A computer manufactured and marketed by Apple Computers, of Cupertino, California.

First introduced in 1994, the PowerMac family is the latest in Apple's line of famous Macintosh computers, and is named after the PowerPC chip, a joint venture between Apple, IBM, and Motorola, which powers it. Traditionally the chips in these machines have been manufactured by Motorola, but recent developments have seen Apple weakening their links with Motorola's processor division while strengthening those with IBM.

The Power Macintosh family itself is commonly broken into three distinct generations, with more information on each generation being found in their respective nodes.

  • First generation: Also known as NuBus PowerMacs. They use a special Apple boot ROM and feature only NuBus and PDS expansion slots.
  • Second generation: Also known as Old World PowerMacs, this generation saw the introduction of PCI buses, and the use of Open Firmware to boot the machines.
  • Third generation: Also known as New World PowerMacs, this generation consists of all machines that use Open Firmware 3.0 or higher to boot. Current PowerMacs, such as the G5, are members of this generation.

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