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Range of Apple Macintosh PowerBook portable computers
PowerBook 500 series
The PowerBook 540c
Developer
Apple Computer
Manufacturer
Apple Computer
Product family
PowerBook
Type
Portable computer
Release date
May 16, 1994; 30 years ago (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
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.[1]
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 Dual Scan passive color/B&W 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. It included a single serial port which could be 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.[2]
^"Landmark Laptops: The most important notebooks in computing history – Apple PowerBook 500 Series". Laptop Magazine. Archived from the original on June 27, 2012. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
^Davison, Remy (November 29, 2000). "Top 10 Best PowerBooks of All Time". Insanely Great Mac. Archived from the original on March 24, 2006. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
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