// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the PowerBook 500 say? It had a lot of power.

PowerBook 500 series

The PowerBook 540c
Developer	Apple Computer
Manufacturer	Apple Computer
Product family	PowerBook
Type	Portable computer
Released	May 16, 1994 (1994-05-16)
Lifespan	1.9 years
Discontinued	April 1, 1996 (1996-04-01)
Operating system	System 7.1.1 (520/540 only) System 7.5–Mac OS 8.1 or with PowerPC upgrade, Mac OS 9.1
CPU	Motorola 68LC040 @ 25 MHz (520) or 33 MHz (540) Motorola 68040 @ 33 MHz (550c)
Memory	4–36 MB
Storage	160–750 MB
Touchpad	Built-in
Platform	Macintosh
Predecessor	PowerBook 100 series
Successor	PowerBook 5300
Related	PowerBook Duo series PowerBook 150

The door on the 550c is removed, and some trim on the 520c is removed, showing the external interfaces.
Ports from left to right are: Power in, printer/modem, sound in, sound out, ADB, AAUI, monitor out, SCSI (HDI-30 connector), modem port, and Kensington key-lock. Note the 550c hinge cover is darker. Note the labels on the door needed to identify the internal modem (FCC info on the "PowerPort" label, Canadian on other two). The 100–240 V power supply is on top.

The PowerBook 500 series (codenamed Blackbird, which it shared with the older Macintosh IIfx) is a range of Apple Macintosh PowerBook portable computers first introduced by Apple Computer with the 540c model on May 16, 1994. It was the first to have stereo speakers, a trackpad, and Ethernet networking built-in.

It was the first PowerBook series to use a Motorola 68LC040 CPU (simultaneous with Duo 280) and be upgradeable to the PowerPC architecture via a swap-out CPU daughter card (with the PowerPC and 68040 upgrades for sale), use 9.5-inch displays, 16-bit stereo sound with stereo speakers, have an expansion bay, PC Card capability, two battery bays (and a ten-minute sleep/clock battery, which allowed for main batteries to be swapped out while in sleep mode), full-size keyboard with F1–F12 function keys, be able to sleep while connected to an external monitor and have a battery contact cover included on the actual batteries. Furthermore, it included a single serial port, which could be used to connect to a serial printer or a network via Apple's LocalTalk. In another first, it also included an AAUI port for connecting to Ethernet networks.

The 500 series was discontinued completely with the introduction of the ill-fated PowerBook 5300. The PowerBook 190 was the de facto successor to the 500 and continued the only 68LC040 processor offering as the low end of the PowerPC-based PowerBook family.

In a survey taken in November 2000, Insanely Great Macintosh ranked the 540c No. 2 on its list of the all-time best PowerBook models made.

History

The PowerBook 500 series was introduced on May 16, 1994, with the high-end active matrix LCD PowerBook 540c and 540, with the passive matrix 520c and 520 soon after. One of its marketing highlights was the promise of a PowerPC upgrade to its CPU and PC Card (PCMCIA) expansion. The introduction of this model came at the time of Apple's changeover to the new PowerPC chip from the 68k line of CPUs, and Apple's advertising and promise of the PowerPC was the cause of headaches to the company. The strong demand for its ground-breaking design and Apple's incorrect market prediction that customers would wait for the fully PowerPC PowerBooks resulted in shortages early on.

In August 1995 the 540 was dropped from the line, 8 MB of additional memory and the modem was offered installed from the factory, hard drive capacity was increased (from 160 and 240 to 320 and 500 MB), and the installed system upped from System 7.1.1 to 7.5. The PC Card Cage was also released, allowing Macintosh users to add PCMCIA capability to their laptops for the first time.

In 1995, Apple Japan introduced an updated version, called the 550c, with a bigger display (10.4-inches), CPU with FPU (68040), bigger hard drive, and Japanese keyboard with black case. It was only sold in Japan and never received FCC certification.

With delays for the new PowerPC PowerBook 5300, demand for the PPC upgrade mounted, and Newer Technology began to market the upgrade before Apple did, although they had produced the upgrade modules for Apple first. They also offered 117 MHz versions over Apple's "100 MHz" (actually 99 MHz) offering. Soon thereafter, Newer Technology introduced a 167 MHz model that outperformed the fastest PowerBook 5300, the $6,800 5300ce, at a time when problems with that line became a real issue to Apple.

About the time Apple introduced the PowerBook 1400, Newer Technology introduced a 183 MHz upgrade with 128 KB of L2 cache that kept it ahead of the power curve in performance. Newer Technology stated they could not produce more of the 183 MHz upgrades because the supply of connectors was exhausted.

Impact on the industry

The PowerBook 500 series was the first portable computer series to include several features that would later became common in portable computers, including 16-bit stereo audio at 44.1 kHz, built-in stereo speakers, a trackpad, Ethernet connectivity (through AAUI), and intelligent nickel–metal hydride battery packs with onboard circuitry to monitor battery condition. The processor was installed on a daughter card, allowing the CPU module to be replaced.

Within Apple's PowerBook lineup, the series introduced several additional features, including a standard Motorola 68LC040 processor, an optional PowerPC 603e processor upgrade, 10.4-inch displays, dual-scan displays, and PC Card support through an expansion module. The computer had two battery bays, one of which included a PDS connector that could be used with expansion modules. The bay could accept devices such as Ethernet adapters and video cards.

Other features included a separate battery for maintaining system sleep and clock functions, a full-size keyboard with function keys, support for sleep mode while connected to an external monitor, and battery contact covers included with the battery packs.

Engineering

Variations across the range

Although the 500 "Blackbird" prototypes were black, only one of the five production models was completely black; that was the 550c, sold only in Japan. The 550c differed from the four two-tone grey models in a few other key respects as well, including a larger active-matrix color screen, a combined Latin/Kana keyboard, and a full 68040 processor. The other models were all charcoal grey with darker grey trim, came with a variety of displays (active/passive matrix; color or greyscale), and used the 68LC040 processor (a low-cost variant without a math coprocessor). The full-sized keyboard with 12 function keys, and 640×480 resolution display was consistent across the family.

Optional internal modem

The modem was developed with Global Village, and is a unique two-part design. The transceiver with the modem connector is installed in the back, and the modem itself is located next to the CPU daughter card. It was a V.32terbo, and had a top rate of 19.2 KB/s, but only with other V.32terbo modems as there was no official standard. Otherwise, it would drop to 14.4 KB/s. Due to a bug with the new combined printer/modem port, the driver had to be upgraded to 2.5.5, and the Chooser was replaced in the GV install.

Expansion bay

The 500 series of PowerBooks included the ability to use two batteries at the same time, allowing for 4 hours of battery life from two installed charged batteries. However, the left battery also had an internal PDS slot that allowed for custom modules to be installed. Despite prototypes having been made, only two devices reached the market.

PCMCIA "card cage"

One is the PCMCIA module. There were three versions; RevA, RevB and RevC. The RevC is the most useful as it can take 16bit Wi-Fi cards, allowing the possibility to get a Powerbook 5xx connected online or in the home network using a technology that was developed after the Powerbook 5xxs were discontinued by Apple. The different revisions of the PCMCIA module were released by Apple to accommodate the developing PCMCIA standard. These modules are difficult to find, and the RevC module is in particular demand because it alone works with 16-bit WiFi cards.
PC Card (PCMCIA) cage, 16-bit, 2 Type I/II or 1 Type III cards, using a 68000 CPU to convert the PC Card protocol to PDS.

FPU coprocessor

The other is the FPU coprocessor, to make up for the lack of one in the PowerBook's 68LC040 CPU. The FPU module uses a 68882 FPU coprocessor made by Sonnet.

Production

In total, almost 600,000 PowerBook 500 series units were produced, compared to 300,000 PowerBook 5300 units.

Models

According to Apple, all of these models are obsolete.

		520	520c	540	540c	550c
Timeline	Introduced	May 16, 1994				May 30, 1995
	Discontinued	June 10, 1995	September 16, 1995	October 17, 1994	August 26, 1995	April 1, 1996
Model	Model no.	M4880
	Gestalt ID	72
	Codename	"BlackBird LC"		"BlackBird," "SR-71," "Spruce Goose"		"Banzai"
	Order no.	M3981	M3984	M2807	M2809	M4286
Performance	CPU	68LC040				68040
	CPU speed	25 MHz		33 MHz
	RAM	4 MB (expandable to 36 MB)
Hard drive		160 or 240 MB	160, 240, or 320 MB	240 or 320 MB	240 or 320 MB, later 500 MB	750 MB
Video	Size	9.5 in (240 mm)				10.4 in (260 mm)
	Colors	16 grays	256	64 grays	Thousands
	Method	Dual-scan passive		Active
	Resolution	640×480
OS	Original	7.1.1				7.5
	Maximum	8.1

Video display support

PowerBook 520c and 550c, showing the difference in display size

This a listing of all the resolutions and colors supported.

Resolution	Frequency	Monitor type	LCD bit depth	External bit depth
512×384	60 Hz	MultiSync	—N/a	8-bit (256 color/gray)
640×400	?	built-in LCD	15-bit (32,768 color/gray)	—N/a
640×480	67 Hz	VGA	8-bit (256 color/gray)	8-bit (256 color/gray)
640×870	75 Hz	Macintosh Portrait Display	—N/a	8-bit (256 gray)
800×600	56 Hz	SVGA		8-bit (256 color/gray)
832×624	75 Hz	MultiSync
1024×768	60 Hz	XVGA/VESA		4-bit (16 gray)

CPU upgrades

Model	Sonnet	M3081LL/A	NUpowr 117	NUpowr 167	NUpowr 183	NUpowr G3
Maker	Sonnet	Apple	Newer Technology
Processor	68040	PowerPC 603e		PowerPC 603ev		PowerPC 740
CPU speed	66/33 MHz	100 MHz	117 MHz	167 MHz	183 MHz	233 MHz‡
L2 cache	—N/a				128 kB	512 kB‡
Included RAM (MB)	4 MB	8 MB	0, 4, or 8 MB	0 or 8 MB	0 or 24 MB†	24 MB‡
Produced	unknown	6,000	"excess of 15,000" of all types of NUpowr versions			(prototypes only)
† To fit the additional RAM in, removal of the modem daughter card is required. ‡ Newer Technology never divulged the specifications for the G3 upgrade; estimate based on current technology.

Legacy

Most laptops had grayscale displays, mono speakers with only 8-bit audio out, and insufficient battery life, and some had side-mounted snap-on track balls. With the built-in Ethernet (via a versatile AAUI transceiver), SCSI port (forerunner of today’s FireWire) and ADB (similar to USB), it had all the features of desktops at that time, making them the first viable desktop replacement laptops.

In popular culture

• Sandra Bullock prominently uses a PowerBook 540c (and also a PowerBook Duo 280c) in the movie The Net (1995).

• The Powerbook 540c is used by both Antonio Banderas and Sylvester Stallone in the movie Assassins (1995 film).

Timeline

Timeline of portable Macintoshes
See also: List of Mac models

External links

• MacOpinion Retrospective: the Powerbook 500 Series at the Wayback Machine (archived February 16, 2006)
• Item 102633215 in the Computer History Museum