Power Mac G5

Background

The PowerMac G5 was Apple's long-awaited fifth generation PowerPC-based machine. In an important move, Apple decided to break with Motorola, and used an IBM-designed processor. Motorola had been chronically delayed for both processor design and shipment, and was at least a year away from its fifth-generation PowerPC CPU. Apple and IBM had worked closely together for nearly a year of the PowerPC 970 Processor (publicly referred to as the G5), and the 64-bit PowerMac G5 represented a huge leap forward in both processor and machine design. Housed in an innovative new Aluminum enclosure, the PowerMac G5 was the first 64-bit consumer-level desktop computer ever sold. It included a variety of logic board enhancements, including PCI-X slots, and 8X AGP slot, a Serial-ATA bus, and up to 8 GB of RAM. Most impressive of all was the front-side bus speed, which was increased to half of the processor speed-up to 1.0 GHz. This represented a more than six-fold improvement over the previous PowerMac G4 model. There were three configurations for the PowerMac G5. The 1.6 GHz model, with an 80 GB hard drive and 256 MB of RAM, sold for $1999 U.S. The 1.8 and dual 2.0 GHz models, both with a 160 GB hard drive and 512 MB of RAM, sold for $2399 U.S. and $2999 U.S. respectively.