Apple has released yet another revolutionary computer – its latest offering is a supercomputer-standard chip suspended in an 8” cube – and it is intended for the home market.
The Power Mac G4 Cube packs more power than the most powerful Pentium III with its PowerPC G4 Velocity Engine, a 128 bit processor that can deliver a sustained performance of one gigaflop, and a theoretical peak of 3.6 gigaflops.
The engine is enhanced with a further 162 new instructions which speed the 128 bit processor. The air-cooled Cube holds a 450MHz Power Mac G4 chip, running Mac OS9, with 64MB RAM, 1MB of backside Level 2 cache, 20GB Ultra ATA harddisk, DVD-ROM and an ATI Rage 16MB memory card.
The Cube also comes with a pair of Apple-designed 20 watt digital speakers, and a redesigned optical mouse.
It also features the new Apple Display Connector (ADC), a single cable that carries power, video and USB signals to the display unit.
“The G4 Cube is simply the coolest computer ever,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “An entirely new class of computer, it marries the Pentium-crushing performance of the Power Mac G4 with the miniaturization, silent operation and elegant desktop design of the iMac.
“It is an amazing engineering and design feat, and we’re thrilled to finally unveil it to our customers,” Jobs added.
