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Apple Macintosh is a line of computers introduced by Steve Jobsand Steve Wozniak of Apple Inc. on January 24th, 1984. The first computer in the line was called Mac 128k and although it was a less-costly successor to the Apple Lisa, the it was also less advanced. The Mac 128k was known for its an easy-to-use GUI that utilized icons, windows, and a mouse for point and click operation as opposed to the IBM computers at the time, which used MS-DOS. Macintosh (often abbreviated as Mac) computers first gained popularity amongst consumers with a famous commercial shown during the 1984 Super Bowl. The line continues today with the latest models under the name iMac for desktop computers and MacBook for laptop computers.

INFORMATION ABOUT APPLE DESKSTOP COMPUTERS (iMAC) IS GIVEN BELOW-

1. MACINTOSH 128K

The Macintosh 128K, originally released as the Apple Macintosh, is the original Apple Macintosh personal computer. Its beige case consisted of a 9 in (23 cm) CRT monitor and came with a keyboard and mouse. A handle built into the top of the case made it easier for the computer to be lifted and carried. It had an initial selling price of $2,495 (equivalent to $5,752 in 2016). The Macintosh was introduced by the now-famous $370,000 (equivalent to $852,944 in 2016) television commercial by Ridley Scott, "1984", that most notably aired on CBS during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. Sales of the Macintosh were strong from its initial release on January 24, 1984, and reached 70,000 units on May 3, 1984. Upon the release of its successor, the Macintosh 512K, it was rebranded as the Macintosh 128K.

The centerpiece of the machine was a Motorola 68000 microprocessor running at 7.8336 MHz, connected to 128 KB RAM shared by the processor and the display controller. The boot procedure and some operating system routines were contained in an additional 64 KBROM chip. Apple did not offer RAM upgrades. Unlike the Apple II, no source code listings of the Macintosh system ROMs were offered.The RAM in the Macintosh consisted of sixteen 4164 64kx1 DRAMs.

The 68000 and video controller took turns accessing DRAM every four CPU cycles during display of the frame buffer, while the 68000 had unrestricted access to DRAM during vertical and horizontal blanking intervals. Such an arrangement reduced the overall performance of the CPU as much as 35% for most code as the display logic often blocked the CPU's access to RAM. This made the machine appear to run more slowly than several of its competitors, despite the nominally high clock rate.

2. MACINTOSH 512K

The Macintosh 512K Personal Computer is the second of a long line of Apple Macintosh computers, and was the first update to the original Macintosh 128K. It was virtually identical to the previous Mac, differing primarily in the amount of built-in memory (RAM).Soon after Apple introduced the Macintosh 128K they realized that the Macintosh would need more internal memory. Eight months later, on September 10, 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh 512K. With quadrupled RAM, the Macintosh was able to become a more business-capable computer and gained the ability to run more software. The Mac 512K originally shipped with Macintosh System 1.1 but was able to run Macintosh System 1.0 all the way up to System 4.1.Like the 128K Macintosh before it, the 512K contained a Motorola 68000 connected to a 512 kB DRAM by a 16-bit data bus. Though the memory had been quadrupled, it could not be upgraded. This large increase earned it the nickname Fat Mac. A 64 kB ROM chip boosts the effective memory to 576 kB, but this is offset by the display's 22 kB framebuffer, which is shared with the DMA video controller. This shared arrangement reduces CPU performance by up to 35%. It shared a revised logic board with the re-badged Macintosh 128K (previously just called the Macintosh), which streamlined manufacturing. The resolution of the display was the same, at 512x342.

3. MACINTOSH 512Ke

The Macintosh 512K enhanced (512Ke) was introduced in April 1986 as a cheaper alternative to the top-of-the-line Macintosh Plus, which had debuted three months previously. It's the same as the Macintosh 512K but with the 800K disk drive and 128K of ROM used in the Macintosh Plus. Like its predecessors, there was little room for expansion. Some companies did create memory upgrades that would bring the machine up to 2 MB or more. It is the earliest Macintosh model able to run System 6 OS. It is also the earliest Macintosh model that can be used as an AppleShare server, and with a bridge Mac, communicate with modern devices.

Originally, the case was identical to its predecessor, except for the model number listed on the rear bucket's agency approval label. It used the same beige-like color as well. But like the Macintosh Plus, at some point in 1987 the 512Ke adopted the standard Apple "Platinum" color, as well as exactly the same case-front design as the Plus (without the name), though keeping its original rear bucket. Later in its lifespan, the 512Ke was discounted and offered to the educational market, badged as the Macintosh ED (M0001D & later M0001ED). Although the 512Ke included the same 128K ROMs and 800K disk drive as the Mac Plus, the 512Ke retained the same port connectors as the original Mac. For this reason, 512Ke users' only hard disk option was the slower, floppy-port-based Hard Disk 20, or similar products for the serial port, even though the 512Ke ROMs contained the "SCSI Manager" software that enabled the use of faster SCSI hard disks (because the ROMs are the same as the ones used in the Mac Plus which does have a SCSI port)

4. MACINTOSH PLUS

The Macintosh Plus computer is the third model in the Macintosh line, introduced on January 16, 1986, two years after the original Macintosh and a little more than a year after the Macintosh 512K, with a price tag of US$2599. As an evolutionary improvement over the 512K, it shipped with 1 MB of RAM standard, expandable to 4 MB, and an external SCSI peripheral bus, among smaller improvements. It originally had the same generally beige-colored case as the original Macintosh ("Pantone 453"), but in 1987, the case color was changed to the long-lived, warm gray "Platinum" color. It is the earliest Macintosh model able to run System 7 OS. Introduced as the Macintosh Plus, it was the first Macintosh model to include a SCSI port, which launched the popularity of external SCSI devices for Macs, including hard disks, tape drives, CD-ROM drives, printers, and even monitors. The SCSI implementation of the Plus was engineered shortly before the initial SCSI spec was finalized and, as such, is not 100% SCSI-compliant. SCSI ports remained standard equipment for all Macs until the introduction of the iMac in 1998, which replaced most of Apple's "legacy ports" with USB. The lack of fan could cause the life of a Macintosh Plus to end early for some users. As the power supply would heat up, solder joints inside it would fracture causing many problems, such as loss of deflection in the monitor or a complete loss of power. As in most early compact Macs, the problem was common in the yoke connector, flyback transformer, and horizontal drive coupling capacitor. A fan was also often added to reduce heat when the machine was upgraded to its full RAM capacity of 4 MB.

5. LISA

Apple Lisa was a desktop computer developed by Apple, released on January 19, 1983. It was one of the first personal computers to offer a graphical user interface (GUI) in a machine aimed at individual business users. Development of the Lisa began in 1978, and it underwent many changes during the development period before shipping at the very high price of US$9,995 with a 5 MB hard drive. The high price, relatively low performance and unreliable "Twiggy" floppy disks led to poor sales, with only 100,000 units sold. The hardware development team for the Lisa was headed by Robert Paratore. The Lisa was first introduced on January 19, 1983 and cost US$9,995 (approximately US$24,000 in 2016 dollars.) It was one of the first personal computer systems with a graphical user interface (GUI) to be sold commercially. It used a Motorola 68000 CPU clocked at 5 MHz and had 1 MB RAM.

The industrial design, product design and mechanical packaging and enclosure/structural design and development were headed by Bill Dresselhaus, the Principal Product Designer of Lisa, with his team of internal product designers and contract product designers from the firm that eventually became IDEO. The Lisa computer real-time clock uses a 4-bit integer and the base year is defined as 1980, and the software won't accept any value below 1981 so the only valid range is 1981-1995. Thus it has a "1995 problem". The real-time clock depended on a 4 x AA-cell NiCd pack of batteries that only lasted for a few hours when main power was not present, often causing the packs to burst open and leak corrosive acid that could ruin the circuit boards.

6. MACINTOSH XL

The Macintosh XL is a modified version of the Apple Lisa personal computer made by Apple Computer, Inc. In the Macintosh XL configuration, the computer shipped with MacWorks XL, a Lisa program that allowed 64 K Macintosh ROM emulation. An identical machine was previously sold as the Lisa 2/10 with the Lisa OS only. The Macintosh XL had a 400K 3.5" floppy drive and an internal 10 MB proprietary Widget hard drive with provision for an optional 5 or 10 MB external ProFile hard drive with the addition of a parallel interface card. The machine used a Motorola 68000 CPU, clocked at 5 MHz together with 512KB RAM. At the time of release in January 1985, the Macintosh XL was colloquially referred to as the "Hackintosh", although this name has since been used more generally to describe Macintosh computers assembled from unusual combinations of parts or, after Apple's transition to Intel processors, to denote PCs running OSx86, a hacked version of Mac OS X. The Macintosh XL was discontinued in April 1985. The re-badging of the XL was a last-ditch effort by Apple to save the poorly selling Lisa which had been usurped by the Macintosh line. After two years of marginal sales Apple was unprepared for the record number of orders placed for the newest member of the Macintosh family. Despite its relative success, the Macintosh XL was discontinued because it was literally unavailable. Parts had not been ordered to keep the XL in production and once the last of the parts ran out, Apple made the decision to shut down production for good

7. MACINTOSH SE

The Macintosh SE is a personal computer that was manufactured by Apple between March 1987 and October 1990. This computer marked a significant improvement on the Macintosh Plus design and was introduced by Apple at the same time as the Macintosh II. It had a similar case to the original Macintosh computer, but with slight differences in color and styling.

The SE's notable new features, compared to its similar predecessor, the Macintosh Plus, were:

First compact Macintosh with an internal drive bay for a hard disk (originally 20 MB or 40 MB) or a second floppy drive.
First compact Macintosh that featured an expansion slot (SE stood for "System Expansion").[1]
Used the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB), introduced with the Apple IIGS, for keyboard and mouse interface.
Improved SCSI support with faster data throughput.
Better reliability and longer life expectancy due to the addition of a cooling fan.

The SE was designed to accommodate either one or two floppy drives, or a floppy drive and a hard drive. After-market brackets were designed to allow the SE to accommodate two floppy drives as well as a hard drive, however it was not a configuration supported by Apple. In addition an external floppy disk drive could also be connected, making the SE the only other Macintosh besides the Macintosh Portable and Macintosh II which could support three floppy drives, though its increased storage, RAM capacity and optional internal hard drive rendered the external drives less of a necessity than for its predecessors. After Apple introduced the Macintosh SE/30 in January 1989, a logic board upgrade was sold by Apple dealers as a high-cost upgrade for the SE, consisting of a new SE/30 motherboard, case front and internal chassis to accommodate the upgrade components.

8. MACINTOSH CLASSIC

The Macintosh Classic is a personal computer manufactured by Apple Inc.. Introduced on October 15, 1990, it was the first Apple Macintosh to sell for less than US$1,000. Production of the Classic was prompted by the success of the Macintosh Plus and the Macintosh SE. The system specifications of the Classic were very similar to its predecessors, with the same 9-inch (23 cm) monochrome CRT display, 512×342 pixel resolution, and 4 megabyte (MB) memory limit of the older Macintosh computers. Apple's decision to not update the Classic with newer technology such as a 68010 CPU, higher RAM capacity or color display ensured compatibility with the Mac's by-then healthy software base as well as enabled it to fit the lower price Apple intended for it. Nevertheless, the Classic featured several improvements over the aging Macintosh Plus, which it replaced as Apple's low-end Mac computer. It was up to 25 percent faster than the Plus and included an Apple SuperDrive 3.5-inch (9 cm) floppy disk drive as standard. The Classic was an adaptation of Jerry Manock's and Terry Oyama's 1984 Macintosh 128K industrial design, as had been the earlier Macintosh SE. Apple released two versions that ranged in price from $1,000 to $1,500. Reviewer reactions were mixed; most focused on the slow processor performance and lack of expansion slots. The consensus was that the Classic was only useful for word processing, spreadsheets and databases. The price and the availability of education software led to the Classic's popularity in education. It was sold alongside the more powerful Macintosh Classic II in 1991 until its discontinuation the next year.

9. MACINTOSH CLASSIC II

The Apple Macintosh Classic II (also known as the Performa 200) replaced the Macintosh SE/30 in the compact Macintosh line in 1991. Like the SE/30, the Classic II was powered by a 16 MHz Motorola 68030 CPU and 40 or 80 MB hard disk, but in contrast to its predecessor, it was limited by a 16-bit data bus (the SE/30 had a 32-bit data bus) and a 10 MB memory ceiling.

While the Classic II shares a case with the earlier Classic, architecturally it is more similar to the Macintosh LC. The use of custom ICs, identical to those used in the LC, enabled the Classic II to have a lower component count than older Macs. Unlike the LC and the SE/30 before it, the Classic II did not have an internal PDS expansion slot, making it the first slotless desktop Macintosh since the Macintosh Plus. There were two Classic II cases. Later models came with a speaker grille on the left side for enhanced sound (as pictured). The Classic II was the last black-and-white compact Macintosh. It was also the last desktop Macintosh to include an external floppy disk drive port. Apple discontinued support for the Classic II on January 1, 2001.

10. MACINTOSH COLOUR CLASSIC

The Macintosh Color Classic, released on February 10, 1993, is the first color compact Apple Macintosh computer. It has an integrated 10″ Sony Trinitron color display with the same 512×384 pixel resolution as the Macintosh 12″ RGB monitor. It can display 256 colors (can upgrade to thousands colors with "Mystic" 68040 upgrade). This integrated unit resembles the original Mac series, albeit redesigned to accommodate the larger screen and conform to Apple's "neoclassical" design language of the era. Like the Macintosh SE and SE/30 before it, the Color Classic has a single expansion slot: an LC-type Processor Direct Slot (PDS), incompatible with the SE slots. This was primarily intended for the Apple IIe Card (the primary reason for the Color Classic's switchable 560x384 display, essentially quadruple the IIe's 280x192 High-Resolution graphics), which was offered with education models of the LCs. The card allowed the LCs to emulate an Apple IIe. The combination of the low-cost color Macintosh and Apple IIe compatibility was intended to encourage the education market's transition from Apple II models to Macintoshes. Other cards, such as CPU accelerators, ethernet and video cards were also made available for the Color Classic's PDS slot. The Color Classic shipped with the Apple Keyboard known as an Apple Keyboard II (M0487) which featured a soft power switch on the keyboard itself. The mouse supplied was the Apple Mouse known as the Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II (M2706). The name "Color Classic" was not printed directly on the front panel, but on a separate plastic insert. This enabled the alternative spelling "Colour Classic" to be used in appropriate markets.

11. MACINTOSH COLOUR CLASSIC II

In Japan, Canada and some other markets — but not the US — Apple later released the Color Classic II which was essentially the same case but with the LC 550 motherboard that doubled both RAM and speed. The Color Classic II was also sold as the Performa 275. The Color Classic II was the final model of the original "compact" Macintosh family of computers.

12. MACINTOSH LC 500 SERIES

The Macintosh LC 500 series is a series of personal computers that were a part of Apple Computer's LC line of Macintosh computers. It was Apple's mid-1990s upper low end-range series, positioned below the Centris and Quadra but above the Classic II and Color Classic models. All of these computers were also sold under the Macintosh Performa brand, in some cases under slightly different model numbers. These computers all shared the same all-in-one desktop case that included a 14" CRT display, CD-ROM drive, and stereo speakers. Designed as a successor to the compact all-in-one Macintosh, the case was reminiscent of Apple's earlier Compact Macintosh series but considerably larger and bulkier, with a larger screen (compared to the Compact's 9- or 10-inch displays) and a bulging midsection to contain the larger electronics, in stark contrast to the compact Macs' slimmer designs.

The 500 series included four main models, the 520, 550, 575, and 580, with the 520 and 550 both using different speeds of the Motorola 68030, and the 575 and 580 sharing the 33MHz Motorola 68LC040 processor but differing on the rest of the hardware. The LC models in particular became very popular in schools for their small footprint, lack of cable-clutter, and durability. The Macintosh TV is closely related to this series, using the same case (in black instead of platinum) and a logic board similar to the Macintosh LC 550. The compact Color Classic series shares many components, and is able to swap logic boards, with the early 500 series machines.

1. LC 520

The Macintosh LC 520 (codename: "Hook") was introduced in June 1993, and was the first of the LC 500 series. The LC 500 case design was larger than the compact Macs, with a significantly larger screen. The 520 was discontinued in February 1994, when it was replaced by both the faster but otherwise essentially unchanged Macintosh LC 550 and the new, 68LC040-equipped Macintosh LC 575. The LC 520 got its start as a design project codenamed "Mongo". Following the success of the Color Classic, The Apple Industrial Design Group (IDg) began exploring the adaptation of the Color Classic's design language, dubbed Espresso, for a larger display version that would also include a CD-ROM drive. However, IDg hated the design so much that they permanently shelved the final concept. In 1992, Apple CEO John Sculley demanded a large screen all-in-one design to fill out his market strategy in less than 6 months. Over IDg's objections, Apple's engineering team retrieved the shelved design and promptly put it into production. Because IDg universally detested the design, they immediately began the re-design project that would become the Power Macintosh 5200 LC series less than two years later.

2. LC 550

The Macintosh LC 550 (codename: "Hook 33") replaced the LC 520 in February 1994, and was discontinued in favor of either the LC 580 on the lower end or the PowerPC-based Power Macintosh 5200 LC models at the higher end. The Performa variants were in fact introduced earlier, the 550 in October 1993 and the 560 in January 1994, and remained available for more than a year longer, until April 1996. The main difference between the 550 and the 520 is the faster 68030 CPU, clocked at 33 MHz instead of 25 MHz, with the bus speed also increasing from 25 to 33 MHz. The Performa variants differ only in the software bundle that was included, with the 550 including only consumer applications and the 560 including additional business applications. Like the 520, the optical drive did not use a loading tray, but instead utilized a caddy in which the disk was first inserted, and then the caddy was loaded into the drive.

3. LC 575

The Macintosh LC 575 was available from 1994 to 1996. They had the same "all-in-one" case as the LC 520/550, but used a LC 475/Quadra 605-related motherboard with a Motorola 68LC040 CPU (at a speed of 33 MHz instead of 25 MHz) and a tray-loading optical drive. Note that the CPU clock is sometimes given as 66 MHz, since the clock signal is of that frequency - however, the processor itself only runs at 33 MHz. The LC 575 also introduced the comm slot, which was included in most later LC models as well. The LC variant was succeeded by the Macintosh LC 580, while the Performa variants were sold until the end of the 580 line; the LC 580 Performa variants were only available outside of the United States. This model is a favorite motherboard donor for those wishing to upgrade the Color Classic to a faster class of processor. Apple also offered an upgrade path in the form of a PowerPC Macintosh Processor Upgrade.

4. LC 580

The Macintosh LC 580 was sold in 1995 and 1996. Like their immediate predecessor, the LC 575, it used the Motorola 68LC040 processor at 33 MHz. However, instead of using the same sized, SCSI only, logic boards based on the LC 475/Quadra 605 like the 575 series was, the 580s use the larger logic boards of the Performa 630 series. This meant a few changes, most of them leading to lower prices, but also lower performance: Most notably, the hard drives of the 580 were IDE drives instead of SCSI drives. Also, the video RAM was no longer mounted on a SIMM, but used 1 MB of the 4 MB of main RAM soldered to the motherboard. Lastly, the Trinitron display of the 575 was replaced with a cheaper shadow mask screen, causing a slight change in the plastic case surrounding the CRT. One benefit of this change was the ability to accommodate the same video capture and TV tuner cards designed for the Performa 630. This allowed LC 580 users to watch and record video, essentially performing the function of a television as well as a computer. As with the LC 575, the CPU clock is sometimes wrongly given as 66 MHz. The LC 580 was the last all-in-one type model to include a Motorola 68000 series processor, as it was phased out in favor of the Power Macintosh 5200 LC which featured a PowerPC processor. As with the 575, Apple also offered an upgrade path in the form of a PowerPC Macintosh Processor Upgrade.[2] The 580 can also be upgraded with the following logicboards: 5200, 6200, 5260, 5300, 6300, 5400, 6400, 5500 & 6500.

13. POWER MACINTOSH 5000 SERIES

The Power Macintosh 5000 series is a series of all-in-one (meaning the cases feature an integrated monitor) personal computers that are a part of Apple Computer's Macintosh LC, Power Macintosh and Macintosh Performa series of Macintosh computers. The Power Macintosh 5200 LC was introduced in April 1995 with a PowerPC 603 CPU at 75 MHz as a PowerPC-based replacement of the Macintosh LC 500 series. Later models switched to the PowerPC 603e CPU and used model numbers above 5260, but kept the same motherboard design. Unlike previous education models, which prepended the model number with "LC", the 5200 series uses the Power Macintosh designation of Apple's main workstation line of the time and appends the LC to the end of the model name. All models in the 5xxx series featured an integrated 15-inch (12.8" viewable) monitor. The 5200 series is closely related to the 6200 series, which features the same logic boards in desktop cases without integrated monitors. This means that it also shares the 6200's massive and confusing number of model designations.

1. POWER MACINTOSH 5200

Introduced in April 1995, the original 5200s use a 75 MHz PowerPC 603 CPU. The Power Macintosh 5200 LC was only sold to the education market, while the Performa models were sold to consumers. In April 1996, they were replaced by the 5260-related models, but some Performa models remained available for a longer time.

2. POWER MACINTOSH 5300

The 5300 introduced on August 28, 1995, replaced the 6200's PowerPC 603 CPU with the newer and faster PowerPC 603e, though the rest of the architecture remained unchanged. The Power Macintosh 5400 with a new revised architecture was introduced shortly after, but the 5300 also remained available at a lower price.

3. POWER MACINTOSH 5400

The Power Macintosh 5400 series (also sold under variations of the name Performa 5400) is a range of lower midrange personal computers that are a part of Apple Computer's Power Macintosh and Macintosh Performa families of Macintosh computers. The 5400 is an all-in-one computer with an integrated monitor, and replaced the Power Macintosh 5200 line in that role. It is largely identical to the Power Macintosh 6400 internally, which is essentially the same computer (the "Alchemy" platform) in a tower case. The 5400 was succeeded by the upgraded Power Macintosh 5500.

4.POWER MACINTOSH 5500

The Power Macintosh 5500 – code-named "Phoenix" – was produced by Apple Inc. between February 1997 and early '98 and came with an IBM PowerPC 603ev processor operating at either 225, 250 and 275 megahertz (MHz). The processor made use of 32 kilobytes (KB) of L1 cache, with an option for a 256 or 512 KB L2 cache (the latter being available only on the 275 MHz model) cache operating at the stock 50 MHz bus speed. Apple originally produced the Power Macintosh 5500 or Performa 5500 for the educational market. It was essentially an upgraded Power Macintosh 5400. Though it dropped the name, it is functionally the successor to and last of the Macintosh LC line. The 5500's upgrades included a larger ATA hard disk. The computer came stock with a 2 gigabyte (GB) hard disk, but the 275 MHz model came with a 4 GB drive; a faster SCSI CD-ROM drive (12x in early models and 24x in the top-end); a better video card in the form of an accelerated ATI Rage IIc graphics card, containing 2 megabytes (MB) of dedicated VRAM and allowing for a maximum screen resolution of 1152 × 864 pixels.

14. 20TH ANNIVERSARY MACINTOSH

The Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (aka "20AM" or "TAM") is a limited-edition personal computer released in 1997 to mark Apple's 20th birthday. The machine was a technological showcase of the day, boasting a number of features beyond simple computing, and with a price tag aimed at the "executive" market. The TAM was to break the established form factor of the personal computer. One of the first projects of Jonathan "Jony" Ive, the design of the TAM was both a state-of-the-art futuristic vision of where computing could go whilst redeveloping Apple's original objective to create a device that would integrate into people's lives. The TAM featured a 250 MHz PowerPC 603e processor and 12.1" active matrix LCD powered by an ATI 3D Rage II video chipset with 2MB of VRAM capable of displaying up to 16bit color at either 800x600 or 640x480 pixels. It had a vertically mounted 4x SCSI CD-ROM and an Apple floppy Superdrive, a 2GB ATA hard drive, a TV/FM tuner, an S-Video input card, and a custom-made Bose sound system including two "Jewel" speakers and a subwoofer built into the externally located power supply "base unit".

15. POWER MACINTOSH G3 AIO

The Power Macintosh G3, commonly called "beige G3s" or "platinum G3s" for the color of their cases, is a series of personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from November 1997 to January 1999. It was the first Macintosh to use the PowerPC G3 (PPC750) microprocessor, and replaced a number of earlier Power Macintosh models, in particular the 7300, 8600 and 9600 models. It was succeeded by the Power Macintosh G3 (Blue & White), which kept the name but introduced a radically different design. The introduction of the Desktop and Minitower G3 models coincided with Apple starting to sell user-configurable Macs directly from its web site in an online store,which was unusual for the time as Dell was the only other major manufacturer then doing this. The Power Mac G3 introduced a fast and large Level 2 backside cache to Apple's product lineup, running at half processor speed. As a result, these machines were widely considered to be faster than Intel PCs of similar CPU clock speed at launch, an assertion that was backed up by benchmarks performed by Byte magazine,which prompted Apple to create the "Snail" and "Toasted Bunnies" television commercials.The beige Power Macintosh G3 series came in three versions: an "Outrigger" desktop enclosure inherited directly from the Power Macintosh 7300 (and ultimately derived from the Macintosh IIvx); a minitower similar to (but shorter than) the Power Macintosh 8600 enclosure; and a version with a built in screen, the G3 All-In-One ("AIO"), sometimes nicknamed the "Molar Mac" due to its resemblance to a tooth, that was made available only to educational markets. Equipped with a 233, 266, 300, or 333 MHz PowerPC 750 (G3) CPU from Motorola, these machines used a 66.83 MHz system bus and PC66 SDRAM, and standard ATA hard disk drives instead of the SCSI drives used in most previous Apple systems; however, they retained a legacy Fast SCSI internal bus (up to 10 MB/s) along with the then-standard DB-25 external SCSI bus which had a top speed of 5 MB/s. Each bus could support a maximum of 7 devices.

16. iMAC G3

The iMac G3 is a line of personal computers developed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from 1998 to 2003. Noted for its innovative design via the use of translucent and brightly colored plastics, it was the first consumer-facing Apple product to debut under the recently returned interim CEO Steve Jobs. It was updated over time with new hardware and colors, until being supplanted by the iMac G4 and eMac in 2002. The iMac G3, among other factors, was responsible for Apple's turnaround from financial ruin in the late 1990s and revitalized the Apple brand as design-oriented and simple. It was, nevertheless, criticized for abandoning then-current technological standards like the floppy drive and the Apple Desktop Bus connector in favor of the emerging USB standard. Steve Jobs reduced the company's large product lines immediately upon becoming Apple's interim CEO in 1997. Toward the end of the year, Apple trimmed its line of desktop Macs down to the beige Power Macintosh G3 series, which included the iMac's immediate predecessor, the Power Macintosh G3 All In One, which featured nearly identical specifications and was sold only to the educational market. Having discontinued the consumer-targeted Performa series, Apple needed a replacement for the Performa's price point. The company announced the iMac on May 6, 1998 and began shipping the iMac G3 on August 15, 1998.

17. iMAC G4

The iMac G4 is an all-in-one desktop computer produced and sold by Apple Inc. from 2002 to mid-2004, succeeding the egg-shaped iMac G3 and being succeeded by the iMac G5. The iMac G4 features an LCD mounted on an adjustable arm above a hemisphere containing a full-size, tray-loading optical drive and a fourth-generation PowerPC G4 74xx-series processor. The internals such as the hard drive, motherboard, etc. was placed in the "dome" instead of the LCD panel as it would be too heavy. The arm allowed the display to hold almost any angle around the dome-shaped bottom. The iMac G4 was sold only in white, and was not translucent like the iMac G3. The machine was sold with the Apple Pro Keyboard and Apple Pro Mouse, which would be later redesigned and renamed the Apple Keyboard and Apple Mouse, respectively. Optional Apple Pro Speakers, which were of better quality than the internal speakers, were also available. The Apple Pro Speakers use a unique adapter, designed to work only with a select few Apple Macintosh models. The iMac G4 originally included both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, due to the machine being released the year Mac OS 9 was discontinued. When running newer versions of Mac OS X (Tiger and Leopard), the iMac G4's GeForce4 MX GPU is not capable of Core Image rendering. This causes some minor graphical issues. One such issue would be the lack of the Dashboard ripple effect when a widget is introduced. Another would be an opaque menu bar in Mac OS X Leopard. It was originally known as the The New iMac, while the existing iMac G3 continued to be sold for several months. During this time, Apple had all but eliminated CRT displays from its product line. However, the LCD iMacs were unable to match the low price point of the iMac G3, largely due to the higher cost of the LCD technology at the time. The iMac G3 was obsolete by this point, but low-cost machines were particularly important for the education market. Because of this affordability issue, Apple created the eMac in April 2002 and ended production of the iMac G3. The iMac G4 was then marketed as the "iMac" until its discontinuation, then was retroactively labeled iMac G4 to distinguish itself from the succeeding iMac G5 in August 2004.

18. eMAC

The eMac, short for education Mac, is a Macintosh desktop computer made by Apple Inc. It was originally aimed at the education market, but was later made available as a cheaper mass market alternative to Apple's second-generation LCD iMac G4. The eMac was pulled from retail on October 12, 2005 and was sold exclusively to educational institutions thereafter. It was discontinued by Apple on July 5, 2006 and replaced by a cheaper, low-end iMac that, like the eMac, was originally sold exclusively to educational institutions. The eMac design closely resembles the first-generation iMac. Compared to the first iMac, eMacs feature a PowerPC G4 processor that is significantly faster than the previous generation G3 processors, as well as a 17-inch flat CRT display, which was aimed at the education market, as LCD screens would be expensive. Unlike the iMac G3, however, the eMac is not meant to be portable as it weighs 50 lb (23 kg) and lacks a carrying handle which was on the iMac G3. The eMac generally catered to the mass market, eventually taking over from the soon-to-be-discontinued iMac G3 to become the entry level Macintosh from 2003 to 2005, while the iMac G4 was positioned as a premium offering throughout its lifetime. The eMac generally offered similar performance and features to the iMac G4 while they were sold side-by-side. The eMac was gradually supplanted by the iMac G5 in 2005 to 2006. A number of eMac machines have suffered from what was known as "Raster Shift", a phenomenon where the bottom third or half of the screen goes black, with the rest of image shifting upward and out of the top boundary of the display. Serious static also accompanies the problem, rendering the viewable part of the screen virtually useless. In response to the problem, Apple offered a solution which involved the replacement of a video cable inside the eMac's case.

19. iMAC G5

The iMac G5 is an all-in-one desktop computer designed and built by Apple Inc. from 2004 to 2006. It was the final iMac to use a PowerPC processor, making it the last model that could natively run Mac OS 9 (Classic) applications. It was replaced in 2006 by the Intel iMac. In August 2004, the iMac design was overhauled. By this time, the PowerPC 970 processor had been released and was being used in the Power Mac G5 line. Famously, the Power Mac G5 needed multiple fans in a large casing (or else liquid cooling, an innovative solution Apple adopted for the highest-end Power Mac G5s) because of the high heat output from the PowerPC 970. Apple's new iMac managed to incorporate the PowerPC 970 into an all-in-one design with a distinctive form factor. The computer used the same 17 and 20-inch widescreen LCDs found in the iMac G4, with the main logic board and optical drive now mounted directly behind the LCD panel; this gave the appearance of a thickened desktop LCD monitor. The approximately two inches deep enclosure is suspended above the desk by an aluminum arm that can be replaced by a VESA mounting plate. The iMac G5 uses an advanced cooling system controlled by the operating system; at low CPU loads this rendered the iMac G5 virtually silent. Apple boasted that it was the slimmest desktop computer on the market. The iMac G5 was updated in March 2005 to the Ambient Light Sensor (ALS) revision. It included a handful of configuration differences - more RAM, a larger hard drive, improved graphics, Gigabit Ethernet, and standard AirPort Extreme (802.11g) and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. In October 2005, the final revision was released, adding an integrated iSight webcam mounted above the LCD and Apple's Front Row media interface. Other improvements included faster processors, more RAM, larger hard drives, and improved graphics.

20. ALUMINUM iMAC

In August 2007, Apple introduced a complete redesign of the iMac, featuring an aluminum, glass and plastic enclosure. There is only one visible screw on the entire computer, located at the base of the iMac for accessing the memory slots. It has a black, plastic backplate that is not user removable. The 17-inch model was completely removed from the lineup. In March 2009, Apple released a minor refresh of the iMac line. Changes included a fourth USB port, removal of the FireWire 400 port, and a slightly redesigned base. The exterior design was almost identical to the older Intel-based iMacs. The models were one 20-inch configuration and three 24-inch configurations (instead of two at each screen size as before). Apple doubled the default RAM and hard-disk size on all models, moving the RAM to the DDR2 specification. This revision also introduced a new, smaller, and more compact Apple Keyboard that excluded the numeric keypad and forward delete key in favor of the fn + Delete keys shortcut by default. Users could, however, replace this version with a more traditional, full-size model with a numeric keypad by requesting Apple to build their machine to order through its online store.

21. UNIBODY iMAC

In October 2009, a 16:9 aspect ratio screen was introduced in 21.5" and 27" models, replacing the 20" and 24" 16:10 aspect ratio screens of the previous generation. The back is now a continuation of the aluminum body from the front and sides instead of a separate plastic backplate. Video card options entirely switched to AMD, save for the standard onboard Nvidia card in the base model. The iMac's processor selection saw a significant increase. Default RAM has also been increased across the iMac range. With the advent of the larger screens, Apple doubled the number of memory slots from two to four. Consequently, the maximum memory capacity was also doubled (to 16 GB), and for Intel Core i-series (27-inch), quadrupled, to 32 GB.

22. SLIM UNIBODY iMAC

In October 2012, a new iMac model was introduced that featured a considerably smaller body depth than the previous models, measuring 5mm at its thinnest point. This was partly achieved by using a process called Full lamination. The display and glass are laminated together eliminating a 2 mm gap between them. The 21.5 in and 27 in screens remained at their previous resolutions, 1920×1080 and 2560×1440 respectively. As with the 2009 model, memory has been upgraded; the standard specification is now 8 GB, with the 21.5 in model supporting up to 16 GB and the 27 in model supporting up to 32 GB. It was reported that the 21.5 in iMac would have non-replaceable soldered memory similar to the MacBook Air and Retina display MacBook Pro though tear-downs show that it uses removable memory but accessing the modules requires ungluing the screen and removing the logic board. The 27 in version features an access port to upgrade memory without disassembling the display. Apple also upgraded the computers' processors, using Intel's Ivy Bridge microarchitecture-based Core i5 and Core i7 microprocessors. Video cards are now Nvidia as standard. USB 3.0 ports are now included for the first time. The 2012 iMac also features the option of a Fusion Drive which combines an SSD and a conventional HDD to create more efficient and faster storage. Apple also removed the built-in optical drive starting with this iMac generation.