When the Dual-Core PowerPC 970MP third-generation G5 CPUs came out in Mid-2005, Apple had to start using a brand new Mid Bridge chip for the Macs along with it. Since the AMD 8131 only had PCI-X bridges and no PCIe bus, they couldn’t keep the old chip, replacing it with the BCM5780. (Above: Block diagram […]
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Have you ever wondered why there’s an AMD chip on the back of your Power Mac G5’s logic board, or what it’s even doing there? For higher end Mid-2003 thru Early 2005 Power Mac G5s, that’s the PCI-X “Mid Bridge” chip. This is what handles all your expansion cards! Although, it doesn’t appear in Late-2005 […]
The IBM CPC945 is a redesigned Northbridge chip mostly for the Dual-Core PowerPC 970MP CPU. It has technical upgrades over the IBM CPC925, including a faster HyperTransport Bus. It’s also capable of talking to the PowerPC 970fx second-generation G5 chip, which means it may be found in other Late 2005 Macs on the logic board. […]
While not at all an Apple product, the Xbox 360 shares some strikingly close DNA to Apple computers of the mid-2000s. Namely, the IBM PowerPC chip which powers the Xbox at its core. This chip was announced on July 7th, 2005 in Tokyo, at the Power Everywhere forum, alongside the third-generation G5 chip, the 970MP. […]
It’s a combination of factors that keep me going on this platform: muscle memory, learned skill, perceived ease of use, having an excuse to keep a decades-old platform going.. the list goes on. Everything that went into this 2003 Dual 2.0 Power Mac G5 I use on a near-daily basis, ends up helping me make […]
Does anyone remember a time in the late 2000s, when there was tons of futuristic-looking concept art about future tech? Especially after the original iPhone came out, there were many mockups of sleek and/or touch-first types of devices. I know I have an iPod Chimera somewhere.. found it. . (Above: The 2010 iPod Chimera, Artist: […]
Metal is the current generation of low-level graphical API that Apple uses, which powers the hardware accelerated graphics on their OSes, namely macOS. Metal 1.0 was introduced on September 30th, 2015, alongside Mac OS X El Capitan and iOS 8. Before the Apple Silicon transition, the Metal API received regular major updates every 2 years. […]
This week Apple has announced a flurry of updates for certain versions of their operating systems, most notably macOS 15.6 and iOS 18.6. The iOS update comes with 29 security fixes. There are a total of 81 security fixes included in the latest macOS 15.6 update, some are described as quite serious. . (Above: Banner […]
Precisely as the headline sounds, the Apple Silicon iMac almost ended up having this same design cue as the intel iMacs. First shared by Kosutami on X and first reported by 9to5Mac (as well as MacWorld), are some pictures from before the EVT stage of the M1 iMac. “Fun fact: before the EVT Stage development […]
In continuation of the site updates posted before, we will continue covering changes in the form of periodic posts whether they’re big or small. We want our readers to see the changes done to the site, many small ones can be time consuming and hard to notice. . This article reflects the most recent updates. […]
For years now, myself and many others have made attempts to upgrade soldered RAM on PowerPC-based Macs, without any success. As I’ve found from my vast experience doing such upgrades on Intel machines, just swapping the chips is not all that needs to be done. The system’s BootROM also has to be modified in such […]
What started as an exercise to definitively answer the power consumption levels of a Power Mac G5, turned into some fascinating insights about the way I use electricity at home. Seeing the real-world numbers from a G5 was amusing, but what was truly eye-opening were the more modern devices I had around me and how […]
As Apple puts it: “Pick a wallpaper, make it your own, download your design”. You can pick between the gallery, or customize the logo and background. The default image which shows up is purple, but the one customized looks more appropriate for Low End Mac. See: Apple – “Mark the moment – Pick a wallpaper. […]
On July 22nd 2025, Apple released the 4th Developer Beta of macOS 26 Tahoe, which is shaping up to be the potential Public Beta build anytime soon. It looks like the UI received further refinement, and the glimmer of glass-transparency effects has returned a little. Beta 3 before updating After update, before switching dark mode […]
In continuation of the site updates posted before, we will continue covering changes in the form of periodic posts whether they’re big or small. We want our readers to see the changes done to the site, many small ones can be time consuming and hard to notice. . This article reflects the most recent updates. […]
The 2003 Power Mac G5 was the first in a line of controversial 64-Bit PowerPC Macs, which suffered from above average hardware failures. While not the most popular Mac in the lineup of PowerPC Macs overall, the Power Mac G5 still packs a punch. . . Unfortunately, in addition to sometimes defective hardware, the Power […]
Here’s a write-up about another fascinating Twiggy disc. It contains several early demos that are also mentioned in Andy’s book and on his website, Folklore.org. . The disc boots into Finder 2.0 (25-Jul-82). I think the most interesting early demo was an early prototype for the Finder, written by Bruce Horn and myself in the […]
Yesterday I wrote an article detailing working with 16K resolution images in CS4 on an ’03 G5, and wanted to do a quick follow-up. As it turns out, the Mac can also handle 32K images! This is a whopping resolution of 30720 x 17280. To put it into appropriate perspective: “According to scientist and photographer […]
As of this week, iOS 18.6 is in its 3rd beta, getting closer to being the first major update to iOS 18 post-WWDC. There are other updates to this same wave of Apple OSes, such as macOS 15.6 Beta 3. . . Build Versions macOS 15.6 Beta 3 (Build 24G5074c) . iOS 18.6 Beta 3 […]
Elefont was the initial name for the bitmap typeface designed by Susan Kare in 1983 for the Apple Macintosh’s operating system. It was later renamed Chicago after Steve Jobs suggested naming fonts after “world-class cities” rather than suburban Philadelphia train stops, which Kare and her colleague Andy Hertzfeld had initially used. The name “Elefont” was […]
Who ever said a Power Mac G5 couldn’t be productive in 2025? It’s still enough to create and save 16K Images in Photoshop CS4! 16K is a display resolution announced alongside the new HDMI 2.2 specification, containing pixel resolution of 15360 by 8640. . . That’s way, way more than what’s used even in billboards, […]
Today, Low End Mac gains a new contributor, someone who will write his own articles on our very website – say hello to Janez J. Starc! An avid enthusiast for vintage Macs, Janez has written interesting articles about Twiggy Mac software (and many other things) on the 68kmla forums as well as tinkerdifferent. Along with […]
The imagination is a powerful thing, isn’t it? What would it look like if for some inexplicable reason, there was PowerPC OCLP? Today, through the combined forces of Apple Silicon, Photoshop, a Wallstreet Book and a G5, the imagination lives. . . Generations apart . The Screenshots In Conclusion This was a fun side project, […]
I can’t even believe I’m even saying this monitor is 7 years old, but it is. It’s not the largest display in my collection or the one with the most pixels either – but it’s my favorite. . . I snagged this Samsung IPS LCD 27″ curved display on Black Friday in 2018 for a […]
When you navigate to the system settings app in Beta 3 of macOS Tahoe, there are 12 new nature themed wallpapers, including what appears to be the new default wallpaper. These make beautiful additions to any desktop, and have been scaled down (in size and resolution) to work better on older Macs. Download: Tahoe_Landscape_Wallpaers.Zip (Google […]
Whether you’re running a Mac, an iPhone, an iPad, or another sort of Apple device, each device has it’s own operating system which also has a build number. A build number is a unique identifier for a specific version of an OS. Apple cranks out tons of builds of their OSes for employees to test, […]
After what appeared to be a distribution error which delayed the update for Apple Silicon Macs, Developer Beta 3 is out. A workaround quickly sprung up before this error was fixed, but now the conventional method works as it should. . . It’s been posted by users on social media that it has something to […]
The M4 Mac mini may very well be one of the most affordable and most powerful desktop Macs in recent history, starting at $599. With solid single core and multi-core CPU performance that beats an M1 Pro chip, it’s a no-brainer for anyone looking for strong CPU power. The M1 Pro still pulls ahead with […]
This page details the full hardware profile of the Apple Silicon “A1” Samsung S5L8900 chip. Name: “Apple A1” MFG: Samsung Released: June 29th, 2007 Codename: APL0098 Part Number: S5L8900 Fabrication Process: 90-Nanometer Transistor Count: ~125 Million CPU ISA: ARMv6 (32-Bit) . RAM Information: Memory Bus Width: 16-Bit Total channels: 1 Bit per channel: 16-Bit […]
With Mark Sokolovsky’s recent article, HDMI 2.2 is out: 16K at 60Hz, 96 Gbps, and more it’s clear there has been quite the evolution over the years with the HDMI standard. The same can be said with DisplayPort, as version 2.0/2.1 has already arrived providing approximately 80 Gbps of video bandwidth and is found on […]
In continuation of the site updates posted before, we will continue covering changes in the form of periodic posts whether they’re big or small. We want our readers to see the changes done to the site, many small ones can be time consuming and hard to notice. . This article reflects the most recent updates. […]
This page details the full hardware profile of the Apple Silicon A18 Pro chip. Name: A18 Pro Released: September 9th, 2024 Codename: APL1V07 Part Number: T8140 Fabrication Process: TSMC’s 3-Nanometer Transistor Count: 20-Billion CPU ISA: ARMv9.2-A . . Memory Bus Width: 64-Bit Total channels: 4 Bit per channel: 16-Bit Memory Type: LPDDR5X-7500 3750 Mhz […]
They say when you come to the dark side you get cookies, but in the world of technology you get a brand new version of macOS. This was the first version of macOS to use Dark Mode, after all, but the murky truth lays underneath. This was the final version of macOS to be able […]
macOS 15.6 is the first iteration post-WWDC, with the prior 15.5 update spending roughly 1.5 months in development. Earlier this week, the second beta of macOS 15.6 was seeded to developers, along with other developer betas. It doesn’t look like there’s anything new inside of macOS 15.6, but release notes show a single bug fix. […]
Be on the lookout for any suspicious-seeming zoom links or software update SDK “downloads” via Zoom, too. While DPRK state actors are targeting Web3 startups and crypto, it’s still better to exercise caution. Their tactics rely on social engineering for it to work, but the rest is actually a bit complex. . . An Executive […]