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A major leap forward was made in this model through the introduction of a large level 2 backside cache which reduced data bottlenecks and allowed very efficient use by the computer of its bus speed. Because of this, at the time Power Mac G3 machines were widely considered to be faster than Intel PCs of similar CPU speed. Actually, Apple claimed it was "twice as fast" as Pentium II's at the same– and even higher– clockspeeds. The Power Mac G3 was originally intended to be a midrange series, between the low-end Performa/ LC models and the high-end Power Mac 8600 and 9600. During development, it quickly became evident that the G3 was a much faster machine than the 604-based Macs, due to the SRAM-based, very large backside L2 cache (512K on 233/266MHz models, 1MB on rest), so the Power Mac G3 became the flagship instead.
The original "Platinum" Power Mac G3 series (commonly called "Beige G3s") came in two versions: a desktop enclosure inherited directly from the Power Mac 7300, and a minitower similar to (but shorter than) the Power Mac 8600 enclosure. Equipped with a 233, 266, 300, or 333 MHz PowerPC G3 CPU from Motorola, these machines used a 66MHz bus (66.83MHz, to be exact) and industry-standard PC66 SDRAM, and were one of the first Power Macs to use IDE hard disk drives. These machines had no audio circuitry on the logic board. Instead, a slot for a "personality card" was populated with an audio card on regular versions, while AV versions included a card that added S-Video capture and output. The standard Personality card which had only Audio (analog 16-bit, 44.1kHz audio I/O, plus internal speaker connection), was named "Whisper," while the much less common AV card which had S-Video I/O, and video composite I/O and record features, was named "Wings." There was also a third, even rarer card, which had a DVD-Decoder and and an improved sound chip (actually, an IC Integrated Circuit, in addition to the AV features. All this (the personality card, that is), is situated in a PERCH slot; a dedicated 182–pin microchannel connector, which is a superset of the PCI spec. It was 32-bits wide, and ran at 33MHz, and was controlled by Grackle, the IC which controlled the PCI slots, IDE channel, and video. Apple specifically asked that developers not create anything for this slot. This was used in the Beige G3s, and never again.
DVD-ROM drives were now an available option, and Zip driveThe Zip drive was a removable disk storage system, introduced by the Iomega company in late 1994. Later, it was also licensed to Epson of Japan. The Zip system was based loosely on Iomega's earlier Bernoulli Box system; in both systems, a set of read/writs continued to be available as well. These machines had onboard SCSISCSI stands for Small Computer System Interface , and is a standard interface for transferring data between devices on a computer bus. SCSI is pronounced "scuzzy" when spoken aloud, while occasional attempts to promulgate the more flattering pronunciation, ADBApple Desktop Bus (or ADB is a bit-serial computer bus for connecting low-speed devices to computers. The first system to use ADB was the Apple IIgs in 1986. It was subsequently used on all Apple Macintosh machines starting with the Macintosh II and Macin, 10Base-T EthernetEthernet is a packet-based computer networking technology for local area networks (LANs). It defines wiring and signaling for the physical layer, and packet formats and protocols for the media access control (MAC)/ data link layer of the OSI model. Ethern, two serial ports, and onboard ATIATI Technologies Inc. where ATI is an acronym for Array Technology Industry is a Canadian manufacturer of graphics cards, graphics chips and graphics processing units for personal computers. Founded in 1985, their main headquarters is located in Markham, graphics (originally Rage IIc, later updated to Rage Pro) with slots for VRAMVRAM an acronym for Video RAM. Generally a term used in computers to describe RAM dedicated to the purpose of displaying bitmap graphics in raster graphics hardware. Video RAM is usually physically separate from the main RAM residing in a computer system. upgrade. 3 PCIFor other meanings of PCI see PCI (disambiguation). motherboard The Peripheral Component Interconnect standard (in practice almost always shortened to PCI specifies a computer bus for attaching peripheral devices to a computer motherboard. These devices c slots and one internal modemA modem (a portmanteau word constructed from mod ulator and dem odulator) is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal ( sound), to encode digital information, and that also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. slot rounded out the features.Platinum (or, as they're commonly known, "Beige") G3s with Revision A ROMs do not support slave devices on their IDE controllers, limiting them to one device per bus (normally one optical drive and one hard disk). This was fixed in the Revision B ROM, and of course the Revision C doesn't have this problem either.
The Power Mac G3 (Blue and White) series, introduced in early 1999, was a totally new design. The first new Power Mac model after the release of the iMac, it used a novel new enclosure with the logic board on the "door", which swung down onto the desk for easy access. (This case style was also used on all Power Macintosh G4 models except for the Cube.) These models used the new copper-based PowerPC G3 CPUs made by IBM, which used about 1/4 the power of the Motorola versions. 300, 350, 400, and 450MHz versions were made. The logic board had four PCI slots: three 64-bit 33MHz slots, and one 32-bit 66MHz slot dedicated for the graphics card, an ATI Rage 128. Four RAM slots accepted PC100 SDRAM modules, allowing for a maximum of 1GB of RAM, running on a 100MHz bus. The onboard IDE was upgraded to Ultra ATA/33, but SCSI was no longer present, having been replaced by two FireWire ports. The serial ports were gone, too, having given way to two USB 1.1 ports. The ADB port remained, as did the option for an internal modem. 100Base-TX Ethernet was now standard, and audio was moved back to the logic board. Zip remained as an option, and some configurations included a DVD-ROM drive and a DVD-Video decoder daughtercard for the graphics card, allowing hardware-assisted DVD video playback. The blue-and-white Power Mac G3 was the first Power Mac with the "New World" architecture based on Open Firmware, as well as the first Power Mac without onboard SCSI. Initially, many buyers chose to buy the older platinum G3s instead, in order to maintain compatibility with existing peripherals.
Early blue and white G3s had IDE controller problems, which make it impossible to connect two hard drives and prevent the use of most hard disk drives produced after them. (Using newer drives in those units results in massive data transmission errors.) The "Rev B" units have a corrected IDE controller which allows two hard disks, and works flawlessly with any drive, within the 28-bit LBA constraint. The Rev B units ship with a hard disk bracket designed for two drives and also have an updated graphics card.
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