C2, the Next iMac

I think Apple surprised most of us by releasing the iMac/D at 333 MHz instead of 300 MHz. A lot of us had expected the lower speed, possibly coupled with a boost to 64 MB of RAM or the addition of a DVD player.

Frankly, the iMac really should come with 64 MB. With very few exceptions, 32 MB simply isn't enough memory these days, even for an entry level computer.

My favorite Mac rumor mill, MacOS Rumors, has been discussing the next iMac: the C2, a second generation of iMac.

At the very least, it looks like C2 will have a new motherboard, one sharing more components with the Yosemite G3, possibly running at the same 100 MHz speed and using the same (less expensive) PC-100 memory. And since the current iMac runs at 333 MHz, we should expect the C2 to be no slower. With a 100 MHz bus, that would mean 350 MHz, or maybe even 400 MHz.

We should expect Apple to provide 64 MB of memory, along with a free DIMM socket for adding even more.

DVD? At this point, that would probably inflate the retail price by at least $100, so I don't expect Apple to do it.

FireWire? I certainly hope so, since this would make it easy to add a DVD drive, backup tape drives, DVD-RAM and CD-R burners, huge external hard drives, fast scanners, and so much more.

CPU upgradable? I hope so, since the current iMac has the CPU on a card and the Yosemite G3 puts the CPU on a ZIF socket. This with a 100 MHz motherboard could mean an 800 MHz iMac C2 - or even a G4 running at 1-1.2GHz! (It's assumed the G4 will run at up to 10-12 times motherboard speed, meaning even older Power Macs may see 500-600 MHz G4 daughter cards.)

A bigger screen? Maybe Apple can put in a 16" screen without making the iMac look any larger, but beyond that, it would be too large to have the look and feel of a real iMac.

Further Reading

• Sneak Peak at C2, parts 1-3, Mac OS Rumors, 4/14-20

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