The PowerBook 150 is a

laptop A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a Clamshell design, clamshell form factor (design), form factor with a flat-panel computer scree ...

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

created by

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...

which was introduced on July 13, 1994, and released on July 18, 1994. It was the last member of the PowerBook 100 series to use the original case design, the most affordable of the series when introduced (priced between $1,450 and $1,600) and also the last consumer model. It was 8 MHz faster than its predecessor, the PowerBook 145B. It lacked an ADB port and used a lower-quality passive matrix display than other contemporary offerings, both to reduce the price. It also lacked external monitor support. Like the Duos and the

PowerBook 100 The PowerBook 100 is a notebook-sized laptop computer designed and manufactured by Sony for Apple Computer and introduced on October 21, 1991, at the COMDEX computer expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Priced at US$2,500 with external floppy driv ...

before it, the 150 only had a single serial printer port, however, a third-party adapter was available for use in the optional modem slot. One interesting improvement was the display's resolution of 640x480 - an increase from the earlier PowerBook resolution of 640x400, and more in line with standard desktop monitors of the time. Though it used the 140 case design, its internals were based on the PowerBook Duo 230 and actually more similar to the features of the PowerBook 190 (which used the PowerBook 5300's case design). Notably, this new logicboard design allowed this 100 series PowerBook to use more than 14 MB RAM for the first time. It was also the first of the 100 series to include a lithium-ion backup battery to preserve RAM contents when the battery is replaced, as well as the first Macintosh ever to use less expensive and larger IDE drives (formatting required a unique software application limiting the selection of compatible drives). This was the last PowerBook model to include a trackball. Like the 145B it replaced, the 150 could not be used in SCSI Disk Mode, unlike the Duo, 190 and 5300 which had HD Target Mode implemented.

Specifications

*Processor:

Motorola 68030 The Motorola 68030 ("''sixty-eight-oh-thirty''") is a 32-bit microprocessor in the Motorola 68000 family. It was released in 1987. The 68030 was the successor to the Motorola 68020, and was followed by the Motorola 68040. In keeping with gener ...

, running at 33 MHz *RAM: 4 MB on board, expandable to 36 MB *ROM: 1 MB *

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 hard disk drive platter, pla ...

: 120–240 MB *

Floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...

: 1.4 MB *Systems supported: System 7.1.1 – Mac OS 7.6.1 *ADB: No *Serial: Yes (1 port) *Modem: Optional (used for this model's expansion port) *Screen: passive matrix, 2-bit greyscale (4 shades) at a resolution of 640×480

Timeline

References

External links

apple-history.com: PowerBook 150
{{Apple hardware before 1998

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68k Macintosh computers Computer-related introductions in 1994