The Macintosh Quadra is a family of personal computers designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from October 1991 to October 1995. The Quadra, named for the Motorola 68040 central processing unit, replaced the Macintosh II family as the high-end Macintosh model.
The first models were the Quadra 700 and Quadra 900, both introduced in October 1991. The Quadra 800, 840AV and 605 were added through 1993. The Macintosh Centris line was merged with the Quadra in October 1993, adding the 610, 650 and 660AV to the range. After the introduction of the Power Macintosh line in early 1994, Apple continued to produce and sell new Quadra models; the 950 continued to be sold until October 1995.
The product manager for the Quadra family was Frank Casanova who was also the Product Manager for the Macintosh IIfx.
The first computers bearing the Macintosh Quadra name were the Quadra 700 and Quadra 900, both introduced in 1991 with a central processing unit (CPU) speed of 25 MHz. The 700 was a compact model using the same case dimensions as the Macintosh IIci, with a Processor Direct Slot (PDS) expansion slot, while the latter was a newly designed tower case with five NuBus expansion slots and one PDS slot. The 900 was replaced in 1992 with the Quadra 950, with a CPU speed of 33 MHz. The line was joined by a number of "800-series" machines in a new minitower case design, starting with the Quadra 800, and the "600-series" pizza box desktop cases with the Quadra 610.
In 1993, the Quadra 840AV and 660AV were introduced at 40 MHz and 25 MHz respectively. They included an AT&T 3210 Digital signal processor and S-Video and composite video input/output ports, as well as CD-quality microphone and audio output ports. The AV models also introduced PlainTalk, consisting of the text-to-speech software MacinTalk Pro and speech control (although not dictation). However all of these features were poorly supported in software and a DSP was not installed in later AV Macs, which were based on the more powerful PowerPC 601 - a CPU powerful enough to handle the coprocessor's duties on its own.
Apple hired marketing firm Lexicon Branding to come up with the name. Lexicon chose the name Quadra hoping to appeal to engineers by evoking technical terms like quadrant and quadriceps. [1]
The Quadra name was also used for the successors to the Centris models that briefly existed during 1993: The 610, the 650 and the 660AV. Centris was a "mid-range" line of systems between the Quadra on the high end and the LC on the low end, but it was later decided that there were too many product lines and the name was dropped. Some machines of this era including the Quadra 605 were also sold as Performas.
The last use of the name was for the Quadra 630, which was a variation of the LC 630 using a "full" Motorola 68040 instead of the LC's 68LC040, and introduced together with it in 1994. The 630 was the first Mac to use an IDE based drive bus for the internal hard disk drive, whereas all earlier models had used SCSI.
The first three Apple Workgroup Server models, the WGS 60, the WGS 80 and the WGS 95 (mostly called "AWS 95" for "Apple Workgroup Server") were based on the Centris 610, the Quadra 800 and the Quadra 950, respectively.
The transition to the Motorola 68040 was not as smooth as the previous transitions to the Motorola 68020 or Motorola 68030. Due to the Motorola 68040's split instruction and data caches, the Quadra had compatibility problems with self-modifying code (including relocating code, which was common under the Macintosh memory model). Apple partially fixed this by having the basic Mac OS memory copy call flush the caches. This solved the vast majority of stability problems, but negated much of the Motorola 68040's performance improvements. Apple also introduced a variant of the memory copy call that did not flush the cache. [2] The new trap was defined in such a way that calling it on an older version of Mac OS would simply call the previous memory copy routine. The net effect of this was that many complex applications were initially slow or prone to crashing on the 68040, although developers quickly adapted to the new architecture by relying on Apple's memory copy routines rather than their own (or flushing the cache), and using the memory copy that did not flush the cache when appropriate (most of the time).
According to Apple, all of these models are obsolete. [lower-alpha 1] [3]
Model | Quadra 700 [4] [5] | Quadra 900 [6] [7] | Quadra 950 [8] [9] | Quadra 800 [10] [11] | Quadra 650 [12] [13] (Centris 650) | Quadra 610 [14] [15] (Centris 610) | Quadra 660AV [16] [17] (Centris 660AV) | Quadra 840AV [18] [19] | Quadra 605 [20] [21] (LC 475, Performa 475, Performa 476) | Quadra / LC / Performa 630 [22] [23] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Timetable | Predecessor | IIci | IIfx | Quadra 900 | Quadra 700 | IIvi/vx | IIsi | None | Quadra 950 & Quadra 800 | LC III | Quadra 610 |
Released | October 21, 1991 | May 18, 1992 | February 9, 1993 | February 10, 1993 | July 29, 1993 | October 21, 1993 | July 15, 1994 | ||||
Discontinued | March 15, 1993 | May 18, 1992 | October 14, 1995 | March 14, 1994 | September 12, 1994 | July 18, 1994 | September 12, 1994 | July 18, 1994 | October 17, 1994 | October 5, 1995 | |
Successor | Centris 650 & Quadra 800 | Quadra 950 | Power Macintosh 9500 | Quadra 840AV & Power Macintosh 8100 | Quadra 630 & Power Macintosh 6100/60AV | Quadra 630 & Quadra 660AV & Power Macintosh 6100 | Power Macintosh 8100/80AV | Power Macintosh 7100/66AV & Power Macintosh 8100/80AV | LC 520 | Power Macintosh 6300 | |
Model | Marketing model no. | M5921 | M4210 | M6710 | M1287 | M2107 | M2372 | M2691 | M9025 | M1821 | M3491 |
Model number | M5920 | M4200 | M4300 | M1206 | M2118 | M2113 | M9040 | M9020 | M1476 | M3076 | |
Gestalt ID | 22 | 20 | 26 | 35 | 36 | 53 | 60 | 78 | 89 | 98 | |
Enclosure | Macintosh IIcx tower/desktop | Mac Quadra 900 tower | Mac Quadra 800 tower | Mac IIvx desktop | Mac Centris 610 desktop | Mac Quadra 800 tower | Mac Quadra 605 desktop | Mac Quadra 630 desktop | |||
Performance | Processor | 25 MHz Motorola 68040 [24] | 25 MHz Motorola 68040 | 33 MHz Motorola 68040 (25 MHz Motorola 68LC040 or 68040 for Centris 650) | 25 MHz Motorola 68040 (20 MHz Motorola 68LC040 for Centris 610) | 40 MHz Motorola 68040 | 25 MHz Motorola 68LC040 | 33 MHz Motorola 68040 (Motorola 68LC040 for LC and Performa) | |||
Memory | 4 MB (expandable to 68 MB) | 4 MB (expandable to 256 MB) | 8 MB (expandable to 256 MB) | 8 MB (expandable to 136 MB) | 4 MB (expandable to 132 MB) or 8 MB (expandable to 136 MB) | 4 MB (expandable to 68 MB) | 8 MB (expandable to 68 MB) | 8 or 16 MB (expandable to 128 MB) | 4 or 8 MB (expandable to 36 MB) | 4 MB (expandable to 36 MB) | |
4 x 80 ns 30-pin SIMM | 16 x 80 ns 30-pin SIMM | 4 x 60 ns 72-pin SIMM | 1 x 80 ns 72-pin SIMM | 2 x 80 ns 72-pin SIMM | 2 x 70 ns 72-pin SIMM | 4 x 60 ns 72-pin SIMM | 1 x 80 ns 72-pin SIMM | ||||
Video card | 512 KB – 2 MB 6 x 100 ns VRAM SIMM slots | 1 MB – 2 MB 6 x 100 ns VRAM SIMM slots | 1 MB – 2MB 4 x 80 ns VRAM SIMM slots | 512 KB – 1MB 2 x 80 ns VRAM SIMM slots | 512 KB – 1MB 2 x 100 ns VRAM SIMM slots | 1 MB 1 x 80 ns VRAM SIMM slot | 1 MB – 2 MB 4 x 80 ns VRAM SIMM slots | 512 KB – 1 MB 2 x 80 ns VRAM SIMM slots | 1 MB 1 x 60 ns VRAM SIMM slot | ||
Storage | Hard drive | 0, 80, 160 or 400 MB (SCSI) | 0, 160 or 400 MB (SCSI) | 230, 400 MB, or 1 GB (SCSI) | 230 or 500 MB (SCSI) | 160 or 230 MB (SCSI) | 230 or 500 MB (SCSI) | 230, 500 MB, or 1 GB (SCSI) | 80 or 160 MB (SCSI) | 250 MB (IDE) | |
Optical drive | None | None (Optional 2x CD-ROM) | None | None (Optional 2x CD-ROM) | |||||||
Ports | 2 x ADB 2 x DIN-8 RS-422 SCSI DB-25 | ||||||||||
Operating system | Minimum | System 7.0.1 A/UX | System 7.0.1 | System 7.1 | System 7.1.2P | ||||||
Maximum | Mac OS 8.1 Mac OS 9.1 (with PowerPC upgrade) | Mac OS 8.1 |
Timeline of Macintosh Centris, LC, Performa, and Quadra models, colored by CPU type |
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The Motorola 68040 ("sixty-eight-oh-forty") is a 32-bit microprocessor in the Motorola 68000 series, released in 1990. It is the successor to the 68030 and is followed by the 68060, skipping the 68050. In keeping with general Motorola naming, the 68040 is often referred to as simply the '040.
The Power Macintosh, later Power Mac, is a family of personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer, Inc as the core of the Macintosh brand from March 1994 until August 2006.
The Macintosh IIci is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from September 1989 to February 1993. It is a more powerful version of the Macintosh IIcx, released earlier that year, and shares the same compact case design. With three NuBus expansion slots and a Processor Direct Slot, the IIci also improved upon the IIcx's 16 MHz Motorola 68030 CPU and 68882 FPU, replacing them with 25 MHz versions of these chips.
The Macintosh II is a family of personal computers that was designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1987 to 1993. The Macintosh II was the initial model, representing the high-end of the Macintosh line for the time. Over the course of the next six years, seven more models were produced, culminating with the short-lived Macintosh IIvi and Macintosh IIvx models. Apple retired the Macintosh II name when it moved to Motorola 68040 processors; the Centris and Quadra names were used instead.
Macintosh Centris is a family of personal computers designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. in 1992 and 1993. They were introduced as a replacement for the six-year-old Macintosh II family of computers; the name was chosen to indicate that the consumer was selecting a Macintosh in the center of Apple's product line. Centris machines were the first to offer Motorola 68040 CPUs at a price point around US$2,500, making them significantly less expensive than Quadra computers, but also offering higher performance than the Macintosh LC computers of the time.
A processor direct slot (PDS) is a slot incorporated into many older Macintosh models that allowed direct access to the signal pins of a CPU, similar to the functionality of a local bus in PCs. This would result in much higher speeds than having to go through a bus layer, such as NuBus, which typically ran at a slower 10 MHz speed.
The Macintosh IIvx is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from October 1992 to October 1993. It is the last of the Macintosh II family of Macintosh computers. The IIvx was introduced at the same time as the Macintosh IIvi, with both models using the same metal case design as the earlier Performa 600 and Performa 600CD. Like the Performa 600CD, the IIvx could be equipped with an internal double-speed CD-ROM drive.
The Macintosh IIvi is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from September 1992 to February 1993. The IIvi was introduced alongside the Macintosh IIvx, using a slower Motorola 68030 processor and no floating point unit. The Performa 600 models, meanwhile, are the IIvi with the IIvx's 32 MHz CPU. The IIvi was, on some benchmarks, faster than the IIvx. It is the only model in the Macintosh II family to be branded as a Performa.
The Macintosh Quadra 950 is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from March 1992 to October 1995. It replaced the Quadra 900 that was introduced several months earlier, increasing the CPU clock rate of its 68040 CPU from 25 MHz to 33 MHz, and improving the graphics support. The two computers were otherwise identical, including the price. With a Macintosh Processor Upgrade Card installed, this computer is known as the Power Macintosh 950.
The Power Macintosh 6100 is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from March 1994 to March 1996. It is the first computer from Apple to use the new PowerPC processor created by IBM and Motorola. The low-profile ("pizza-box") case was inherited from the Centris/Quadra 610 and 660AV models, and replaced the Macintosh Quadra series that used the Motorola 68040 processor, Apple's previous high-end workstation line.
The Macintosh Quadra 700 is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from October 1991 to March 1993. It was introduced alongside the Quadra 900 as the first computers in the Quadra series, using Motorola 68040 processor in order to compete with IBM-compatible PCs powered by the Intel i486DX. The Quadra 700 is also the first computer from Apple to be housed in a mini-tower form factor, which in 1991 was becoming a popular alternative to standard desktop-on-monitor cases that were common through the 1980s.
The Macintosh Quadra 605 is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from October 1993 to July 1996. The model names reflect a decision made at Apple in 1993 to follow an emerging industry trend of naming product families for their target customers – Quadra for business, LC for education, and Performa for home. Accordingly, the Performa 475 and 476 was sold in department stores and electronics stores such as Circuit City, whereas the Quadra was purchased through an authorized Apple reseller.
The Macintosh Quadra 900 is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from October 1991 to May 1992. It was introduced alongside the Quadra 700 as the first computers in the Quadra family of Macintosh computers using the Motorola 68040 processor. It is also the first computer from Apple to be housed in an 18.6 inch tall mid-tower form factor, which by 1991 had gained momentum with PC manufacturers as a suitable design for departmental servers.
The generically named Macintosh Processor Upgrade Card is a central processing unit upgrade card sold by Apple Computer, designed for many Motorola 68040-powered Macintosh LC, Quadra and Performa models. The card contains a PowerPC 601 CPU and plugs into the 68040 CPU socket of the upgraded machine. The Processor upgrade card required the original CPU be plugged back into the card itself, and gave the machine the ability to run in its original 68040 configuration, or through the use of a software configuration utility allowed booting as a PowerPC 601 computer running at twice the original speed in MHz with 32 KB of L1 Cache, 256 KB of L2 Cache and a PowerPC Floating Point Unit available to software. The Macintosh Processor Upgrade requires and shipped with System 7.5.
The Macintosh Quadra 800 is a personal computer that is a part of Apple Computer's Quadra series of Macintosh computers.
The Macintosh Quadra 840AV is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from July 1993 to July 1994. It was introduced alongside the Centris 660AV, where "AV" signifies audiovisual capabilities, such as video input and output, telecommunications, speech recognition, and enhanced audio. The 840AV has the same mini-tower form factor as the Quadra 800, with a faster Motorola 68040 processor.
The Macintosh Quadra 660AV, originally sold as the Macintosh Centris 660AV, is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from July 1993 to September 1994. It was introduced alongside the Quadra 840AV; the "AV" after both model numbers signifies video input and output capabilities and enhanced audio.
The Macintosh Quadra 630 is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from July 1994 to October 1995. It was introduced as the replacement for the Quadra 610, and was the least-expensive computer in the Macintosh lineup with prices starting at $1,199 USD.
The Macintosh Quadra 610, originally sold as the Macintosh Centris 610, is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from February 1993 to July 1994. The Centris 610 was introduced alongside the larger Centris 650 as the replacement for the Macintosh IIsi, and it was intended as the start of the new midrange Centris line of computers. Later in 1993, Apple decided to follow an emerging industry trend of naming product families for their target customers – Quadra for business, LC for education, and Performa for home – and folded the Centris 610 into the Quadra family.
The Macintosh Quadra 650, originally sold as the Macintosh Centris 650, is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from February 1993 to September 1994. The Centris 650 was introduced alongside the smaller Centris 610 as the replacement for the Macintosh IIci and Quadra 700, and it was intended as the start of the new midrange Centris line of computers. Later in 1993, Apple decided to follow an emerging industry trend of naming product families for their target customers – Quadra for business, LC for education, and Performa for home – and folded the Centris 650 into the Quadra family.