At 12:35 -0500 06/09/2002, Stephen Bright wrote:
>> can tell me what MAch V is?
>
>MACh is part of the name used by XLR8 for their G3/G4 upgrades and
>accompanying software, i.e., 'XLR8 MACh Speed Control' is the name of the
>control panel shipping with their current G4 upgrade.
>Stephen
But before that, Mach V was IBM's code name for their PPC604e
processor on a new process technology that enabled it to run faster
and cooler. These processors were used in the Apple 250 MHz and up
CPU cards that bore the 604e processor. Note that the Mach V cards
only work in the 8600 Enhanced and 9600 Enhanced Power Macintoshs.
There are several opportunities for confusion in all this, though it
doesn't matter these days (mostly) because there is little interest
in 604e processors.
First of all, there were two different machines called 8600 and 9600.
There was the 8600 and the 8600 Enhanced. There was the 9600 and the
9600 Enhanced.
The 8600 was basically an 8500 in a nice case with slightly updated
ROMs. The 9600 was the 9500 in a nice case with slightly updated
ROMs.
The 8600 Enhanced was the 8600 with the Kansas ROMs and modified CPU
slot to use the Mach V based CPU card. This is usually called the
8600 Kansas. The 9600 Enhanced is the 9600 with Kansas ROMs and the
512KB cache removed from the motherboard. Also, usually called a
9600 Kansas or just Kansas machine.
So the existence of two different models with the same model numbers
is one source of confusion. In tabular format
1st 8500 9500
2nd 8600 9600
3rd 8600 Enhanced 9600 Enhanced
AKA Kansas AKA Kansas
The next source of confusion is the Mach V CPU card and how to
identify it. All Apple CPU cards with a PPC604e processor *and* that
have speeds of 250 MHz or higher were Mach V cards. Simple, yes?
Mach V cards only shipped in the Kansas machines and Kansas machines
only ever shipped with Mach V cards. The cards included an onboard 1
MB "In-Line" cache similar to the backside cache we're all familiar
with on the G3 and G4 cards.
Okay, the confusion comes in because Umax and Power Computing shipped
PPC604e cards at 250 MHz which were not Mach V cards. It's not
really that complex, but most people just hear, "250 and above equals
Mach V" and they mentally drop the part about *Apple cards*.
Jeff Walther
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