| In 1985, Apple chairman and CEO John Sculley declared
that Apple sold "computers for use in the home, not home
computers." That ambiguous position has now changed - sort
of. Apple is selling its new Macintosh Performa line of
home computers through mass-market channels nationwide. In
other news, Apple ratcheted up the processing power in its
midrange notebook line (see the text box "The PowerBook
145" on page 53). Mass-market channels are so important to Apple's strategy because the Performas are targeted at a challenging subset of the consumer market: first-time buyers. Out of 95 million U.S. households, Apple has identified 7 million that can afford a Performa but have never owned a home computer. Apple's ambitious goal is to convince those holdouts that the time is ripe to not only buy a computer, but to buy a Mac. Of course, the question of what exactly is a home computer has bedeviled manufacturers for years. Apple's answer is that a home computer is a fully functional Mac that's slightly repackaged and sold just about anywhere but a computer store. According to Apple's market research, novices are afraid of computer stores. Thus, the Performas are appearing at 1600 mass-market outlets, such as Sears, Silo, Office Depot, and Office Max. For now, though, Apple won't sell the systems at discount stores or warehouse clubs. The Mac Performa line comprises three machines: the low-end Performa 200, the midrange Performa 400, and the high-end Performa 600. Two of these systems aren't new: The Performa 200 and 400 are actually the Mac Classic II and LC II, respectively. Except for new names, the only differences between the computers are minor revisions to System 7.0 and some bundled software. The top-end Performa 600, which at press time was scheduled to ship in late October, is the only genuinely new model in the lineup. It has the same dimensions as a Mac IIci, but with important differences. It's also priced at about $2500, which is much higher than the $1000 barrier sometimes regarded as the upper limit for a true mass-market consumer product. The Performa 600 Because the Performa 200 and 400 are hardware-identical to the popular Classic II and LC II, we'll focus on the Performa 600 and contrast it to the Mac IIci where applicable. The Performa's 68030 processor is clocked at 31.33 MHz (versus the IIci's 25 MHz) on a 32-bit bus. While the 68882 FPU is standard equipment on the Mac IIci, there's only a socket for it on the Performa 600. The Performa 600 will come with 4 MB of RAM soldered to the main logic board, and it's expandable to 68 MB using 16-MB SIMMs in four sockets. It has the usual three NuBus slots (not a NuBus 90 implementation, as in the Mac Quadras) and an accelerator slot, which is different from the IIci's cache slot. Also present is a 160-MB hard drive, 8-bit sound I/O with a microphone, and the usual complement of external SCSI, LocalTalk, serial, and ADB (Apple Desktop Bus) ports. Typical of a computer targeted for the home, the Performa 600 doesn't have a built-in Ethernet port. There's a big 5 1/4-inch half-height bay at the front of the computer, where you can add an optional CD-ROM drive or an extra highcapacity hard drive. Like the IIci, the Performa has built-in video, but it's improved in two ways. First, the Performa's video frame buffer lives in 512 KB of VRAM (video RAM), while the IIci's buffer resides in a bank of main memory. The Performa's VRAM eliminates the bus-contention performance hit that occurs on the IIci when the processor and video circuitry vie for the same chunk of memory. Second, the Performa's VRAM is expandable to 1 MB (by swapping the two 256-KB SIMMs for 512-KB SIMMs). This provides 16-bit-deep images (displaying 32,768 colors) on 640- by 480-pixel resolution monitors, versus only the 8-bit-deep image (256 colors) available on the IIci's video. The Performa 600 comes in two configurations. The base model has 4 MB of RAM and 512 KB of VRAM. The "multimedia" version has 5 MB of RAM and 1 MB of VRAM. It fills the 51 4-inch bay with Apple's new CD-300i CD-ROM drive. Apple's CD300i doubles the rpm when reading data to achieve a high transfer rate of 300 KBps, but slows down to normal speeds when playing audio discs. The CD-300i can also read multisession Kodak Photo CDs, and Apple provides software to view these images. The 16-bit color depth enables the display to accurately reproduce the Photo CD images. Since the advent of the Mac LC and IIsi, sound input has become the standard for all Macs, and the Performas are no exception. Disappointingly, the Performa 600 uses an upgraded version of the Mac LC's sound ASIC (applicationspecific IC) for recording and generation, rather than the more full-featured Enhanced Apple Digital Sound Chip found in the Mac Quadras and PowerBooks. Thus, the Performa 600 has no stereo output, except for an audio pass-through to the sound jack for the CD-ROM drive. The computer's 8-bit monaural audio can, however, be mixed during output with the stereo audio CD sound. The Performa 600's accelerator slot is nearly identical to the Mac IIci's cache slot, but it lacks the cache control lines. Therefore, the Performa requires intelligent cards that have their own microprocessor, controller, and memory. Apple believes that most 68040 accelerator cards for the Mac IIci should work with little or no modification in the Performa 600. Performa buyers will be offered two new 14-inch monitors instead of Apple's current 12-inch RGB color monitor, a 512- by 384-pixel oddball that causes problems for some color applications that expect a 640- by 480-pixel screen. One of the new monitors, known simply as the Performa Display, is a low-end replacement for the 12-inch monitor; it supports 256 colors at 640 by 480 pixels with a 0.39-mm dot pitch. The higher-end Performa Plus Display supports 32,000 colors at 640 by 480 pixels with a 0.29-mm dot pitch. It also emits less ELF/VLF radiation, conforming to the SWEDAC MPR-2 standard. With the Performa line, Apple is departing from its practice of announcing suggested retail prices. The street prices will probably range from about $1250 for the Performa 200 to $2500 for the CD-equipped Performa 600. The 14inch monitors will probably cost $350 to $450. Get the Works A key element in Apple's bid to attract novice buyers is bundled software. All Performas come with a special version of System 7.0 and some application programs preinstalled on the hard disk. The idea is to provide a complete plug-and-play package while minimizing the number of decisions that buyers must make at the critical moment of purchase. The Performa-specific system software offers a friendlier substitute for the Finder and a simplified application launcher. Performa users see a new Desktop with colored patterns when they boot up the computer. The Finder is actually hidden behind this customizable backdrop. A new window labeled "Application Launcher" contains several buttons resembling icons. These buttons launch applications with a single click. One of the buttons, Apple Backup, is a utility for backing up the hard disk onto floppy disks. Another button launches At Ease, a new security program intended to make it safer to share the computer with other users, especially children. (See the text box "Child-Proofing Your Mac" on page 54.) For more advanced file management, the regular Finder is still accessible from a menu. The bundled applications vary according to deals between Apple and the chain stores. Apple says this lets retailers customize their bundles. Some chains may bundle programs not found on Performas sold at competing stores, and this will influence street prices. However, all Performas are expected to have a Works-style package that includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, a telecommunications program, a paint program, and a flat-file database. The CDROM version of the Performa 600 will come bundled with several CD titles. Apple on a Limb Apple's newfound determination to sell Macs to the masses is a long-overdue strategy. We're thankful that Apple made no attempt to cripple the Performas, as IBM did in 1983 with the PCjr. But it's surprising that Apple made so little effort to differentiate the Performas from regular Macs, to the point of merely renaming two of the three computers in the lineup. And the prices, by consumer standards, are stratospheric. Apple hopes that software like At Ease will help justify the cost by promoting the sharing of the computer in the household. Can Apple succeed where others have either failed or feared to tread? Company InformationMac Performa 200, 400, 600 (no suggested retail prices) Mac PowerBook 145 with 4 MB of RAM and a 40-MB hard drive, $2399;with 4 MB of RAM and an 80-MB hard drive, $2799Apple Computer, Inc. 20525 Mariani Ave. Cupertino, CA 95014 (408) 996-1010 fax: (408) 974-6412 Circle 1059 on Inquiry Card. Photograph: The Mac Performa 600 is the only genuinely new model in the Performa line. Tom Thompson is a BYTE senior technical editor at large and an expert on the Macintosh. You can contact him on BIX as "tom — thompson" or on AppleLink as "T.THOMPSON." Tom R. Halfhill is BYTE's senior news editor in San Francisco. You can contact him on BIX as "thalfhill." Copyright 1994-1997 BYTE |