Quadra
From Mac Guides
The Quadra was Apple's high end line of personal computers in the early 1990s, until they were superseded by the PowerMac. The Quadra was based around the Motorola 68040 CPU.
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The following Quadra models were released, sorted by model number.
Macintosh Quadra 605
Macintosh Quadra 610
Anchoring the low end of the Quadra line (along with the Quadra 605), the Quadra 610 was more or less a "prosumer" computer: faster than the education/low-end Performa line but cheaper than the most powerful Quadras. Its slimline "Pizza Box" case limited expansion options somwehat but it did have a single PDS expansion slot. Since the Quadra line somewhat overlapped the introduction of the first PowerPC-based Macs, Apple offered a PowerPC upgrade kit for the Quadra 610 (the Power Macintosh 6100 used the same case; the kit was essentially a logic board exchange to a 6100 board).
Specifications
- 25MHz 68040 (cheaper 8/160 configuration shipped with 68LC040, which has no FPU)
- 4MB RAM on logic board, expandable to 68MB using two 72-pin SIMM slots
- 160 or 230 MB SCSI hard drive
- 1.44 MB "SuperDrive" floppy drive
- 2X CD-ROM
- 512k VRAM upgradeable to 1MB
- 1 PDS expansion slot (NuBus adapter available)
- 2 ADB ports, 2 Serial ports, 1 DB-25 SCSI port
- 10Base-T Ethernet built in, uses Apple AUI (AAUI) port
Supported OS
- Shipped with OS 7.1.x installed, latest OS supported is OS 8.1
- Apple PowerPC upgrade kit supports up to OS 9.1
Upgrades & Tips
- Being a 68k Mac, the Quadra 610 has long since become obsolete and no current Apple software is compatible. Nevertheless some hardware upgrades are still available for this computer. The hardware upgrade path is not financially sound but would involve installing a PowerMac 6100 logic board. This logic board can be further upgraded with Sonnet Technologies' Crescendo NuBus G3 processor upgrade. Despite this, OS X is not officially supported - you are still limited to OS 9.x.x.
- Like all 68k Macs (and early PowerMacs), the Quadra 610 uses a proprietary DB-15 video connector instead of the common VGA connector. Thus, unless used with an Apple CRT an adaptor must be purchased to allow use of a standard PC display. These adaptors are generally cheap and abundant.
- There are also a number of (now obsolete) 68k-based processor upgrades like Sonnet's Quad Doubler series. eBay is the best source for these and other upgrades including VRAM and NuBus video cards.
- The Apple AUI Ethernet port requires an adaptor (called a 10Base-T transciever) in order to use the RJ-45 cables commonly used for Ethernet and broadband internet.
- With 72-pin SIMMS very inexpensive these days, installing the maximum RAM is cheap. OS 8.1 is also sold cheaply from Mac resellers and in this configuration the Quadra 610 could still be used as an email terminal, for word processing or to run legacy software.
Related Links
Crescendo NuBus G3 upgrade (for use with PowerPC Upgrade kit or 6100 logic board)
Macintosh Quadra 630
Macintosh Quadra 650
Macintosh Quadra 660AV
Macintosh Quadra 700
Macintosh Quadra 800
Macintosh Quadra 840AV
Codenamed "Cyclone", the Macintosh Quadra 840av was first introduced in July of 1993 at the price of $4,700. Housed in a Quadra 800 case, the Quadra 840av shared similar basic specifications with the 800 in addition to many new AV features. The 840av featured both a 68040 Mhz processor, and an AT&T DSP3210 Digital Signal Processor (DSP) rated at 66 MHZ. The 68040 was intended to take care of all system and software tasks, while the DSP handled Audio and Video tasks for applications coded to take advantage of that hardware.
How the AT&T DSP3210 works with the Quadra
The Macintosh Quadra 840av was one of only two 68k computers made by Apple featuring a special AT&T DSP3210 Digital Signal Processor (DSP), the other being the Centris / Quadra 660av. Located directly on the logic board, the DSP was an integral part of the Quadra 840av's system architecture. The intent of installing this technology was to offload video, audio, and graphical tasks to a processor as it was specially designed to work with this type of data. Moving these processing tasks results in taking load off of the primary system processor, making the overall system faster in general.
Applications that were designed to utilize the DSP were not very abundant due to the fact that Apple abandoned the DSP technology shortly after it's debut in the AV line. The DSP was dropped in favor of the new PowerPC architecture being designed with the AIM alliance with IBM and Motorola. The most popular and known applications that took advantage of this processor are as follows.
- Apple Video Player. Program for recording and playing video files on the Macintosh.
- Apple Geoport Modem. A software modem that uses the DSP to process data.
- Apple Plain Talk A speech recognition made by apple for the Macintosh.
- ARTAbrot A Mandrelbot application that is DSP aware.
- AV DSP Photoshop Plugin A Photoshop plugin that was able to use the DSP in Photoshop 2.5.
- DECK II A DSP aware Audio Mixing software program.
- DigiTrax DSP aware digital audio editor and recorder.
- VUMeters An application that monitors input and output volume units of the DSP.
Apple was able to do some unique tricks with the DSP from within the OS. When using Apple Video player on the DSP equipped systems, it allowed you to use a feature called “Show Through” . This feature actually turned any window over the player translucent so you could watch the video underneath, while continuing to work on your system. Because this feature was being handled by the DSP, the system did not slow to a crawl while it was enabled.
Other features included the ability to encode and decode Video or Audio independent of the system processor, meaning quality of recorded audio or Video was most always better then that of the first PowerPC AV systems. This separation of processing by the DSP meant you could be working in an other application, or navigate through the system without your saved work being effected by the 68040 processor load. The biggest drawback to this was the fact that the DSP still had to share memory and Hard disks with the 68040, limiting it’s overall speed.
Specifications
- Processor = 40 Mhz 68040 with a 40 Mhz Bus
- DSP = 67 MHz AT&T DSP3210
- Memory = 4 MB RAM Expandable to 128 MB With 4 60ns 72-pin SIMM RAM Slots
- Hard Disk = 230 MB - 1.0 GB Hard Drive
- Removable Storage = 1.4 MB Floppy
- CD/ROM = 2x CD-ROM Drive
- Ports = 1 ADB, 2 DIN 8 Serial ports, 1 SCSI DB-25
- Audio out = Stereo 16bit mini jack,
- Audio in = Stereo 16bit mini jack
- Video out = DB15 Monitor connection, S-video and composite RCA connector. NTSC, PAL, SECAM.
- Video in = S-video and composite RCA connector. NTSC, PAL, SECAM.
- Video RAM = 1-4mb using 4 slots
- Ethernet = AUI-15 (AAUI)
- Slots = 3 NuBus 90 slots
Supported Mac OS
- Lowest stable and supported OS: 7.1
- Highest stable and supported OS: 8.1
Relevant Links
Macintosh Quadra 900
Macintosh Quadra 950
| Models with 68k Processors | |
|---|---|
|
Early models | SE series | Classic series | Macintosh II series | LC series | Macintosh TV | Centris | Quadra | Performa | |
