1999 – USB is slower than promised, providing at most two-thirds of the expected speed based on its 12 Mbps bandwidth (see The Truth About USB Speed). But the iMac, iBook, and Lombard PowerBook don’t have any other option, do they?
Category Archives: Low End Mac Tech Journal
1999 – There’s been a fair bit of interest in AppleShare 3 thanks to some articles on this site. Although long discontinued, it is possible to find copies of AppleShare 3 (be sure to get the 3.03 updater from Apple). And for the small network, it may be an ideal solution.
Your results may vary, but this should provide a good starting point for tweaking serial throughput on your classic Mac setup. Note that FreePPP allows serial port settings of 115.2kbps and 230.4kbps, settings not possible with Apple’s serial toolbox routines.
1999: Once upon a time, 1200 bps was a fast modem and 230 kbps LocalTalk was a decent network speed. That was a long time ago. Today, most modems are of the 56k variety – although the name is something of a misnomer. These 56k (a.k.a. v.90) modems can download files at up to 53 […]
The following story is true. The names have been changed for the privacy of the parties involved. The author is a longtime consultant who works with Macs, Novell, and more and has over a dozen years field experience.
One of the cardinal rules of computers: Things keep getting faster. There are a lot more parts to the speed equation than processor speed, although the CPU is certainly part of the equation. This article looks at how fast the computer moves data.
Apple has used the SCSI bus since introducing the Mac Plus in 1986. The SCSI bus must have termination power for clean data transmission. Most Macs provide termination power for the SCSI bus, so most SCSI devices for the Mac don’t need to provide it.
“One of the machines I have at the present moment is a Mac IIci, with a 68040 card, 128 MB RAM, 280 MB hard drive, and three empty NuBus slots. From what I have read on the list and elsewhere, it would make an excellent server.”
Last year’s article on SCSI component order generated some excellent feedback and dialogue. The following were written by Scott L. Barber of SERKER Worldwide, Inc., and Keith Bumgarner of MacInformed, the author of the original article.
It’s easy to visit a site like Low End Mac and find out when a model was first produced and when it was discontinued. But how do you determine how old a specific device is?
This article was written in 1999, the days of the Classic Mac OS (then at version 8.5), which was designed for a single CPU – and the G3 was then bleeding edge. We now have OS X, which supports multiple CPUs, CPU cores, and hyperthreading, but some of the problems discussed in this article remain […]
Even ten years after its introduction, there’s something compelling about the Macintosh Portable.
The following tips are especially aimed at the lowest low-end Macs, such as the Mac Plus, SE, Classic, LC, Mac II, SE/30, PowerBook 100, and other models with older, slower processors or limited memory. However, some of the hints will help anyone using a browser.
I’m going to try to explain termination, because FireWire uses termination as well as SCSI, but very few people really catch on as to how.
There are plenty of sites offering installation and troubleshooting advice for Mac OS 8.5 – at least for the Power Mac user. Since neither Apple Computer nor Umax Corporation provides any support for Mac OS 8.5 on SuperMacs, this page exists to cover problems specifically noted by users of the Umax SuperMac series of Macintosh […]
1998 – Whether you’re using a 44 MB, 88 MB, or 200 MB SyQuest cartridge, a 100 MB, 250 MB or 750 MB Zip drive, or some other removable media drive of similar or greater capacity – or even have spare low-capacity hard drives sitting about – here are some practical things you can do.
As of 31 January 1999, Apple has posted System 7.5.3 for free download (19 disk images!) – and don’t forget the System 7.5.5 updater.
“Honest question: What are the specific performance issues for a separate Web and Email machine?”
1998 – I’ve looked at the theory of using an older, slower Mac as a server on a 10Base-T ethernet network in SCSI Throughput vs. Network Throughput – now on to the testing.
1998 – Scott L. Barber does something I didn’t understand for a long time: he recommends using a Mac Plus or Mac SE – or whatever your slowest Mac is – as a file server!
1998 – On the Mac side of the fence, we all know the processors found in the Power Mac G3, the PowerBook G3, and in G3 upgrades in a host of older Macs are up to twice as fast as Intel’s Pentium II processor. But did you also know that Intel has a long history of […]
1998 – Yes, Mac OS 8 takes up more memory than earlier Mac OS versions, but it’s not necessarily what you think. On a machine with 12 MB of memory, OS 8.x takes up less memory than on the same Mac with more memory installed. Here’s how – and Apple’s been doing things like this […]
The article on SCSI Component Order generated some excellent feedback and dialogue. The following comments were written by Keith Bumgarner of MacInformed, the author of the original article.
Per a few private requests, I found enough interest to post a thesis for all to see about the SCSI ID 5 issue.
This was posted during a discussion of stripping PowerPC (a.k.a. PPC native) code from the System Folder for use on 680×0-based Macs.
1998 – There is no functional difference between the Power Mac 7100 and the Quadra 650 with the PowerPC upgrade card: They use the same ROM. As for the PPC Toolbox, that appears on all the 68040 Macs I’ve worked with, simply because the PPC Toolbox is 68k code.
Apple launched the Macintosh in 1984 with an 8 MHz 68000 CPU. When this list was published in April 1998, the fastest Mac was the 300 MHz Beige Power Mac G3. Here are Scott Barber’s picks as the best Macs from each CPU family Apple has used to date.
1998 – Okay, kind of a flame, but really specialized. I disagree that Apple should dump the 68k code simply because they want to isolate the 68040 machines from modern use.
1998 – I have this incredible desire to mention a few things about SCSI, seeing the wealth of posts that in some way or another ask whether this drive or that drive will work with this machine or that machine. This isn’t meant to be sarcastic, and it’s very serious – I have clients that […]
All Macintoshes are capable of achieving the 230 kbps (kilobits per second) transfer rate, since this is the speed of LocalTalk. The problem is, unless a device uses the LocalTalk protocol, the port cannot stream that way and is limited to normal serial modes.
