Umax acquired the Macintosh clone operation and SuperMac name from Radius, going on to become one of the more innovative clone makers. Their corporate goal was to make quality Mac OS computers at prices that would give PCs a run for their money, something I believe they succeeded at.
Category Archives: SuperMac
Like many of you out there, I had been salivating over Mac OS X since it arrived last year. There was one small issue: I was using a Umax SuperMac S900, and 604e support was less than forthcoming from Apple, so unless there was a new Apple G3 or G4 machine in my future, I was […]
From Accelerate Your Mac!, September 20, 2000.
The SuperMac C500 and C600 used the PowerPC 603e CPU in a great variety of speeds, ranging from 140 MHz to 280 MHz on a 40 MHz system bus. The best performance, short of a G3 upgrade, comes from using a fast CPU along with the Cache Doubler module.
The SuperMac C500 and C600 are unique among Macintosh clones. They were the first clones to use a ZIF socket for easy processor replacement. Umax made processors in speeds from 140 to 280 MHz, as well as the CacheDoubler, which provides a double-speed (80 MHz) level 2 cache four times as large as the 256 […]
A unique feature of the SuperMac S900 and S910 is their second processor slot. This slot accepts a proprietary CPU card and allows these machines to function as dual-processor computers without the need to remove the primary CPU and the expense of a dual-processor card.
The Umax SuperMac C500 and C600 were the first “Power Macs” to have their CPU in a ZIF socket, making upgrades very easy. Having a C500/200 at work and finding an incredible garage sale special on upgrades from Small Dog Electronics, I decided to test the 240 MHz upgrade and the CacheDoubler.
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 […]
The Umax SuperMac J700 was the first Power Mac clone that I benchmarked. My J700 shipped with a 180 MHz 604e CPU, and has 104 MB of memory and a Quantum Fireball 2110 hard drive installed. It shipped standard with an ixMicro Twin Turbo 128 video card, which I replaced with an ixMicro Ultimate Rez 3D […]
SuperMacs is a forum for users of Umax SuperMac computers. This group doesn’t cover SuperMac video cards, monitors, or any other products with the SuperMac brand name – only SuperMac computers produced by Umax.
The SuperMac J710 was the last new model from Umax, and only about 50 were ever produced.
The S910 was Umax’s most powerful, most expandable computer, differing from the S900 primarily in its use of a socketed 1 MB level 2 cache and in not having 16 MB of RAM on the motherboard.
The SuperMac C600 (Apus 3000 series in Europe and Asia) was Umax’s least expensive minitower. Introduced at 160 MHz in August 1996, Umax was selling 280 MHz models by mid-1997. The C600 was designed around a modified Tanzania motherboard with a daughter card for 3 PCI slots and 1 Comm-2 slot.
The SuperMac C500 (known as the Apus 2000 series in Europe and Asia) was Umax’s entry level computer, perhaps the model that best met their corporate goal of making quality Mac OS computers at prices that could give PCs a run for their money. It may have been the least expensive Mac OS computer of its […]
The SuperMac J700 (Centauri in Europe and Asia) was Umax’s least expensive computer based on the PowerPC 604e processor. Very expandable, it has 4 PCI slots, 5 drive bays, 8 DIMM sockets, and a replaceable CPU.
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.
