Power Mac G4(Digital Audio)
Power to burn.
Background
The PowerMac G4 (Digital Audio) was the first speed increase for the PowerMac line in over a year. The G4 (Digital Audio) was so-named because of a new built-in amplifier, designed to drive USB speakers, along with the conventional minijack line output. The G4 (DA) included a number of architectural improvements, including a 133 MHz bus, 4 PCI slots, and a 1 GB/s main-memory bus. PCI throughput was enhanced by the removal of the PCI bridge (the main memory controller now communicated directly with the PCI bus). The G4 (DA) shipped with two new flavors of G4: The low-end models shipped with the PPC 7410 processor, a lower-power variant of the 7400. The higher-end machines shipped with a PPC 7450 processor, which in addition to an on-chip 256 KB L2 Cache, and had four Altivec ("Velocity Engine") units. The PowerMac G4 (DA) shipped in four configurations: The 466 MHz configuration included 128 MB of RAM and 30 GB hard drive, for $1699 U.S. The 533 MHz configuration included 128 MB of RAM and a 40 GB hard drive for $2199 U.S. ($2499 U.S. for the dual-533 model). The 667 MHz configuration included 256 MB of RAM and a 60 GB hard drive for $2799 U.S. Finally, the 733 MHz configuration included 256 MB of RAM, a 60 GB hard drive for $3499 U.S. The 733 MHz came with an innovative new "SuperDrive" which could read and write both CDs and DVDs.