| Quick Facts | 15-inch iMac G3 |
|---|---|
| Introduced | February 22, 2001 |
| Discontinued | July 18, 2001 |
| Part Number | M8348LL/A |
| Processor | 500MHz PowerPC G3 |
| L2 Cache | 256KB/500MHz |
| Frontside Bus | 100MHz |
| Memory | 64MB 133MHz SDRAM |
| Hard drive | 20GB Ultra ATA, 5400 rpm |
| Optical drive | 8x CD-RW |
| Original Price | $1,199 USD |
Early 2001 | Flower Power
February 22, 2001, arrives and you no longer need to purchase a Special Edition to get that speedy 500MHz processor. This series replaced the Summer 2000 series of the previous year.
Forget that 512K 160MHz level 2 cache of the 400MHz iMac base model, this one has a 256K on-chip L2 cache running at full processor speed.
This mid-range model also added other definite improvements. It had four PCI slots; three 64-bit 100MHz slots and one 64-bit 133MHz slot. It also upped the ante with the ATI Rage 128 Ultra graphics controller with 16MB SDRAM.
In addition to the faster processor and L2 cache mentioned earlier, the hard drive was 20GB, which was twice the size of the base model.
The entire series came Airport ready and all included a VGA output port, FireWire support and the Apple Pro Keyboard and Apple Pro Mouse.
This Flower Power is one of the two new wild colors introduced in the Early 2001 series. The other was Blue Dalmation, but if you wanted something less dramatic, you could still get the Indigo model.
There were also three Special Edition models available in Blue Dalmatian, Flower Power and Graphite.
distinguishing features
Slot loading CD-ROM, 10GB hard drive
system software
Installed OS: Mac OS v9.1
etymology
[1] iMac: From Internet + Mac
[2] The “i” in iMac originally stood for Internet but eventually developed into a marketing symbol for a wide range of Apple products.
[3] The Early 2001 designation is derived from the February introduction date.
Photo credit: Apple
