Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh

Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh

Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, Berlin 2014
Release date March 20, 1997
Introductory price US$7,499
Discontinued March 14, 1998
Operating system Mac OS 7.6.1 (Initial OS) - Mac OS 9.1 (Final OS)
CPU 250 MHz PowerPC 603e
L2 Cache: 256 KiB, max 1 MiB
Bus: 50 MHz
Memory RAM: 2 slots
32 MiB, max 128 MiB (2 × 64 MiB)
(Memory Spec: 168-pin, 5 V,
60+ ns EDO or FPM DIMMs)
VRAM: 2 MiB
Storage Hard Drive: 2 GB IDE
Floppy Drive: Apple SuperDrive
Display 12.1" Active Matrix
Graphics 800×600 or 640×480 @ up to 16-bits
ATI 3D RAGE 2 chip set
Input Rear Ports: Variable Level Sound In
Sound Out
DB-25 SCSI
TV Tuner
FM Tuner
Rear Side Ports:
1 ADB
2 DIN-8 GeoPorts
DB-25 SCSI
S-Video In
Sound Line In
Via Expansion Slots:
1 Comm Slot 2
PCI Slot
Optical Drive: 4× CD-ROM
Dimensions Metric - 438 × 419 × 254 mm
Imperial - 17.25 × 16.5 × 10 in
Weight 6.8 kg (14.9 lb)

Apple's Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (aka "20AM" or "TAM") was a limited-edition personal computer released in 1997 to mark its 20th birthday. This machine was a showcase of Apple's technology of the day, with a price tag that aimed it at the "executive" market.[1]

History

April 1, 1996 marked 20 years since the day that Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne came together to form Apple Computer. As this milestone arrived and came to the attention of Apple's current executives, the decision was made to release a limited edition Macintosh computer to celebrate - and so the Spartacus (or Pomona, or Smoke & Mirrors) project was born.

The normal timespan to develop a new Macintosh computer was 18+ months, however they were already late to the party. Luckily the design team had already been working on several "dream" concepts, and soon settled on the almost All-in-One LCD based design. To cut down on development time, many off-the-shelf components were used on the new computer's internals.

The TAM was announced almost 20 years to the day after Jobs and Wozniak incorporated the company, in January 1997 at MacWorld Expo, San Francisco. It was given a release date of March 20, 1997,[2] with a retail price of US$7,499. Originally intended as a mainstream product, the marketing group turned it into a pricey special edition.[3]

Specifications and Design

The TAM was to break the established form factor of the personal computer. One of the first projects of Jonathan "Jony" Ive, the design of the TAM was both a state-of-the-art futuristic vision of where computing could go as well as a redevelopment of Apple's original objective to create a device that would integrate into people's lives.

The TAM featured a 250 MHz PowerPC 603e processor and 12.1" active matrix LCD powered by an ATI 3D Rage II video chipset with 2MB of VRAM capable of displaying up to 16bit color at 800x600 or 640x480 pixels. It had a vertically mounted 4x SCSI CD-ROM and an Apple floppy Superdrive, a 2GB ATA hard drive, a TV/FM tuner, an S-Video card, and a custom-made Bose sound system[4] including two "Jewel" speakers and a subwoofer built into the externally located power supply "base unit".

A fairly thick "umbilical" cable connects the base unit to the head unit, supplying both power, and communications for the subwoofer. The umbilical connects to the base unit via a multi-pin connector, which is the possible cause of the TAM's one major fault - the "speaker buzz". Inspections of units that received a repair by Apple due to the speaker buzz found an extra resistor/s had been installed in the umbilical. Ensuring the connectors are free of dust/dirt has also been known to resolve the "buzz".

The TAM came with a unique 75 key ADB keyboard which featured leather palm-rests and a trackpad instead of a mouse. The trackpad could be detached from the keyboard if desired, with a small leather insert found underneath the keyboard ready to fill the gap. When not required, the keyboard could slide under the TAM's head unit, leaving the trackpad exposed for continued access. The TAM also came with a remote control (standard with the Apple TV/FM Tuner card), but also featured buttons on the front panel that could control sound levels, CD playback, brightness, contrast, and TV mode. The pre-installed operating system was a specialised version of Mac OS 7.6.1.

Expandability was offered via a 7 inch PCI slot and Apple Communication slot II for the addition of Ethernet. Later G3 upgrade options offered by Sonnet and NewerTechnologies made use of the TAM's Level II Cache slot, which allow the computer to reach speeds of up to 500 MHz. All of these options come at the price of the TAM's slim profile. The back panel must be removed, and replaced with an (included) "hunchback" cover that adds several inches to the depth of the machine.

One last unique feature of the TAM greeted owners when they turned the computer on – a special startup chime used only by the TAM. This chime does not sound the same when played on other devices, possibly simply due to the design of the Bose speakers.

Production/Release

Apple manufactured 12,000 TAMs, with a release run of 11,601. The remaining 399 were kept by Apple for use as spare parts.

The TAM was only released in 5 countries: USA, Japan, France, Germany, and the UK.

Ten TAMs were sent to Apple Australia. At least two of these were given away as prizes to the public; for some time one was on display in Apple's Sydney HQ; the remainder were kept for use by Apple Australia executives.

Both of Apple's founders, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, received a TAM. When "Woz" allowed people to see into his office via webcam in the late 1990s, his TAM was visible on his desk.

Due to the scarcity of scale, rather than training all Apple authorized technicians in repairing the TAM, Apple opted to ship faulty units to three central locations worldwide – one per continent. The US location was the Eastman Kodak Company's service center, Building 601, in Kodak Park (now known as Eastman Technology Park) in Rochester, New York. Apple's Service Source CD, containing information for authorized technicians in the repair of Apple computers, lists the TAM as a "closed unit", to be returned to said repair locations for all repairs. It does not contain a "take apart" guide for the TAM. Support from online forums is the best source of information for repairing a TAM now.

A prototype TAM was spotted on eBay circa 2010 featuring darker colored speaker panels, and missing the "Sound by Bose" label.

Websites

Quite differently from the way Apple normally promoted its products, Apple created a special website specifically for the TAM. The site only amounted to approximately 6 brief pages, but nonetheless was above and beyond its typical marketing attempts of the day.

Not long after the TAM's release, a community website was created by Bob Bernardara for TAM owners. The site featured news and information about the TAM, along with links to useful software and a forum for discussions.

QUOTE: Welcome to The 20th Anniversary Macintosh Web Site - the "Official" home of the TAM user community. This is the place where 20th Anniversary Macintosh owners can share a wealth of information on this "insanely great" product. The TAM (Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh) is a unique machine in the world of computers and this site will help you get the most out of yours.

The site actively ran for many years, although eventually its overseer ceased communications and eventually the site fell into disarray, and finally disappeared in 2010.

There are a number of newer TAM community websites, though none with the membership that Bernardara's achieved.

Limitations

Based on a PowerPC 603e processor, the TAM cannot run Mac OS X natively, but with the addition of a G3 or G4 aftermarket upgrade and the use of XPostFacto 4.0 software the TAM could run several versions of OS X, with some limitations.

Discontinuation

Upon unveiling, the TAM was predicted to cost US$9,000, which would include a direct-to-door concierge delivery service. At release the price was reduced to $7,499. In the middle of its sales' lifespan Apple dropped the price further to around US$3,500, and finally upon discontinuation in March 1998 the price was set to US$1,995.

The simple reason behind these price drops was that despite an award winning advertising campaign, the TAM was overpriced for what it was. The Power Macintosh 6500 with similar specs, retailed for US$2,999. The TAM was priced out of the market.

Customers who paid full price for the TAM, and then complained to Apple when the price was so drastically cut, were offered a free high-end Powerbook to placate them.

Steve Jobs returned to Apple in late 1997. In March 1998 he made sweeping changes, including scrapping the Newton MessagePad. It was at this time that the TAM was discontinued, and remaining stocks reduced to US $1,995. The timing itself was not conspicuous – most Apple computers only feature a 1-year production run, and the TAM's began in March 1997. However Jobs was on record stating that he hated the TAM, as it stood for everything that was wrong at Apple when he returned. The attempt to move the remaining stock by further reducing the price may have been a directive from Jobs himself.

Dealers in the US ran out of stock within 14 days of this final price drop.

Legacy

The Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh may not have been a well known machine in its time, nor a big seller (until the price reductions), but it has had a lasting legacy on personal computers. All-in-one LCD computers are now quite common, not least being Apple's own modern iMac (starting with the G5 model), which clearly owes its design to the TAM, including using a vertically mounted removable drive (ie Superdrive). Even the removable trackpad has been replicated with Apple's Magic Trackpad.

External power supplies were also used in later Apple computers such as the Power Mac G4 Cube and Mac Mini. Joint efforts with speaker manufacturers (originally Bose, but later Harman Kardon) have become common for several Apple computers.

Despite its poor sales, the TAM remains a "holy grail" amongst Macintosh collectors. As of 2010, complete working TAMs with boxes can sell for over US $1,000. As of early 2015, on eBay, complete working TAMs usually sell with boxes and rarely fetch less than about US$1600 with most examples priced starting at around $3200 and it's not uncommon to find them listed for nearly twice that, sometimes more still.[5] TAM parts on eBay are rare.

In popular culture

Due to its unconventional design, the TAM has featured in numerous films and television series, including:

References

  1. "25 years of Mac - the good, the bad, and the cheese grater". The Register. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  2. "20th Anniversary Macintosh". Apple-History.com. Retrieved August 1, 2009.
  3. Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products. USA: Portfolio Hardcover. 2013. ISBN 9781591846178.
  4. http://support.apple.com/kb/SP408
  5. eBay Dec 2014 to 12 Feb 2015
  6. "Starring the Computer".
  7. "The Real Truth behind MTV's 1998 series The Real World - Seattle".

External links

Preceded by
Power Macintosh 5500
Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh
March 20, 1997
Succeeded by
Power Macintosh G3 (All-in-One)