Power Macintosh 6400

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Power Macintosh 6400 / Performa 6400

Manufacturer	Apple Computer
Introduced	7 August 1996
Discontinued	1 August 1997
Price	US$2400, 2800
CPU	PowerPC 603e, 180 or 200 MHz
RAM	16 MiB, expandable to 136 MiB, 70 ns 168-pin DIMM
OS	System 7.5.3

The Power Macintosh 6400 (Codenames: "InstaTower", "Alchemy", "Hacksaw"; also sold under variations of the name Performa 6400) is a mid-range personal computer that is a part of Apple Computer's Power Macintosh and Macintosh Performa series of Macintosh computers. The two Performa variants were introduced in August 1996, while the Power Macintosh variant arrived two months later. They were discontinued in favor of the uniformly named Power Macintosh 6500 in August 1997, ending the Performa brand.

The 6400 shares its logic board with the Power Macintosh 5400, only without an integrated monitor. Its new "InstaTower“ case, however, features an integrated subwoofer. The Performa 6360 uses the same logic board in a Power Macintosh 6200-style desktop case. The 5400/6400 is generally believed to be superior to its 6200/5200 predecessors, since the issues that plagued those models had been resolved by then.^[1]

All 6400 series computers used a PowerPC 603e processor. This central processing unit (CPU) was soldered to the computer's "Alchemy" main logic board and cooled by a fanless heat-sink. Though initially considered non-upgradable, CPU upgrades did come to market that overrode the fixed CPU by use of the Level 2 cache slot.^[2]

[edit] Models

Power Macintosh 6400: 200 MHz CPU, sold only in the North American education market
Performa 6400: North American consumer model, 180 or 200 MHz CPU
Performa 6400/200 VEE: The 200 MHz 6400 with an Avid video I/O card and video editing software, and 32 MiB RAM
Performa 6410: The 6400/180's name in Europe and Asia
Performa 6420: The 6400/200's name in Europe and Asia