Powerbook Main

The PowerBook G3 was the

first PowerBook to use the
PPC 750, a third generation
Motorala/IBM processor. The
750, or "G3" as it had been
nicknamed before, was the
first PPC processor designed
to use a high speed, "backside"
cache which could interact
with the processor at much
faster speeds than a standard
L2 cache, which was restricted
by the motherboard speed.
The PowerBook G3 was
similar to the PowerBook
3400, with the addition of a
750 processor running at
250Mhz, and a 512k
backside cache running at a
2.5:1 processor to cache ratio
(100Mhz). The Power of the
750, combined with the high
speed cache, made the
PowerBook G3 the fastest
notebook in the world, bar
none (It clocked speeds nearly
as fast as the 9600/300). It
was replaced in May 1998 by
the new PowerBook G3 series.

Announced in January 2001,

the PowerBook G4 was a
dramatic change to Apple's
PowerBook line. Based on a
new low-power G4 chip, the
PPC 7410, the PowerBook
G4 sported a stylish new
Titanium enclosure, which was
only 1" thick, .7" thinner than
its predecessor, the
PowerBook G3 (FireWire). The
reduction in size came at a
price, however: the PB G4 had
a fixed, 6x slot-load DVD-ROM
drive instead of a removable
drive bay, and a single battery
bay (previous models allowed
the use of the drive bay as a
second battery bay).

The most innovative feature of

the PowerBook G4, was its
wide-aspect 15.2" screen,
which had a native resolution
of 1152x768. This made the
PB G4 wider than its
predecessor, but it was over
an inch less deep.

The PowerBook G4 shipped in

two configurations. The 400
Mhz model, with 128 MB of
RAM and a 10GB hard drive
was $2,599 (a $100 increase
in the low-end model price),
and the 500 Mhz model, with
256 MB of RAM and a 20GB
hard drive was $3,499. In
mid-2001, These prices were
reduced to $2,199 and
$2,999, respectively.