Umax SuperMac S900

The SuperMac S900 (known as the Pulsar in Europe and Asia) was Umax’s first Mac clone and would remain Umax’s most powerful, most expandable computer and the last production Mac clone with 6 expansion slots until the S910 arrived.

The S900 in unique in that it has a second CPU slot, but only accepts a Umax SuperMac secondary processor card. You cannot use any other type of card in that slot, and the second CPU must match the speed of the first.

The primary CPU uses the same daughter card connector as Apple’s Power Macs of the same era, providing lots of processor upgrade option to the S900 owner.

Umax was the only clone maker to acquire a Mac OS 8 license from Apple, and the version 5 installer CDs shipped with Mac OS 8.

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Variants

S900/150 (Pulsar 1500). 150 MHz CPU, 50 MHz bus
S900/180 (Pulsar 1800). 180 MHz CPU, 45 MHz bus
S900/180 DP (Pulsar 1800 DP). Two 180 MHz CPUs, 45 MHz bus
S900/200 (Pulsar 2000). 200 MHz 604e CPU, 50 MHz bus
S900/200 DP (Pulsar 2000 DP). Two 200 MHz CPUs, 50 MHz bus
S900/225 (Pulsar 2250). 225 MHz CPU, 45 MHz bus
S900/233 (Pulsar 233). 233 MHz CPU, 46.67 MHz bus
S900/240 (Pulsar 2400). 240 MHz CPU, 48 MHz bus
S900/250 (Pulsar 2500). 250 MHz CPU, 50 MHz bus
S900/250 DP (Pulsar 2500 DP). Two 250 MHz CPUs, 50 MHz bus
S900Base with G3. 250 MHz G3 processor bundled with system

Specifications

S900/150 introduced 1996.05.06, discontinued 1997.02.01
S900/180 introduced 1996.08.01, discontinued 1997.07.01
S900/180 DP introduced 1996.10.02, discontinued 1997.02.01
S900/200 introduced 1996.08.07, discontinued 1998.08.31
S900/200 DP introduced 1996.11.18, discontinued 1997.08.01
S900/233 introduced 1997.03.17, discontinued 1998.08.31
S900/240 introduced 1997.01.07, discontinued 1997.03.01
S900/250, S900i/250, and S900/250 DP introduced 1997.03.17, discontinued 1998.08.31
S900Base with G3 introduced 1997.11.03, discontinued 1998.08.31
requires System 7.5.3 through 9.1
CPU: 180-250 MHz 604e, upgradable with standard daughter card
second CPU: ASPD slot for adding second CPU, allows for dual processing (see Second Processor for SuperMac S900/910 for more details)
bus: 45-50 MHz
RAM: 16-64 MB (16 MB on motherboard), expandable by an additional 1024 MB to 1040 MB total using 8 DIMM slots and 70ns 5 volt EDO or fast-page DRAM; memory can be interleaved
Video: ixMicro Twin Turbo Graphics Accelerator standard with 4-8 MB VRAM, resolutions to 1920×1080, 24-bit color to 1152 x 870 with 4 MB, to 1920×1080 with 8 MB
L2 cache: 512k
hard drive: 2 GB or 4 GB SCSI-2, Ultra SCSI, or RAID
CD-ROM: 6.7x (150 MHz), 8x (180-233 MHz), or 24x (250 MHz, G3)
Zip drive: optional
Internal and external Fast SCSI busses (upgradable to Ultra Wide SCSI-3 with E100 card)
ADB: 2 ports for keyboard and mouse
two miniDIN-8 GeoPorts on back of computer
DB-25 SCSI connector on back of computer with SCSI-1 support
PCI slots: 6
ethernet: built in, upgradable to 100Base-T with E100 card
size (HxWxD): 17.25″ x 7.0″ x 17.5″
weight: 28 lb.