Power Macintosh 8500

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Power Macintosh 8500
File:Power Macintosh 8500 - front.jpg
The Power Macintosh 8500/180
Also known asPower Macintosh 8515 and WGS 8550
DeveloperApple Computer
Product familyPower Macintosh
Release dateAugust 8, 1995 (1995-08-08)
Introductory priceUS$3,999 (equivalent to $8,252 in 2024)
DiscontinuedFebruary 17, 1997 (1997-02-17)
Operating system7.5.2 - Mac OS 9.1
CPUPowerPC 604, 120–150 MHz
PowerPC 604e, 180 or 200 MHz
Memory16 MB, expandable to 512 MB (Apple), 1024 MB (actual), (70 ns 168-pin FPM or EDO DIMM)
PredecessorPower Macintosh 8100
SuccessorPower Macintosh 8600

The Power Macintosh 8500 is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from August 1995 to February 1997. Billed as a high-end graphics computer, the Power Macintosh 8500 was initially released with a 120 MHz PowerPC 604, and unlike earlier Power Macintosh machines, the CPU was mounted on an upgradeable daughtercard. Though slower than the 132 MHz Power Macintosh 9500, the first-generation 8500 featured several audio and video (S-Video and composite video) in/out ports not found in the 9500. In fact, the 8500 incorporated near-broadcast quality (640×480) A/V input and output and was the first personal computer to do so, but no hard drive manufactured in 1997 could sustain the 18 MB/s data rate required to capture video at that resolution. Later, special "AV" hard drives were made available that could delay thermal recalibration until after a write operation had completed. With special care to minimize fragmentation, these drives were able to keep up with the 8500's video circuitry.

The 8500 was introduced alongside the Power Macintosh 7200 and 7500 at the 1995 MacWorld Expo in Boston.[1] Apple referred to these machines collectively as the "Power Surge" line, communicating that these machines offered a significant speed improvement over its predecessors. Infoworld Magazine's review of the 8500 showed a performance improvement in their "business applications suite" from 10 minutes with the 8100/100, to 7:37 for the 8500/120.[1] They also noted that the 8500 run an average of 24 to 44 percent faster than a similarly clocked Intel Pentium chip, with the performance nearly double on graphics and publishing tasks.

The 8500's CPU was updated twice during its production run. It originally shipped with a 120 MHz PowerPC 604, later with the same chip running at 150 MHz, and finally with a PowerPC 604e running at 180 MHz. It was succeeded by the Power Macintosh 8600 in February 1997.

Models

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File:Power Macintosh 8500 - rear.jpg
Rear view of the Power Macintosh 8500/180
File:Power Macintosh 8500 - logic board.jpg
The Power Macintosh 8500/180's logic board

Introduced August 8, 1995:

  • Power Macintosh 8500/120[2]

Introduced January 11, 1996:

  • Power Macintosh 8515/120[3]

Introduced February 26, 1996:

  • Workgroup Server 8550/132[4]

Introduced April 22, 1996:

  • Power Macintosh 8500/132[5]
  • Power Macintosh 8500/150[6]

Introduced August 5, 1996:

  • Power Macintosh 8500/180[7]

Introduced September 9, 1996:

  • Workgroup Server 8550/200[8][9] 200 MHz PowerPC 604e CPU, 32 MB RAM. US$5,799. Sold with one of three software bundles, titled "Application Server Solution", "Apple Internet Server Solution 2.1", and "AppleShare Server Solution".

Timeline

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Timeline of Power Macintosh, Pro, and Studio models
<timeline>

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    id:lc2        value:rgb(0.85,0.65,0.95) 
    id:performa   value:rgb(0.8,0.8,0.9)    legend:Performa_6x00
    id:performa2  value:rgb(0.85,0.85,0.9)
    id:ppc        value:rgb(0.75,0.85,1)    legend:Power_Macintosh_xx00
    id:ppc2       value:rgb(0.8,0.95,1)
    id:tam        value:rgb(1,1,0.5)        legend:Twentieth_Anniversary_Macintosh
    id:g3         value:rgb(1,0.85,0.85)    legend:Power_Macintosh_G3
    id:g32        value:rgb(1,0.9,0.9)
    id:special    value:rgb(0.8,1,0.9)      legend:Power_Mac_G4_Cube
    id:g4         value:rgb(1,0.85,0.65)    legend:Power_Mac_G4
    id:g42        value:rgb(1,0.9,0.7)
    id:g5         value:rgb(1,0.85,0.45)    legend:Power_Mac_G5
    id:g52        value:rgb(1,0.9,0.5)
    id:macpro-a   value:rgb(1,0.35,0.3)     legend:Mac_Pro
    id:macpro-b   value:rgb(1,0.55,0.4)
    id:studio     value:rgb(0.2,0.8,1)      legend:Mac_Studio
    id:studio-b   value:rgb(0.3,0.9,1)
    id:studio-c   value:rgb(0.3,1,1)
    id:current    value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.9)    legend:Currently_produced

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   color:g42 from:07/18/2001 till:08/13/2002 text:"G4 DA/QS"
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   color:g4 from:08/13/2002 till:06/09/2004 text:"G4 MDD/FW800"
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   color:g52 from:06/09/2004 till:10/19/2005 text:"G5 Liquid cool"
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   color:g5 from:10/19/2005 till:08/07/2006 text:"G5 Dual/Quad-core"
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   color:macpro-a from:08/07/2006 till:03/03/2009 text:"Mac Pro Tower (Socket J)" shift:(-40,-5)
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   color:current from:$now till:end             # Mac Pro future

</timeline>

See also: List of Mac models

References

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