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See the Site Map for a Much More Useful Entry Page
Welcome!
You have arrived
the public portion of
my public/private web site and the home page for the Sliced
Apple site. Sliced
Apple is mainly devoted to
hardware and software upgrades of legacy Macintoshes including lots of
tips and technical discussions but has other
Apple (and non-Apple) technical content as well, along with various
rants.
To
see something more like a useful home page I would suggest going to the
Sliced Apple Site Map. It
would also serve as the best page
to bookmark for this site.
This is also the entry web page for the PM 8500 Project, a legacy Power Macintosh that is my pet hobby computer and the originating topic of this web site. We just call her "Bertha".
Bertha serves my personal intra/internet needs at my home in Texas and hosts this web site dedicatd to my computer hobby, Apple Macintosh computers, some freeware software I have written, and anything else I care to write about, at least when I don’t have Bertha ripped apart playing with her.
This web page began with just a specifications page link off another small private web page and, in the beginning, this site could have just as well been called the “My 8500 Page”. However as the result of a fun project and the need to keep a diary of sorts it has instead slowly grown to complete excess. Call it therapy.
Sliced Apple has now become quite large and has a variety of articles, rants, and general Mac ramblings. An article I and my wife put together about our addition of internal BlueTooth to a new G4 iBook proved REALLY popular. Go to the Site Map and check it all out.
The Recent Activities is really a blog.
PM
8500 G4 X Specifications
Technical Details of this Server
This system is part of an
active hobby and therefore its specs and peripherals change regularly.
It is not uncommon for the position and/or model of every hard
drive and optical drive to change twice in a week, or all its USB
devices to be re-arranged, or for the entire system to
be dissassembled and reassembled four times in one day. Even PCI
cards cyle
with some combination of three out five routine cards trading plus many
others that are installed once just to test them. The result is that
these
specs are approximate, although over the past 9 months or more the
system had not been altered as much as in days past. This
stability is a consequence of both its heavy server
responsibilities and the fact that I am beginning to worrry about wear
and tear.
|
Hardware
Platform: |
Apple PowerPC PCI
(Apple system based on a
RISC CPU/PCI bus architecture - 1st generation PCI) |
|
Operating
System: |
Apple Macintosh OS X 10.4.x Client (freeBSD based "Darwin" Unix compatible system) System orignally shipped with System 7.6. Supported through OS 9.1.x. (OS 9 continued to 9.2) Originally upgraded to OS X using OS X 10.2.x and then sequential upgraded to 10.3 and now 10.4. |
|
Web
Server: |
Apache
1.3 (Apache 2.0 installed but not yet in use) |
|
CPU: |
Motorola 7457 “G4” 800 MHz CPU on daughtercord in standard daughtercard slot. Upgraded from orginal 120MHz 604 that was "clock chipped" 150 Mhz 604 -> 250 Mhz G3 -> (current) 800 Mhz G4 - Sonnet Creshendo PCI G4 800 card |
|
Motherboard: |
Apple 8500 “Nitro”- PCI based Powersurge type mainboard - original bus speed (as shipped) was 40 Mhz - currently running at 50 Mhz for a 16:1 CPU:bus ratio The
motherboard
is from a high end
professional midsized tower system ~ year 1990 - Full Pro line of that
time: 7200
- Entry Professional Desktop, 7500/7600 - Desktop, 8500/8600 - Midsized
Tower, 9500/9600 - Full Sized Tower. The laptop and consumer
lines were different. |
|
Slots: |
DAV x1 (slot for MPEG2 decoder card) AV In/Out - Digital to Analog (and reverse) with S-video and composite in out built-in to system. Not tested by me in
OS X - Reports are that the hardware still works. |
|
|
32 Bit 33 MHz PCI x 3
(2.0 Compliant) |
|
Video: |
32MB ATI
based Radeon
7000 multi-display (dual head) capable PCI video card |
|
|
2M PCI Video (on
motherboard) - separate from Radeon 7000 PCI card |
|
|
Support for three
logical monitors - one from built-in video, two from Radeon PCI card |
|
Caches: |
L1 32K Data, 32K
Instruction |
|
|
L2
256K at 800 MHz (1:1)
|
|
|
L3 1M at 200 MHz (4:1) |
|
RAM: |
1 GB of FPM
or EDO 168 pin DIMMS (8 slots, 8x128) - Matched and interleaved |
|
Hard
Drives: |
200 G ATA 133 HD -
Hitachi |
|
|
160
G ATA 133 HD - Seagate |
|
|
36 G SCSI 160 QUANTUM
ATLAS 10K 10K3_36_WLS
Hard Drive on internal SCSI 2 bus |
|
Optical
Drives: |
Internal
ATAPI LITE-ON LTR-52327S 52x26x52
CDRW (Iomega Branded) |
|
|
Internal SCSD Toshia
CD Drive XM-5401B Currently
Removed |
|
|
Internal ATAPI Teak (Que) DV-W50D 4xDVDr/16xCDRW Currently Removed |
|
Other
Drives: |
Internal 7 device
Multi-card reader (via USB 2) |
|
|
External SCSI Epson
Iomega Zip 100 |
|
|
External ATAPI Lite-On 52x26x52 CDRW via Firewire (Lacie Branded) Currently Used Elsewhere |
|
Ports: |
Apple motherboard
10Mbps Ethernet -RJ-45 or AAUI (RJ45 connector not working but AAUI
works) |
|
|
PCI
802.11g Wireless NIC (Broadcom based, Motorolla branded) - or - Asante
696 10/100 Fast Ethernet PCI NIC |
|
|
Macintosh Video Connector (motherboard), VGA, DVI, TV via RCA composit video (PCI card) All video works as expected with normal multi-display support. Quartz Extreme works well well enabled on the PCI video card. |
|
|
Geoport Serial Ports x 2 (RS432 based with bandwidth up to 2 Mbps) - function as standard serial ports or as faster Geoports As orginally used these ports supported modems, printing, and AppleTalk peer to peer networking via a direct serial/serial connection or via local talk connections. Modems work in OS X but printing has not been tested. OS X has no support for Local Talk or old AppleTalk (AS) and only supports newer AppleTalk over TCP (AFP). Geoport modems have also not been tested but function is unlikey since they were a modem similuted by system software and OS X is unlikey to have such code. |
|
|
Internal Fast SCSI 2 as bus 0 and SCSI I as bus 1 (50 pin connectors) - allows 14 total devices internal plus external SCSI devices appear to work as expected with more exotic devices (SCSI scanners) requiring 3rd party drivers per the norm |
|
|
External SCSI 1 on
bus 1 (25 pin connectors) |
|
|
Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) - standard Apple connector for input devices (now replaced by USB) - required for "at startup" keyboard commands to open firmware |
|
|
FireWire 400 x 2 (3 externally assessable) - via Sonnet Trio PCI card interfaced to USB/FireWire bay mounted powered hub 2 ports on card one splitting to 2 ports on the hub FireWire works very well and seems generally immune to USB's bandwidth problems from its PCI 2.0 slot limited PCI card. Has good transfer rates and burns reliable when used with optical drives. |
|
|
USB 2.0 x 2 (2 USB 1.1 and 5 USB 2.0 externally assessable) - via Sonnet Trio PCI card interfaced to 2 internal hubs, and the bay hub - internal connections are made to BlueTooth, the USB card reader, and the iMic USB 1.1 works as expected. USB 2.0 (Hi Speed) works as expected with low bandwidth devices but fails with high bandwidth devices like USB 2.0 external drives. It appears the older PCI 2.0 slots gets overwhelmed USB 2.0 data flow with a system freeze resulting until the USB 2.0 device is disconnected. Most devices are pretty slow (Palm syncing, Printeres, Bluetooth, Keyboards, Mice, Scanning, etc ) and work well. All devices work well (if slow) if buffered through a USB 1.1 hub. Systems just a couple of years newer with PCI 2.1 slots do not have this problem. FireWire 400 on the same card does not have these problems.* |
|
|
BlueTooth via USB 2.0
(directly off the PCI card) via OEM Apple internal BlueTooth
module - antenna mounted in front case cover |
|
|
Audio In/Out via USB
Adapter - iMic (on board audio not working after I screwed it up) |
|
PCI Cards |
Motorolla 802.11g
Wireless PCI card (Broadcom based) |
|
|
Sonnet Trio 133 - ATA
133
controller (supports 4 devices), USB 2.0 x 2, FW 400 x2 |
|
|
Power Color Radeon 7000 PCI 32 M Multi-Display Edition - (firmware flashed to Mac Edition) |
|
Peripherals/Other |
Printing/Faxing/Scanning
- networked HP AIO PSC 2510 |
|
|
Cyber Power USB UPS
(auto-save software blows so it is not in use) |
|
|
Canon Lide’
30 Scanner (USB) -relocated |
|
|
Griffin iMic USB
Audio In/Out |
|
|
Harmon Kardon
Speaker/Subwoofer -or- Creative Speaker/Subwoofer system (varies with
mood) |
|
|
Griffin PowerMate
(USB Volume/Multimedia control knob) |
|
|
Epson C62ux Inkjet
Printer (shared for Mac/PC) -relocated |
|
|
HP Deskjet 648c
(shared for Mac/PC, + shared as Postscript IP printer via GimpPrint for
Mac/PC/OS 9/Palm, ect…) -relocated |
|
|
Apple ADB keyboard
and mouse (for Open Firmware or emegency uses) |
|
|
Apple USB keyboard
(bad/evil skeleton one) and MS Intellimouse Optical (occassional use) |
|
|
MS Bluetooth Mouse + (MS Bluetooth USB Adapter
- not used after adding internal BT)
(routine use) |
|
|
Apple BlueTooth
keyboard (routine use) |
|
|
Global Village (old) V.90 serial modem (via RS432 port) - standard serial modem (Mad/PC) with Mac style DIN 9 serial connector - does not power from Geoport but uses external PS Allows Fax send/recieve, dial up networking/connections - serial ports and modems seen by Virtual PC for use of PC only clients for special uses. (Occassional use of a 33.6 Global Village modem powered off Geoport. Have/will use a Zoom v92 BlueTooth modem for all the above - also seen easily by VirtualPC) |
|
|
20 inch Envision CRT via VGA connector (Occassion single or dual display use of Compaq Presario 15in LCD Display via DVI connector) |
| Case |
Full Sized ATX Tower (CompUSA
branded Antec case) with separate Antec 500W dual fan Power Supply
interfaced to motherboard via a hand-made wiring harness and a
hand-built signal inverter to allow soft-power on/off with a
legacy Apple motherboard and a modern ATX PS. Case modifed
for non-standard motherboard mounting and motherboard connectors. |
|
|
**Most Printers
relocated to office after replacement with HP AOI PSC 2510 for home
use. |
|
|
|
Some More Information for the Interested
This web server is running on the workhorse desktop computer at my house, the one described above. This server performs a lot of duties including: webserving and webDAV, FTP, SSH, hosting the internal Video On Demand system, print serving, and file serving (AFP always and SMB/CFIS when needed), landing point for encrypted tunnels for outside access, digital/device hub with two printers, two scanners, two modems (one for fax, one for dialing into secure systems trapped in the 80’s), BlueTooth (including Bluetooth Access Point for Palm/other internet access, and sync/install Palm Pilot…so named because Clie lacks a certain...), plus a Sony Ericsson T637 GPRS/GSM Bluetooth cell phone. It also handles backup/trouble shooting/dumb move recovery duties for the other computers in the household (at time of writing: Powerbook G4 12, Beige G3 (G4 400), Generic PC, and iBook plus sometimes an iMac or Mac Plus,) along with computers on loan to others (Sawtooth AGP G4 400, clamshell iBook 300). This computer, bastardized as it is, is the most reliable and stable system I have ever owned often running for months unattended, and for months getting heavy daily use without requiring a restart. In fact, despite a hard life of constant hardware changes and experimentation, odd drivers and home grown software, and a constant barage of beta software Bertha last had a fresh system install 11/29/03. It's current system is the result of continous updates and upgrades of that original install.
In other words a totally unsupported legacy system has been running OS X for around 2 1/2 years without ever needing to be reinstalled. It started as Panther 10.3.0 and has slowly been updated/upgraded to 10.4.5. Now THAT is impressive.
I am an Apple
Macintosh
fan and,
for me, this is a special computer.
Although
not rare or unique, one
upgraded such as this is a least very uncommon and demonstrates well
the
differences in Macs and PC’s, especially in what they mean to
their owners.
Therefore
if you are
interested in more information about this computer, or my general
semi-accurate
ravings, it is available in Nauseating detail
that few would appreciate (or want to) but they can load up the full PM
8500 Project
Page
if they
really want more.
(I promise…nauseating…who would make that up!)
For information on joining the SlicedApple SETI team go here.-R (Resident
House Computer Nerd)
Sign the Guest Book (Hehe, my wfe was mad at me around the time I added the Guest Book and became VERY frustrated by the profanity filter.)
Various
decriptions,
links and technical articles about how to perform these types of
upgrades are contained on this site. See the Site Map for
links.
If you find any links or content that you feel violates your intellectual property or inappropriately accesses your site please let me know. If you have an interesting (even if only you think it is interesting) hobby site please email me the link.
THE SLICED APPLE SITE HAS NO ADVERTISING. If you are se eing adds they are not coming from here. Furthermore I am a private individual and I DO NOT harvest email addresses and spam people, sell the email addresses, or anything of the kind.
If you send me an email and I don't respond then certainly I could not pick it out of my clutter of spam. Just put PM8500 or Sliced Apple in the subject and I will catch it.
About this Site Privacy Statement
Really
just "Modified" with Nvu - but who is really watching!
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Originally
Created ~ 12/15/03
Updated
8/26/04
Updated 11/3/04
Updated 5/27/95 - Updated for 10.4 Tiger Upgrade (from 10.3)
Updated 6/10/05 - Minor changes
Updated 6/22/05 - Minor corrections
Updated 3/18/06 - Updated to reflect date of last fresh system
install