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Second Class Macs & Road Apples

GeoPort 'Modems'

three

Dan Knight - 1998.04.10

Second Class Macs are Apple's somewhat compromised hardware designs. For the most part, they're not really bad - simply designs that didn't meet their full potential. (On our rating scale, the more brown apples, the worse the hardware.)

Some view the GeoPort Telecom Adapter as brilliant; others as a bizarre hardware kludge.

The Centris 660av (later Quadra 660av) and Quadra 840av were the first Macs with GeoPorts, an enhanced serial port. The DMA (direct memory access) ports can operate at up to 2 megabits per second (Mbps). By contrast, the typical Mac serial port ran at 230.4 Kbps or less than 1/4 Mbps. (For more on serial ports, read Macintosh Serial Throughput.)

With the GeoPort serial port, Apple introduced the GeoPort Telecom Adapter, commonly (though incorrectly) known as the GeoPort modem. Not only could the "GeoPod" be used as a 9600 bps modem, it could also fax and turn your Mac into a speakerphone.

Eventually software enabled the GeoPod to run at 14.4 Kbps, then 28.8 Kbps. No other modem ever offered such an upgrade path.

Of course, there was a cost. In the case of the GeoPort "modems," like the earlier Express Modems in early PowerBooks, the cost was CPU time. The faster it ran and the more it did, the more it slowed down your computer.

Worse, it tied up the serial port far more than a conventional modem, affecting printing, MIDI adapters, and LocalTalk networking adversely. And throughput never seemed as fast as with a conventional modem on the same computer and phone line. Never.

Like the Apple /// and the twiggy drives in the Lisa, the GeoPod was a clever hack that didn't live up to expectation. Well after the pod was discontinued, the idea resurfaced as an internal GeoPort Express modem in some Performa and Power Mac models.

Maybe Apple realized the folly of their ways and repented with the Power Mac G3, which explicitly doesn't support the GeoPort Telecom Adapter.

Quad-Core CPU Makes Sense in MacBook Pro, OS X 10.6 Causing Overheating, Overseas Power, and More, The 'Book Review, 11.06. Also Late 2009 MacBook reviewed, how to add RAM to new MacBook, 18.4in Acer notebook used Intel i7, and SanDisk SSD chosen for Sony VAIO X.
Dumping Macs for Google Apps, SSD in iMac, Late 2009 iMac Performance Problems, and More, Mac News Review, 11.06. /newsrev/09mnr/1106.html
WiFi Paranoia, iMac-O-Lantern, Magic Mouse Does Click, Free Clipboard Managers, and More, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.05. Also strange time stamps, problem with ColorIt on Intel Mac, and the story behind OS X 10.5.4 install discs.
IDE Is Dead; Long Live SATA!, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 11.04. SATA has displaced parallel ATA. While IDE hard drives haven't disappeared, the best deals are in SATA hard drives.
QuickTime X in Snow Leopard Imports, Trims, and Publishes Video Quickly and Easily, Alan Zisman, Zis Mac, 11.04. The long, slow process of importing video into iMovie to edit it, then render it to another format, is history as QuickTime X does that much more quickly.
More links in our archive.

Recent Deals

Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.03. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 8-core. $2,299; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.26 8-core, $2,799; 2.93, $4,999.
Best iPhone Deals, 11.03. New 8 GB iPhone 3G, $$99; refurb 16 GB 3GS, $149; new, $199; 32 GB, $299.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.03. Used 867 MHz SperDrive, $348; 1 GHz, $499; 1.33 Combo, $298; SD, $559; 1.5 Combo, $448; SuperDrive, $589.
Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used beige 300 MHz, $25; G4/366, $49; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733 MHz, $69; 933 MHz, $209; 1.25 GHz dual, $299.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.02. Used 2.0 GHz, $800; 2.2, $900; 2.4, $1,000; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,949; 3.06, $2,169; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Mac mini Deals, 10.30. Used 1.33 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.42, $389; 1.5, $419; 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $350; Core 2, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $770; Server, $990.
Best G4 iBook Deals, 10.30. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $225; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1 GHz, $349; 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $498.
Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 10.30. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.5 CD, $4; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30.
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