Architosh Staff (info@architosh.com)

27 Aug 00

Architosh Macworld Expo Report -2

Our belated expo report series picks up again with this entry. As we have mentioned in the past, we try not to cover the same items most general Mac news sites delve into. Instead we focus on products and services of particular value to the AEC/CAD/3D professional or student. Here's what up in this report:

This Report: Processor Upgrade Cards, Cobalt's Qube 2 and Expansion Bays, FireWire Cards and portable Hard Drives

Processor Upgrade Cards

While Apple introduced multiprocessor G4 Power Macs, a number of vendors were introducing powerful processor upgrade kits for those who have just bought a Mac or have an older Mac they wish to keep living with.

MACh Speed G4zif MPe

While they were not shipping at the event, XLR8, a US card vendor based out of Georgia with offices in the UK, showed their forthcoming multi-processor-based G4 boards.

The Mach Carrier G4 MPe and CarrierZIF MPe are G4 upgrade cards that allow for future multiprocessing with the availability of a second G4 processor chip that plugs into the Mach Carrier solutions. A quote from their web site says:

"The CarrierZIF MPe is perfect for many customers with older machines that want to use them with one processor today, but are looking at multiple processors in the future."

The Mach Carrier G4 ZIF MPe is estimated to be available in October 2000. Prices will start about $699SRP. Speeds vary between 350MHz to 500MHz. Machines available for this upgrade card include such older Power Macs as the: 7300, 7500, 7600, 8500, 8600, 9500, 9600 and clones such as UMAX SuperMacs, and DayStar Genesis and Millennium machines, including MP version 720, 800, 900 and 932.

JoeCard G3/G4 Upgrades

Metabox, a German Macintosh upgrade card maker, with offices in Austin, Texas, were on attendance this year. They were demonstrating their JoeCARD series of processor upgrades for ZIF-based Power Macs. These cards are said to be Mac OS 9 compatible for all supported systems.

JoeCARD G3/G4 is designed to work with Apple Power Macs (7300 -9600: see list above under Mach Speed G4zif MPe) and a wide variety of clones.

JoeCARD T G3/G4 is designed for the Motorola StarMax Series, Umax and all Tanzania-based Mac OS systems.

JoeCARD Z G3/G4 is designed for the Apple Power Macintosh G3 (Beige, Blue & White) and Power Macintosh G4 (PCI-based) models. Supports third-party ZIF carrier cards.

The JoeCARD's three switches adjust for close pulse, bus speed and processor to bus speed ratio. The G4 Z card also includes up to 2 MB onboard cache operating at half the processor speed. Like the XLR8-based cards above, JoeCARDS offer price/performance competition, German engineering and the backing of a multi-million dollar, publicly traded company.

In addition to these two vendors, with Metabox of Germany of particular interest since this company is new to many Mac users, other card vendors were at Expo, including Newer Technology, with its full line of processor upgrades for numerous Macintosh models, including iMacs.

PowerBook owners, in particular, may be excited to learn about the Newer MAXpowr G3-PB 466MHz card. This upgrade program requires you send in your current processor and carrier for a five day turnaround. But the rewards may be worth it.