Power Macintosh 8100

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The Power Macintosh 8100 is the first Power Macintosh tower model, originally using an 80MHz PowerPC 601 processor. It shares the same case design as the Quadra 800 series and the Power Macintosh 8500.

General Information

Introduced in March of 1994, the PowerMac 8100 was the fastest, most expandable first-generation PowerMac. It shipped in a Quadra 800-stylecase, and was speed bumped to 100 Mhz in November, and to 110 Mhz in January 1995. It was originally priced at $4,250.

Codename: Flagship. The first 8100 originally shipped with the PowerPC specific version of system software 7.1.2, with later models shipping with System 7.5.

CPU

80, 100 or 110 MHz PowerPC 601 RISC microprocessor. Built-in MMU and FPU, 32K of on-chip cache memory.

Memory

Expandable to 264 MB via 8 SIMM sockets on logic board (using pairs of same size, 80 ns or faster, 72-pin noncomposite SIMMs); Optional 16 MB configuration has two 4 MB SIMMs installed.

Expansion

The 8100 is a NuBus based system and also features a PDS option for a video card, though it does also have onboard video. The system can also be upgraded with faster CPUs via PDS, and some upgrades will still allow you to retain the PDS video card.

Cache

32K on-chip cache; 256K level 2 cache SIMM.

All Power Macintosh models accept an external second-level cache on a SIMM. The second-level cache size may range from 128 KB to 256 KB. The Power Macintosh 8100/80 is shipped with all 256 KB already installed; users of other models in the Power Macintosh family can install a second-level cache by plugging a SIMM into a 160-pin connector on the main logic board. The high-speed memory controller (HMC) interrogates two pins of this connector during system startup, to determine the size of the memory on the SIMM. If no SIMM is installed, pull-up resistors on these pins cause the HMC to disable all external cache operations.

Notes

  • This model, along with the Power Macintosh 6100 and Power Macintosh 7100 are the original systems compatible with the Apple Copland operating system which was never finished, but leaked beta copies exist.
  • The 8100/80 model must have a video card installed in the PDS slot.

Diagrams/Schematics

 

 

Gallery

Documentation

See Also

External Resources