The PowerBook 2400c (codenamed "Comet" and "Nautilus") is a

subnotebook Subnotebook, also called ultraportable, superportable, handtop, mini notebook or mini laptop, is a type of laptop computer that is smaller and lighter than a typical notebook-sized laptop. Types and sizes As typical laptop sizes have decreas ...

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 ...

PowerBook The PowerBook (known as Macintosh PowerBook before 1997) is a family of Macintosh-type laptop computers designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from 1991 to 2006. It was targeted at the professional market; in 1999, the line was suppl ...

range of

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

computers, weighing . Manufacturing was contracted to

IBM Japan IBM has had business internationally since before the company had a name. Early leaders of the companies that would eventually become IBM (Mr Hollerith, Mr Flint, and Mr Watson) all were involved in doing international business. In those early da ...

. In a return to 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 ...

form factor, it was introduced in May 1997 as a late replacement for the PowerBook Duo 2300c, which had been the last of the subnotebook

PowerBook Duo The PowerBook Duo is a line of subnotebooks manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from 1992 until 1997 as a more compact companion to the PowerBook line. Improving upon the PowerBook 100's portability (its immediate predecessor and Apple's t ...

series. The 2400c was discontinued in March 1998, with no immediate replacement; the model that followed it was the much larger

PowerBook G3 The PowerBook G3 is a series of laptop Macintosh personal computers that was designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from 1997 to 2001. It was the first laptop to use the PowerPC G3 (PPC740/750) series of microprocessors, and was ma ...

series (codenamed "Wallstreet"). However, in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, a 2400c with a 240 MHz CPU (codenamed "Mighty Cat") was offered shortly after the original model's discontinuation, until the end of the year.

Overview

The 2400c uses the same

PowerPC 603e The PowerPC 600 family was the first family of PowerPC processors built. They were designed at the Somerset facility in Austin, Texas, jointly funded and staffed by engineers from IBM and Motorola as a part of the AIM alliance. Somerset was opened ...

processor as the preceding Duo 2300c, but at a much higher CPU clock of 180 MHz instead of 100 MHz. However, unlike its predecessor, the 2400c is unable to utilize the Duo Dock, making the lack of an internal removable drive much more noticeable. Like the PowerBook 100 and Duo series before it, it was sold with an external floppy drive. Apple did not offer a

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

drive for it which was otherwise standard for all other PowerBooks. Unlike the Duo, reinstated peripheral ports on the machine most closely matched those of the original 100 and included: ADB, one combined serial printer/modem port, floppy port (not HDI-20 but unique to the 2400c), and HDI-30 SCSI port, but added a VGA video out, stereo sound output and input ports, infrared port, and two

PCMCIA The Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) was an industry consortium of computer hardware manufacturers from 1989 to 2009. Starting with the PCMCIA card in 1990 (the name later simplified to ''PC Card''), it created v ...

card slots. While the original 180 MHz model's PCMCIA slots officially accept only two Type II or one Type III PCMCIA card, some users have applied simple motherboard modifications to allow the use of

CardBus PC Card is a technical standard specifying an expansion card interface for laptops and PDAs. The PCMCIA originally introduced the 16-bit ISA-based PCMCIA Card in 1990, but renamed it to PC Card in March 1995 to avoid confusion with the name o ...

expansion cards as well, extending the practical life of this subcompact until a replacement was eventually offered by Apple. The

ese 240 MHz model offered CardBus as standard. The 2400c is built around a

active-matrix Active matrix is a type of addressing scheme used in flat panel displays. It is a method of switching individual elements of a flat panel display, known as pixels. Each pixel is attached to a transistor and capacitor that ''actively'' maintain the ...

color LCD screen, making the computer very compact indeed—it is slightly smaller and lighter, though a bit thicker, than a

iBook iBook is a line of laptop computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from 1999 to 2006. The line targeted entry-level, consumer and education markets, with lower specifications and prices than the PowerBook, Apple's higher- ...

, and the fourth-smallest subnotebook behind the

PowerBook G4 The PowerBook G4 is a series of notebook computers manufactured, marketed, and sold by Apple Computer between 2001 and 2006 as part of its PowerBook line of notebooks. The PowerBook G4 runs on the RISC-based PowerPC G4 processor, designed by t ...

introduced several years later. Apple's most recent offering in this category was the discontinued MacBook. Due to its processor being located on a detachable daughter card, the PowerBook 2400c saw a small number of

PowerPC G3 The PowerPC 7xx is a family of third generation 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors designed and manufactured by IBM and Motorola (spun off as Freescale Semiconductor bought by NXP Semiconductors). This family is called the PowerPC G3 by Apple Comput ...

processor cards created for it. Companies such as Interware (Vimage) and Newer Technologies (NUpowr) offered processor upgrades which would swap out the 603e for a G3 ranging from 240 MHz to 400 MHz. This was also the last Mac to not ship with an internal CD or DVD drive until the

MacBook Air The MacBook Air is a line of Mac (computer), Mac laptop computers developed and manufactured by Apple Inc., Apple since 2008. It features a thin, light structure in a machining, machined aluminum case and currently either a 13-inch or 15-inch ...

in 2008.

Overview

Timeline

Notes

References

External links