Power Macintosh

The Power Macintosh (later Power Mac) is a family of personal computers that were designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer as part of its Macintosh brand from March 1994 until August 2006.

Described by Macworld magazine as "The most important technical evolution of the Macintosh since the Mac II debuted in 1987," the Power Macintosh was Apple's first computer to use a PowerPC processor. Software written for the Motorola 68030 and 68040 processors that were used in Macintoshes up to that point would not run on the PowerPC natively, so a Mac 68k emulator was included with System 7.1.2. While the emulator provided good compatibility with existing Macintosh software, initial performance was about one-third slower than comparable Macintosh Quadra systems.

The Power Macintosh replaced the Quadra at the high end of Apple's lineup, and were initially sold in similar enclosures, but with 4-digit model numbers. Over the next twelve years, the Power Macintosh evolved through a succession of enclosure designs, a rename to "Power Mac", five major generations of PowerPC chips, and a great deal of press coverage, design accolades, and controversy about performance claims. The Power Mac was discontinued as part of Apple's transition to Intel processors, making way for its replacement, the Mac Pro.