermarketers. Axiotron is introducing the
   ModBook, a tablet PC running Mac OS X that is created by re-engineering
   a standard MacBook.

Processor architecture

   The original Macintosh used a Motorola 68000, a 16/32-bit (32-bit
   internal) CISC processor that ran at 8 MHz. The Macintosh Portable and
   PowerBook 100 both used a 16 MHz version. The Macintosh II featured a
   full 32-bit Motorola 68020 processor, but the Mac ROMs at the time
   contained software that only supported 24-bit memory addressing,
   therefore using only a fraction of the chip's memory addressing
   capabilities unless a software patch was applied. Macs with this
   limitation were referred to as not being “32-bit clean.” The successor
   Macintosh IIx introduced the Motorola 68030 processor, which added a
   memory management unit. The 68030 did not have a built-in floating
   point unit (FPU); thus, '030-based Macintoshes incorporated a separate
   unit—either the 68881 or 68882. Lower-cost models did without, although
   they incorporated an FPU socket, should the user decide to add one as
   an option. The first “32-bit clean” Macintosh that could use 32-bit
   memory addressing without a software patch was the IIci. In 1991, Apple
   released the first computers containing the Motorola 68040 processor,
   which contained the floating point unit in the main processor. Again,
   lower-cost models did not have FPUs, being based on the cut-down
   Motorola 68LC040 instead.

   After 1994 Apple used the PowerPC line of processors, starting with the
   PowerPC 601, which were later upgraded to the 603 and 603e and 604,
   604e, and 604ev. In 1997, Apple introduced its first computer based on
   the significantly upgraded PowerPC G3 processor; this was followed in
   1999 with the PowerPC G4. The last generation of PowerPC processor to
   be introduced was the 64-bit PowerPC 970FX ("G5"), introduced in 2003.
   During the transition to the PowerPC, Apple’s “Cognac” team wrote a
   68030-to-PowerPC emulator that booted very early in OS loading.
   Initially the emulation speed wasn't stellar, but later versions used a
   dynamic recompilation emulator which boosted performance by caching
   frequently used sections of translated code. The first version of the
   OS to ship with the earliest PowerPC systems was estimated to run 95%
   emulated. Later versions of the operating system increased the
   percentage of PowerPC native code until OS X brought it to 100% native.

   The PowerPC 604 processor introduced symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) to
   the Macintosh platform, with dual PowerPC 604e-equipped Power Macintosh
   9500 and 9600 models. The G3 processor was not SMP-capable, but the G4
   and G5 were, and Apple introduced many dual-CPU G4 and G5 Power Macs.
   The top of the range Power Macintosh G5 uses up to two dual core
   processors, for a total of four cores.

   On June 6, 2005, Steve Jobs announced that the company would begin
   transitioning the Macintosh line from PowerPC to Intel microprocessors
   (transition completed as of August 7, 2006) and demonstrated a version
   of Mac OS X running on a computer powered by an Intel Pentium 4 CPU.
   Intel-powered Macs are able to run Macintosh software compiled for
   PowerPC processors using a dynamic translation system known as “
   Rosetta.” The reason for this switch is believed to be IBM’s apparent
   inability to deliver a CPU suited for Apple's notebooks.

   The first Macs with Intel processors were the iMac and the 15-inch
   MacBook Pro, both announced at the Macworld Conference and Expo in
   January 2006. Throughout the year the Mac mini was transitioned to the
   Intel architecture, with users having choice of either Core Solo or
   Core Duo CPUs. The iBook product line was phased out by the MacBook
   (none pro) and on August 7, 2006, the Power Mac G5 was discontinued in
   favour of the Mac Pro, based on the new Intel Xeon "Woodcrest". The
   Xserve was also transitioned to an Intel Xeon "Woodcrest". In the
   second half of 2006 Apple launched new iMac and MacBook lines using the
   Core 2 Duo processor, claiming them to be up to 25% faster.

Expandability and connectivity

   A typical Universal Serial Bus ("USB") Type A cable; the USB has become
   standard on modern Mac computers.
   A typical Universal Serial Bus ("USB") Type A cable; the USB has become
   standard on modern Mac computers.

   The earliest form of internal Macintosh expandability was the Processor
   Direct Slot (PDS), present from the SE onwards. It was basically a
   shortcut to the CPU socket, not a bus—which also meant that parts for
   the PDS slot were tied to a specific Macintosh model, with the notable
   exception of the LC PDS slot, which was standardized across the entire
   LC line. The PDS slot could be used for processor upgrades, Ethernet
   cards, the Apple IIe Card, or video cards. The last line of Macintoshes
   to have PDS slots was the first generation of the Power Macs. The first
   Macintosh to feature a bus for expansion was the Macintosh II, in the
   form of six NuBus (parallel 32-bit bus) slots. The NuBus was abandoned
   in favour of PCI in the second-generation Power Macs, and the G4
   introduced 64-bit PCI slots as well as an AGP slot for video cards
   (which later became powered to support Apple's ADC-based displays). The
   Power Mac G5 quickly introduced PCI-X slots, which were short-lived, as
   the final G5s and the Mac Pro use PCI Express for graphics and
   expansion. For memory, Apple has used standard SIMMs (30 and 72-pin),
   proprietary 168-pin DIMMs, and later industry-standard SDRAM and DDR
   DIMMs.

   The earliest Macintoshes used a special proprietary serial port (a
   19-pin D-subminiature connector) for external floppy or hard drives,
   until SCSI was introduced with the Macintosh Plus. SCSI remained the
   Macintosh drive medium of choice until the mid 1990s, when less
   expensive ATA drives were introduced, first on budget models, then
   across the whole range. Current Macintoshes use Serial ATA for internal
   hard drives, ATA for internal optical drives, and FireWire or USB 2.0
   for external drives. For peripherals, the Apple Desktop Bus was
   introduced with the Macintosh II and Macintosh SE. It was the standard
   input connector for keyboards and mice until USB was introduced with
   the iMac. The last Macintosh to have ADB was the Power Macintosh G3
   (Blue & White), alongside USB. Other legacy Macintosh peripheral
   connectors include the serial GeoPort and the AAUI port for networking.
   For external video signals, Apple used a DA-15 connector on all models
   prior to the blue-and-white G3, which used a VGA connector. The
   original AGP-based G4 used VGA, complemented by DVI; almost all later
   G4s, however, used the Apple Display Connector in addition to a VGA or
   DVI port. On the most recent Macs, Apple has used single- or dual-link
   DVI connectors, with the Power Mac G5 having two connectors allowing
   dual displays (early Power Mac G5s had one DVI and one ADC port).

Software

Operating system

   The Macintosh operating system was originally known as the System
   Software or more simply System. With the release of System 7.6, the
   official name became Mac OS. From 2001, the “classic” Mac OS was phased
   out in favour of the new BSD Unix-based Mac OS X. Apple had offered
   another UNIX system, A/UX, for its Macintosh servers earlier, but
   without much success. The Mac OS operating system is widely considered
   one of the main selling points of the Mac platform, and Apple heavily
   touts its releases with large release-day special events. Apple has
   generally chosen to stick with some loose user-interface elements in
   all of its releases, and many similarities can be seen between the
   legacy Mac OS 9 and the modern Mac OS X.

   Mac OS was the first widely used operating system with a graphical
   interface. No versions of the “classic” Mac OS featured a command line
   interface. It was originally a single-tasking OS with limited
   background execution ability, but optional co-operative multitasking
   was introduced in System Software 5. The next major upgrade was System
   7 in 1991, which featured a new full-colour design, built-in
   multitasking, AppleScript, and more user configuration options. Mac OS
   continued to evolve up to version 9.2.2, but its dated
   architecture—though retrofitted a few times (for example, as part of
   the PowerPC port, a nanokernel was added and later in Mac OS 8.6 was
   modified to support Multiprocessing Services) —made a replacement
   necessary.

   In March 2001, Apple introduced Mac OS X, a modern and more secure
   Unix-based successor, using Darwin, XNU, and Mach as foundations. Mac
   OS X is directly derived from NeXTSTEP, the operating system developed
   by Steve Jobs’ company NeXT before Apple bought it. Older Mac OS
   programs can still run under Mac OS X in a special virtual machine
   called Classic, but this is only possible using Apple software on Macs
   using PowerPC processors; Macs using Intel processors need third party
   software to run older code. A program similar to Classic called
   “Rosetta” will allow PowerPC programs to run on Intel machines. Mac OS
   X remains the most common UNIX-based desktop operating system, and even
   though Mac OS X was never originally certified as a UNIX implementation
   by The Open Group, Apple is currently working on full UNIX compliance
   and certification for its next server release. Mac OS X is currently at
   version 10.4 (released on April 29, 2005), code-named Tiger. The next
   version, Mac OS X v10.5, code-named Leopard, is scheduled to be
   released in October of 2007.

   Non-Apple operating systems for today’s Macs include Linux, NetBSD, and
   OpenBSD. With the release of Intel-based Mac computers, the potential
   to natively run Windows-based operating systems on Apple hardware
   without the need for emulation software such as Virtual PC was
   introduced. In March of 2006, a group of hackers announced that they
   were able to run Windows XP on an Intel based Mac. The group has
   released their software as open source and has posted it for download
   on their website. On April 5, 2006 Apple announced the public beta
   availability of their own Boot Camp software which will allow owners of
   Intel-based Macs to install Windows XP on their machines. Boot Camp
   will be a standard feature in Leopard.

Software history

   Since its introduction, the Mac has been criticized for the lesser
   range of software titles available for its operating system in
   comparison to DOS and Windows-based PCs. In 1984 it was apparent that a
   wider range of software was available for the IBM PC, because it used
   the most popular operating system of the time, MS-DOS. Apple struggled
   to encourage software developers to port software titles to the
   Macintosh; however, Bill Gates at Microsoft realized that the GUI would
   become an industry standard, and that his software would sell in large
   quantity if it were available for the Macintosh. In 1984 Microsoft Word
   and Microsoft MultiPlan were available, and were a large selling point
   for the Mac. However, it lacked other business software and games. In
   1985, Lotus Software introduced Lotus Jazz after the success of Lotus
   1-2-3 for the IBM PC, although it was largely a flop.

   In 1987, Apple spun off its software business as Claris. It was given
   the code and rights to several programs that had been written within
   Apple, notably MacWrite, MacPaint, and MacProject. In the late 1980s,
   Claris released a number of revamped software titles; the result was
   the “Pro” series, including MacPaint Pro, MacDraw Pro, MacWrite Pro,
   and FileMaker Pro. To provide a complete office suite, Claris purchased
   the rights to the Informix Wingz spreadsheet on the Mac, renaming it
   Claris Resolve, and added the new presentation program Claris Impact.
   By the early 1990s, Claris programs were shipping with the majority of
   consumer-level Macintoshes and were extremely popular. In 1991, Claris
   released ClarisWorks, which soon became their second best-selling
   program. When Claris was later folded back into Apple, ClarisWorks was
   renamed AppleWorks beginning with version 5.0 (hence the ".cwk"
   extension at the end of names of AppleWorks documents to this day).

   All new Macs now come with a suite of consumer-level applications,
   sometimes known as the "iApps". In 1999, a digital video editing
   application, iMovie, was released for use on the iMac DV. Next came
   iTunes, a digital jukebox designed to work with Apple’s iPod digital
   music player, and on January 7, 2002, Apple released iPhoto, an
   easy-to-use digital photo organizer. In 2004, Apple began to market
   these applications, along with iDVD and GarageBand, as a US$49 suite
   called iLife which also comes packaged with every new Apple computer.
   It is intended to make the Mac versatile out of the box by providing
   several high-value consumer media applications. The most popular tool
   in the suite, iTunes, now has a Windows version, and has spawned the
   most popular online music store, the iTunes Store. iLife '05 was
   notable for the addition of support for High Definition video and the
   RAW image format, and for its price increase to US$79. In January 2006,
   iLife '06 was released; iWeb, a new website creation application, was
   added to the suite.

   To complement the Mac, Apple has built up a portfolio of digital media
   applications, as well as three applications that are geared towards
   productivity (the iWork suite and FileMaker Pro).

Advertising

   Ever since the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984 with the 1984
   Super Bowl commercial, Apple has been recognized for its efforts
   towards effective advertising and marketing for the Macintosh. A
   “Macintosh Introduction” 18-page brochure was included with various
   magazines in December 1983, often remembered for the presence of Bill
   Gates on page 11. For a special post-election edition of Newsweek in
   November 1984, Apple spent more than US $2.5 million to buy all of the
   advertising pages in the issue (a total of 39). Apple also ran a “Test
   Drive a Macintosh” promotion that year, in which potential buyers with
   a credit card could trial a Macintosh for 24 hours and return it to a
   dealer afterwards. It began to look like a success with 200,000
   participants, and Advertising Age magazine named this one of the 10
   best promotions of 1984. However, dealers disliked the promotion and
   supply of computers was insufficient for demand, and many computers
   were returned in such a bad shape that they could no longer be sold.

   In 1985 the “Lemmings” commercial aired at the Super Bowl; Apple went
   as far as to create a newspaper advertisement stating “If you go to the
   bathroom during the fourth quarter, you'll be sorry.” It was a large
   failure and did not capture nearly as much attention as the 1984
   commercial did. Many more brochures for new models like the Macintosh
   Plus and the Performa followed. In the 1990s Apple started the “What's
   on your PowerBook?” campaign, with print ads and television commercials
   featuring celebrities describing how the PowerBook helps them in their
   businesses and everyday lives.

   In 1995, Apple responded to the introduction of Windows 95 with both
   several print ads and a television commercial demonstrating its
   disadvantages and lack of innovation. In 1997 the Think Different
   campaign introduced Apple’s new slogan, and in 2002 the Switch campaign
   followed. The most recent advertising strategy by Apple is the Get a
   Mac campaign, with North American, UK and Japanese variants.

   Today, Apple focuses much of its advertising efforts around “special
   events,” and keynotes at conferences like the MacWorld Expo and the
   Apple Expo. The events typically draw a large gathering of media
   representatives and spectators. In the past, special events have been
   used to unveil its desktop and notebook computers such as the iMac and
   MacBook, and other consumer electronic devices like the iPod, Apple TV,
   and iPhone.

Effects on the technology industry

   Apple has introduced a number of innovations in direct relation to the
   Macintosh 128K that were later adopted by the rest of industry as a
   standard for the design of computers. Possibly Apple's number-one
   achievement was the first large-scale use of a graphical user interface
   in operating system software. Developed first by Xerox, the Macintosh
   introduced innovations to the graphical user interface, such as the use
   of the “double click” and “drag and drop”, which are still in use in
   many operating systems. The Macintosh 128K also introduced software
   which allowed WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get,” pronounced
   “whizzy-wig”) text and graphics editing alongside significant technical
   improvements such as: long file names permitting whitespace, not
   requiring a file extension, 3.5" floppy disk drives, 8-bit mono audio,
   built-in speakers, and an output jack as standard features.

   The Macintosh platform has introduced many innovations and ideas which
   have had significant effects on the computer industry, especially in
   the area of communications standards. One of the first was the
   Macintosh Plus, which successfully introduced the SCSI interface in
   1986. The Macintosh IIsi and the Macintosh LC introduced standard audio
   in and out ports in 1990—today these ports are standard on the large
   majority of computers. Beginning with the iMac in 1998, Apple made the
   Universal Serial Bus standard and introduced FireWire, a high-speed
   data transfer bus now popular in media-editing computers and almost all
   digital video cameras. Apple also innovated in the area of networking,
   with heavy marketing and early implementation of the existing wireless
   networking standard IEEE 802.11b ( AirPort) in the Macintosh portable
   lines in 1999. The iMac, debuting in 1998, was one of the earlier
   computers to have no floppy disk drive; today, almost no new computers
   come with one. The Macintosh was able to support multiple monitors as
   far back as 1988 - a full ten years before Windows 98 supported dual
   monitors. When Apple developed the iMac with dual monitors, it heavily
   influenced Bobby H. Green's development of the "DSDS" (Dual screen duo
   system). The Macintosh was also the first personal computer to have
   virtual memory, in 1989 using 'Virtual', a Connectix product.

   Apple has also contributed heavily to the field of mobile computing,
   and many features of its mobile computers have become the norm. The
   PowerBook 100, 140, and 170 set the ergonomic standard for the
   placement of the keyboard in 1991 by moving the keyboard behind a palm
   rest, rather than right at the bottom of the laptop. In 1991, the
   PowerBook 100 series featured the first built-in pointing device on a
   laptop: a trackball. The PowerBook Duo also introduced the idea of a
   dock/port replicator in 1992. One of the most important features ever
   added to the Macintosh PowerBook lineup was the first true touchpad as
   a pointing device on the PowerBook 500 in 1994; today, most laptops
   rely on it as their pointing device. More recently, the PowerBook G4
   became the first full-size laptop computer to feature a widescreen
   display, in 2003 it became the first laptop computer with a 17-inch
   display, and in 2004 it became the first laptop computer to provide
   dual-link DVI. Apple was first to deliver Wi-Fi internet access using
   the Wi-Fi Alliance's 802.11x standard in their AirPort product line.

Market share and demographics

   Ever since the introduction of the Macintosh, Apple has struggled to
   gain a significant share of the personal computer market. At first, the
   Macintosh 128K suffered from a dearth of available software compared to
   IBM's PC, resulting in disappointing sales in 1984 and 1985. Only
   500,000 Macs had been sold by September 1985. Jobs had originally
   predicted that five million units would be sold within two years; sales
   eventually crossed the one million mark in March 1987 and the two
   million mark in 1988, and three years later, the installed base finally
   reached five million. Mac computers are most widely used in the
   creative professional market, including in journalism and desktop
   publishing, video editing and audio editing, but have also made inroads
   into the educative and scientific research sectors .

   By 1997, there were more than 20 million Mac users, compared to an
   installed base of around 340 million Windows PCs. Statistics from late
   2003 indicate that Apple had 2.06% of the desktop share in the United
   States, which had increased to 2.88% by Q4 2004. As of October, 2006,
   research firms IDC and Gartner reported that Apple's market share in
   the U.S. had increased to about 6%. The latest figures, from December
   2006, showing a market share around 6% (IDC) and 6.1% (Gartner) are
   based on a >30% increase in unit sale from 2005 to 2006.

   The actual installed base of Mac computers is extremely hard to
   determine, with numbers ranging from a conservative 3% to an optimistic
   16%.

   Whether the size of the Mac’s market share and installed base is
   actually relevant, and to whom, is a hotly debated issue. Industry
   pundits have often called attention to the Mac’s relatively small
   market share to predict Apple's impending doom, particularly in the
   late 1990s when the company’s future seemed bleakest. Others argue that
   market share is the wrong way to judge the Mac’s success, citing the
   following reasons:
     * Apple has positioned the Mac as a higher-end personal computer, and
       so it is misleading to compare a Mac with a low-budget (equally
       capable) PC.
     * Only within the computer industry does market share seem to be such
       a major concern. Rarely is the topic raised in the automobile or
       television industries, for example.
     * Too much emphasis is placed on the Mac’s worldwide market share at
       the expense of its United States market share, which as of 2006
       stands at almost twice the corresponding worldwide figure.
     * Because the overall market for personal computers has grown so much
       and so rapidly, the Mac’s increasing sales numbers are effectively
       swallowed by the industry’s numbers as a whole. Apple’s small
       market share, then, gives the false impression that fewer people
       are using Macs than did (for example) ten years ago.
     * Market share numbers ignore the total installed base of a
       particular platform, a statistic which is difficult to accurately
       determine. For example, if one platform is replaced less often than
       others, the number in use at any given moment would be higher than
       indicated by sales alone.
     * Regardless of the Mac’s market share, Apple has remained profitable
       ever since Steve Jobs’ return and the company’s subsequent
       reorganization.

   Market research indicates that Apple draws its customer base from a
   higher-income demographic than the mainstream PC market. Higher income
   correlates with greater artistic, creative, and well-educated social
   behaviors, which may explain the platform’s visibility within certain
   youthful, avant-garde subcultures. Steve Jobs speculates that “maybe a
   little less” than half of Apple’s customers are Republicans, “maybe
   more Dell than ours.” This perception may or may not be
   accurate—-several prominent conservatives, including George W. Bush and
   Rush Limbaugh, are Mac users—-but it can only be reinforced by the
   company's pattern of political donations, by Al Gore’s membership on
   its board, and surely not least by Jobs’ own personal history.

Advantages, disadvantages and criticisms

     * The Macintosh differs in several ways from other x86-based personal
       computers, especially those that run the Windows operating system.
       Apple controls and supplies its own operating system and directly
       sub-contracts hardware production to Asian OEM laptop manufacturers
       such as Asus, maintaining a high degree of control over the end
       product. In contrast, Microsoft supplies its software to original
       equipment manufacturers, including Dell, HP/ Compaq, and Lenovo,
       who make the hardware using a wider range of components. This
       less-common operating system means that a much smaller range of
       third-party software is available, although suitable applications,
       such as Microsoft Office, are available in most areas. However,
       following the release of intel-based Mac, third-party
       virtualization software such as Parallels Desktop and Crossover Mac
       began to emerge, allowing users to run any previously Windows-only
       software on a Mac. Apple also released a public beta version of
       Boot Camp, which allows users to run Microsoft Windows natively on
       any intel-based Macs.
     * The design of the Macintosh operating system has contributed to the
       near-absence of the types of malware and spyware that plague
       Microsoft Windows users. This is also due to the small user base,
       which deters the attention of malware designers. However, a virus
       as well as a potential vulnerability was noted in February 2006,
       which led some industry analysts and anti-virus companies to issue
       warnings that Apple's Mac OS X is not immune to viruses.
     * Apple has a history of innovation and making bold changes that is
       met by a strong uptake of software upgrades. The Classic
       application allowed users to run “old” (Mac OS 9) applications on
       Mac OS X computers, though without the advantages of a native Mac
       OS X application. The Apple Intel transition started in 2006 does
       not support Classic on new Intel Macs, and purchasers of these
       computers who are still using Classic applications have to either
       replace, upgrade this software, or run it in a PowerPC emulator
       such as SheepShaver. The transition involved the recompilation of
       most Mac OS X software to maximize performance; in the interim,
       unmodified Mac OS X applications can run on the Intel chip under
       the emulation software Rosetta.” Applications do not run as fast
       under Rosetta as a normal application. Many analysts have stated
       that certain high-profile programs, such as those from Adobe
       Systems, should not be used under Rosetta until native versions are
       released. This has not stopped other analysts from fully
       recommending Apple computers, as can be seen in reviews for the
       recent MacBook.
     * Early in its history, up until the PCI-based Power Macs, Macintosh
       hardware was notoriously closed. Connectors were often proprietary,
       requiring specialized peripherals or adapter cables. However, since
       the introduction of the original iMac in 1997, Apple computers have
       used standard USB and FireWire connections, which allow users a
       greatly expanded choice of peripherals.
     * Originally, the hardware architecture was so closely tied to the
       Mac OS that it was impossible to boot an alternative operating
       system; the most common workaround, used even by Apple for its A/UX
       Unix implementation, was to boot into Mac OS and then to hand over
       control to a program that took over the system and acted as a boot
       loader. This technique is not necessary on Open Firmware-based PCI
       Macs, though it was formerly used for convenience on many Old World
       ROM systems due to bugs in the firmware implementation. Modern Mac
       hardware boots directly from Open Firmware or EFI-compliant
       firmware, and is not limited to the Mac OS. In 2006 Apple
       introduced Boot Camp, which allows owners of Intel-based Macs to
       install and boot any Legacy BIOS based OS (like Windows), without
       the use of emulation software.
     * It is a misconception that, because Macintosh computers can
       integrate many peripherals into one unit, repair or
       parts-replacement is more costly and difficult compared to other
       Intel-based computers. In reality, the higher-quality components
       used in Macintoshes typically outlast their commodity-PC
       counterparts. Further, not all repairs need be done by recognized
       Apple service centers, which means that users can often correct
       problems themselves.

Litigation

   The user interface of the GEM 1.1 desktop was an almost direct copy of
   the Macintosh's; Apple sued on charges of “look and feel,” and
   eventually won.
   The user interface of the GEM 1.1 desktop was an almost direct copy of
   the Macintosh's; Apple sued on charges of “look and feel,” and
   eventually won.

   There have been many lawsuits centered around the Macintosh. These
   generally involve copyright infringement of the computer’s look and
   feel. After the Macintosh was released, several companies began to
   imitate it. Apple had some success in early lawsuits, making Digital
   Research alter basic components in its Graphical Environment Manager
   (pictured), the user interface of which was almost a direct copy of the
   Macintosh’s.

   The most notable case of this sort, however, was Apple Computer, Inc.
   v. Microsoft Corp.. In 1988, Apple sued Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard
   on the grounds that they infringed Apple’s copyrighted GUI, citing
   (among other things) the use of rectangular, overlapping, and resizable
   windows. After four years, Apple lost — the decision was under appeal
   for several years and litigation did not end until Microsoft bought a
   10% stock share in Apple in the late '90s — in part because of a
   vaguely worded contract they had signed with Microsoft when Bill Gates
   threatened to stop development of Microsoft Office for the Mac. Apple’s
   actions were criticized by some in the software community, including
   the Free Software Foundation (FSF), makers of the free GNU operating
   system. The FSF characterized the lawsuits as an attempt by Apple
   Computer to prevent anyone from making a user interface similar to the
   Macintosh, and called for a boycott of GNU software for the Macintosh
   platform. (The FSF ended its boycott in 1995, and current versions of
   the Mac ship with some GNU tools installed, and the GNU compiler gcc is
   an integral part of Apple's XCode development platform.)

   In 1999, Apple successfully sued eMachines, whose eOne resembled the
   then-new iMac very closely.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh"
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