The Macintosh Quadra is a family of
personal computer
A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or te ...
s designed, manufactured and sold by
Apple Computer, Inc. from October 1991 to October 1995. The Quadra, named for the
Motorola 68040
The Motorola 68040 ("''sixty-eight-oh-forty''") is a 32-bit microprocessor in the Motorola 68000 series, released in 1990. It is the successor to the 68030 and is followed by the 68060, skipping the 68050. In keeping with general Motorola na ...
central processing unit
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, a ...
, replaced the
Macintosh II family
The Macintosh II is a family of personal computers that was designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1987 to 1993. The Macintosh II was the initial model, representing the high-end of the Macintosh line for the time. Over th ...
as the high-end
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...
model.
The first models were the
Quadra 700 and
Quadra 900, both introduced in October 1991. The
Quadra 800,
840AV and
605
Year 605 (Roman numerals, DCV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 605 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...
were added through 1993. The
Macintosh Centris
Macintosh Centris is a family of personal computers designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. in 1992 and 1993. They were introduced as a replacement for the six-year-old Macintosh II family of computers; the name was chosen to ...
line was merged with the Quadra in October 1993, adding the
610,
650
__NOTOC__
Year 650 (DCL) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 650 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era beca ...
and
660AV to the range. After the introduction of the
Power Macintosh
The Power Macintosh, later Power Mac, is a family of personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer as the core of the Macintosh brand from March 1994 until August 2006.
Described by ''MacWorld'' as "the most important te ...
line in early 1994, Apple continued to produce and sell new Quadra models; the
950 continued to be sold until October, 1995.
The product manager for the Quadra family was Frank Casanova who was also the Product Manager for the
Macintosh IIfx
The Macintosh IIfx is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from March 1990 to April 1992. At introduction it cost from to , depending on configuration, and it was the fastest Macintosh available at the time.
...
.
Models
The first computers bearing the Macintosh Quadra name were the
Quadra 700 and
Quadra 900, both introduced in 1991 with a
central processing unit
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, a ...
(CPU) speed of 25
MHz. The 700 was a compact model using the same case dimensions as the
Macintosh IIci
The Macintosh IIci is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from September 1989 to February 1993. It is a more powerful version of the Macintosh IIcx, released earlier that year, and shares the same comp ...
, with a
Processor Direct Slot (PDS) expansion slot, while the latter was a newly designed
tower case with five
NuBus
NuBus (pron. 'New Bus') is a 32-bit parallel computer bus, originally developed at MIT and standardized in 1987 as a part of the NuMachine workstation project. The first complete implementation of the NuBus was done by Western Digital fo ...
expansion slots and one PDS slot. The 900 was replaced in 1992 with the
Quadra 950, with a CPU speed of 33 MHz. The line was joined by a number of "800-series" machines in a new
minitower case design, starting with the
Quadra 800, and the "600-series"
pizza box desktop cases with the
Quadra 610.
In 1993, the
Quadra 840AV
The Macintosh Quadra 840AV is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from July 1993 to July 1994. It was introduced alongside the Centris 660AV, where "AV" signifies audiovisual capabilities, such as video input ...
and
660AV were introduced at 40 MHz and 25 MHz respectively. They included an
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile ...
3210
Digital signal processor
A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor chip, with its architecture optimized for the operational needs of digital signal processing. DSPs are fabricated on MOS integrated circuit chips. They are widely used in audio s ...
and
S-Video
S-Video (also known as separate video, Y/C, and erroneously Super-Video ) is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video, typically at 525 lines or 625 lines. It encodes video luma and chrominance on two separate chann ...
and
composite video
Composite video is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video (typically at 525 lines or 625 lines) as a single channel. Video information is encoded on one channel, unlike the higher-quality S-Video (two channe ...
input/output ports, as well as
CD-quality
microphone
A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publ ...
and audio output ports. The AV models also introduced
PlainTalk, consisting of the text-to-speech software
MacinTalk Pro and speech control (although not dictation). However all of these features were poorly supported in software and a DSP was not installed in later AV Macs, which were based on the more powerful
PowerPC 601 - a CPU powerful enough to handle the coprocessor's duties on its own.
Branding
Apple hired marketing firm
Lexicon Branding to come up with the name. Lexicon chose the name Quadra hoping to appeal to engineers by evoking technical terms like quadrant and quadriceps.
The Quadra name was also used for the successors to the
Centris models that briefly existed during 1993: The
610, the
650
__NOTOC__
Year 650 (DCL) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 650 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era beca ...
and the
660AV. Centris was a "mid-range" line of systems between the Quadra on the high end and the
LC on the low end, but it was later decided that there were too many product lines and the name was dropped. Some machines of this era including the
Quadra 605 were also sold as
Performas.
The last use of the name was for the
Quadra 630, which was a variation of the LC 630 using a "full"
Motorola 68040
The Motorola 68040 ("''sixty-eight-oh-forty''") is a 32-bit microprocessor in the Motorola 68000 series, released in 1990. It is the successor to the 68030 and is followed by the 68060, skipping the 68050. In keeping with general Motorola na ...
instead of the LC's
68LC040
The Motorola 68040 ("''sixty-eight-oh-forty''") is a 32-bit microprocessor in the Motorola 68000 series, released in 1990. It is the successor to the 68030 and is followed by the 68060, skipping the 68050. In keeping with general Motorola n ...
, and introduced together with it in 1994. The 630 was the first Mac to use an
IDE based drive bus for the internal
hard disk
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magn ...
drive, whereas all earlier models had used
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...
.
The first three
Apple Workgroup Server
Apple Workgroup Server and Macintosh Server are a family of Macintosh-based workgroup servers, sold by Apple Computer from 1993 to 2003. Machines bearing these names are re-branded Centris, Quadra and Power Macintosh systems with additional serv ...
models, the WGS 60, the WGS 80 and the WGS 95 (mostly called "AWS 95" for "Apple Workgroup Server") were based on the Centris 610, the Quadra 800 and the Quadra 950, respectively.
Processor
The transition to the Motorola 68040 was not as smooth as the previous transitions to the
Motorola 68020 or
Motorola 68030. Due to the Motorola 68040's split instruction and data caches, the Quadra had compatibility problems with
self-modifying code (including relocating code, which was common under the
Macintosh memory model). Apple partially fixed this by having the basic Mac OS memory copy call flush the caches. This solved the vast majority of stability problems, but negated much of the Motorola 68040's performance improvements. Apple also introduced a variant of the memory copy call that did not flush the cache.
The new trap was defined in such a way that calling it on an older version of Mac OS would simply call the previous memory copy routine. The net effect of this was that many complex applications were initially slow or prone to crashing on the 68040, although developers quickly adapted to the new architecture by relying on Apple's memory copy routines rather than their own (or flushing the cache), and using the memory copy that did not flush the cache when appropriate (most of the time).
Specifications of Macintosh Quadras
All Obsolete
Timelines
See also
*
List of Macintosh models grouped by CPU type
*
Timeline of Macintosh models
This is a list of all major types of Mac computers produced by Apple Inc. in order of introduction date. Macintosh Performa models were often physically identical to other models, in which case they are omitted in favor of the identical twin. Also ...
References
External links
EveryMac.com - Macintosh Quadra seriesLowendmac.com - Centris/Quadra Index
{{Apple hardware
Computer-related introductions in 1991