Low End Mac Reader Specials
TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com
Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how
to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full
Tilt Poker Mac.
Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.
Low End Mac's Online Tech Journal
USB: Okay for the Low End
Apple has adopted the Universal Serial Bus (USB) for the iMac, replacing the SCSI, serial, and ADB ports Apple has used for over a decade.
At first glance, USB has a lot going for it. (Visit usb.org for details.)
- plug and play simplicity, even with power on
- 12Mbps bandwidth (faster than regular ethernet)
- supports up to 127 devices
- works with hubs or daisy chains
- provides power to peripherals
And the list of USB products is extensive: keyboards, mice, joysticks, digital cameras, scanners, telephones, video cameras, speakers, displays, and soon even disk drives.
Many Mac users already know USB is slow compared with SCSI - 12Mbps is less than one-third the bandwidth of SCSI-1, and today's Macs use SCSI-2 and SCSI-3, even faster protocols.
- "USB users may face bandwidth problems" in InfoWorld (8 June 1998, p. 14) notes some potential problems with USB.
For instance, every USB device has to share the same bandwidth. What happens when your USB speakers and USB video camera both demand the bulk of your bandwidth?
That depends on which was plugged in first!
According to the article, you'll either get good video and poor sound or poor video and good sound. (A good reason not to use USB for speakers!) USB is plug and play, but you'll need to know the correct order for plugging things in.
Also, the USB specification calls for ports to provide power, but the amount varies. A passive hub, as in the iMac keyboard, need only supply 100 milliamps to each connected device, while a powered hub (such as the ports in the iMac) must supply up to 500 milliamps.
If a device needs more power than is available, you won't know it until you discover the device isn't mounted. And at least on the Windows side, the OS won't tell you a device is connected but unable to mount. (Let's hope Apple gets that right!)
What's the alternative?
We can hope that Apple will offer FireWire as an option on the iMac and a standard feature on future Power Books and Power Macs. A plug and play protocol for the power user, benefits of FireWire over USB include:
- 8 to 32 times faster (100-400Mbps)
- provides up to 60W of power to peripherals
- can connect computers as well as devices
- faster than SCSI
While USB will be fine for modems, mice, keyboards, and joysticks, serious users will want the greater bandwidth of FireWire for external drives, live video, scanners, and other high throughput tasks.
Real World Throughput (added July 9, 1998)
In a column on Macworld Expo, Henry Norr notes a 0.7MB/sec. sustained throughput for the USB SparQ drive. This translates to 5.6Mbps or about half the potential bandwidth of USB. It is also comparable to the maximum throughput over 10Mbps ethernet.
Put in perspective, the best network backup speeds I see over a switched 10Base-T network with Retrospect and a DDS-2 tape drive is 42.8 MB/min. Assuming SparQ performance is typical for USB drives, 0.7MB/sec. equals 42MB/min. Not blazingly fast, but neither is it terribly slow.
Backing up 1GB of data at this speed would take about 25 minutes, and a bit less if the backup software compresses data before writing it.
This means USB is not just viable for squirting little files to a floppy, Zip, SparQ, or SuperDisk, but also acceptable for backup. SparQ media, at 3 for US$100, are also reasonably sized and priced for this, making them a very real alternative to the more expensive digital tape drives.
Conclusion
Apple has generated some real excitement for USB, even though it was invented on the Wintel side of the road. Apple is leveraging the expertise of those who have developed USB devices for the Windows market with the fact that USB has not even come close to replacing serial and parallel devices in the Wintel world.
With an expected 400,000 iMacs sold by the end of September, Apple
may create the largest single market for USB devices - especially since
iMac owners won't have options such as ADB, serial, or parallel ports.
Further reading
- USB compared with other ports, Mac Speed Zone
- FireWire: connection of the (near) future, MacTimes
Recent Online Tech Journal Columns
- Optimized Software Builds Bring Out the Best in Your Mac, 06.30. Applications compiled for your Mac's CPU can load more quickly and run faster than ones compiled for universal use.
- Low End Mac's Safe Sleep FAQ, 06.15. What is Safe Sleep mode? Which Macs support it? How can you enable or disable it? And more.
- The Original Macintosh, 01.12. An in-depth look at the original Macintosh and how it shaped future Macs.
- The Innovative Lisa, 01.08. Apple's Lisa and how it paved the way for the Macintosh.
- More in the Online Tech Journal index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: 17" MacBook Pro Core Duo, Apr. 2006 - The top-end MacBook Pro includes a 1680 x 1050, 2.16 GHz Core Duo CPU, and supports Apple 30" Cinema Display.
- Group of the Day: PCI PowerMacs covers pre-G3 Power Macs and clones with PCI slots.
- March 18 in LEM history: 02: The case for a 'Book - More on living Microsoft free - Prep your low-end Mac for Linux - 03: How good a value is a WallStreet? - 05: How the iPod trounced the Walkman - 08: 13 port USB 2.0 hub
- Support Low End Mac
Recent Content on Low End Mac
- Taking Apart the 12" PowerBook, John Hatchett, Recycled Computing, 03.17. There are a lot of steps involved in disassembling a 12" PowerBook. Proceed with caution.
- Why I Plan to Stop Using Google Docs, Jason Walsh, Mac Life, 03.16. Jason Walsh continues his search for the perfect word processor and explains why he uses Google Docs - and why he will stop using it.
- Ubiquitous Computing: Tabs, Pads, Books, and Clouds, Adam Rosen, Adam's Apple, 03.16. "Ubiquitous computing names the third wave in computing, just now beginning . . . when technology recedes into the background of our lives."
- Why Run Leopard on Slow G4 Macs?, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 03.15. Tiger has lower demands and runs more smoothly on low-end Macs, but Leopard gives you access to more up-to-date software.
- The Apple Patient, John Hatchett, Recycled Computing, 03.15. The used 12" PowerBook has a dead screen, missing key, damaged case, and minimal memory, but it does work.
- More links in our archive.
Recent Deals
- Best Intel iMac Deals, 03.17. Used 17" from $600; 20" from $750; 24" from $825; refurb 21.5" nVidia, $999; new, $1,099; refurb Radeon, $1,299; new, $1,399; refurb 27" 3.06, $1,499; more.
- Best G5 iMac Deals, 03.17. 17" 2.0 GHz, $380; 1.9 GHz iSight, $479 shipped; 20" 1.8 GHz, $509 shipped; 2.1 GHz iSight, $549 shipped.
- Best Time Capsule Deals, 03.17. Close-out 500 GB, $140; new 1 TB, $279; used 2 TB simultaneous dual-band, $400; new, $455. Shipping included.
- Best iPad Deals, 03.16. 16 GB iPad, $499; 32 GB, $599; 64 GB, $699; 16 GB with 3G, $629; 32 GB 3G, $729; 64 GB 3G, $829. Free ground shipping.
- Best iPod classic Deals, 03.12. Used 20 GB, $119; 40 GB, $139; 60 GB, $159; 30 GB video, $129; 60 GB, $159; 80 GB, $169; refurb 120 GB, $189; new, $214; 160 GB, $228 shipped.
- Best G3 iBook and AirPort Card Deals, 03.12. 366 MHz 12" clamshell, $89; 466, $125; 500 white CD, $100; 600, $199; 800 Combo, $239; 14" 900, $225.
- Best Xserve Deals, 03.12. Used 1 GHz dual G4, $499; 2.0 dual G5, $599; 2.3, $749; refurb 2.26 4-core Nehalem, $2,499; new, $2,699; 8-core, $3,449; refurb 2.66, $4,299; new, $4,799; more.
- More deals in our archive.
