Power Mac G4 Cube
The PowerMac G4 Cube: was (cube English for " dice " ) is a computer model (personal computer), praised the company Apple, which announced on 19 July 2000 on the MacWorldExpo in New York by Steve Jobs as a technical Olympus and only a short time ( July 19, 2000 was built to July 2001). Apart from the power supply all the hardware of the computer was housed in a box from acrylic, which had only about 20 × 20 cm at the base.
Technology
The calculator was designed so that an active fan (like the very first Macintosh in 1984) could be omitted: The housing contains the top and bottom ventilation openings through which heated air can escape (top) and cooler air is tracked from below. This design is the only thing that can be heard from the cube in operation, mechanical noise of the hard disk especially when Lese-/Schreibvorgang.
Were installed PowerPC G4 processors with 450 MHz ( normal version ) or 500 MHz ( optional). An optical drives were a slot-in DVD -ROM drive or later, a CD -RW drive to choose from. The maximum amount of memory (RAM) was 1.5 GB PC100 SDRAM in three pedestals. For wireless networking (WLAN), a slot for an AirPort card was present. Modem, 10-/100-BaseT-Netzwerkanschluss as well as two USB and FireWire ports were also located on the motherboard. Standard equipment included 64 MB of memory ( RAM), a 20- GB hard drive and graphics card as an ATI Rage 128 Pro with 16MB of RAM. In the 500 - MHz model an ATI Radeon card with 32 MB image memory or a NVidia card is inserted. Included with the cubes also were included: a ApplePro USB keyboard with transparent one button mouse as well as two small USB - speaker Harman Kardon balls that could be connected to the USB port of the cube (or the screen). The pre-installed operating system was Mac OS 9.0.4 ( in the revised version of the cube Spring 2001 Mac OS 9.1).
Peripheral connections were:
- 2 x USB 1.1 ( they supply for the speakers more power than normal USB ports )
- 2 x Firewire 400,
- ADC monitor port and
- VGA graphics port.
Optionally, the Cube was sold with a 15 -inch TFT - Studio Display, which had a resolution of 1024 × 768 pixels.
Apple developed at that time also on a Gigabit Ethernet option (there are at least two copies of appropriate internal expansion cards known that replace the standard 100MBit/s-Steckkarte ); due to the early sale Stops there was no longer a large spread.
Design
Apple designer Jonathan Ive won international awards for design. The G4 Cube is found in many publications on design and product design, exhibited in several art museums again. He is also one of the few computers that are housed in the New York Museum of Modern Art ( MoMA).
Criticism
Much criticism has been leveled at the cube because it was internally hardly extensible. More memory, another graphics card, a larger internal hard drive may still another optical drive ( more than 128 GB with OS X driver ), - more could not accommodate the small cubes. Who wanted to expand more, had to rely on external devices to the USB or FireWire 400 port. Other criticisms were of higher by about 10% compared to the other G4 computers and the lack of a CD -writer, which was blocked by Apple in a later revision.
Business
For Apple, the cube became financially a flop. Because of its poor sales ( 148,000 according to Apple ), he stressed the value of Apple's stock sustainably - until the iPod was able to end the crisis. Technologically, the cube was, however, a pioneer who paved the way for thermally demanding computer design.
On July 3, 2001, Apple announced that the cube was discontinued for lack of sales success. Reason for the slow sales were mainly the high price of the cube, and possibly his poor extensibility.
The support for the cube, Apple on 6 August 2008 final, where could be ordered only for items purchased in California equipment spare parts previously.
Cult
The buyer of the Cube loving (ed) him. Because of its compact design and the comfort of the office by the fanless design Just a short time after its production setting became the Cube a cult object, which was mainly due to its unique design ( the cube in a transparent Plexiglas case), on the other hand at his fanless concept. To enable this, the hot air is removed by convection. Therefore, the Cube has two openings: one can enter at the back of the housing through the cold air, and an opening above, can escape through the warm air. The effect is similar to a chimney (chimney effect).
Even today there are sworn fans of the cubes that make their favorite computer faster by upgrades. In particular, the replacement of the processor ( in August 2005 to 1.8GHz available) and replacement of the graphics card ( the most popular is the fanless Geforce 2 MX, it was also in a cube version ) are popular. With the widespread use of Solid State Drives and they are often put into the cube, because then arises no longer operating noise. The faster processors but usually need a fan so that the fan-less design is undermined.
Because of its built-in vertical slot-in drive, he was also called Apple Toaster ( the ejected disc is reminiscent of toasted bread ).
Another innovation was the so-called proximity switch, which can be in spirit, translated as " proximity switch ". Mere positioning of the hand or finger over a portion of the housing turns the cube.
- Computer from Apple
- Museum of Modern Art