The Macintosh Quadra 800 (also sold with bundled server software as the

Apple Workgroup Server Apple Workgroup Server and Macintosh Server are a family of Macintosh-based workgroup servers, sold by Apple Computer from 1993 to 2003. Machines bearing these names are re-branded Centris, Quadra and Power Macintosh systems with additional ser ...

80) is a

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

that is a part of

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

's Quadra series of

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

computers. Introduced in February 1993 alongside the first

Macintosh Centris Macintosh Centris is a family of personal computers designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. in 1992 and 1993. They were introduced as a replacement for the six-year-old Macintosh II family of computers; the name was chosen to i ...

models, it was the first totally new Quadra model since the original Quadras, the

700 The denomination 700 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Avar and Slavic tribes conq ...

and the

900 __NOTOC__ Year 900 ( CM) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Abbasid Caliphate * Spring – Forces under the Transoxianian emir Isma'il ibn Ahmad are ...

950 Year 950 ( CML) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: A Hamdanid army (30,000 men) led by Sayf al-Dawla raids int ...

. It was positioned below the 950 (and the previous midrange Quadra, the 700, was discontinued shortly after the 800's introduction). Debuting at half the price of the 950, the 800 featured the same

Motorola 68040 The Motorola 68040 ("''sixty-eight-oh-forty''") is a 32-bit microprocessor in the Motorola 68000 series, released in 1990. It is the successor to the 68030 and is followed by the 68060, skipping the 68050. In keeping with general Motorola nami ...

33 MHz processor as the 950 but its additional interleaved

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

running at 70 ns, as well as an enhanced video system and

SCSI Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...

bus, enabled it to outperform the 950. However, its

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

case was smaller and much less accessible, giving it the reputation of being one of Apple's worst cases of all time. The Quadra 800 was later joined by the multimedia-focused

Quadra 840AV The Macintosh Quadra 840AV is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from July 1993 to July 1994. It was introduced alongside the Centris 660AV The Macintosh Quadra 660AV, originally sold as the Macintosh Ce ...

. The Quadra 800 was discontinued in March 1994 in favor of the

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...

-based

Power Macintosh 8100 The Power Macintosh 8100 (also sold in Japan as the Power Macintosh 8115 and with bundled server software as the Workgroup Server 8150) is a personal computer that is a part of Apple Computer's Power Macintosh series of Macintosh computers. I ...

. Both the 8100 and its successor, the

Power Macintosh 8500 The Power Macintosh 8500 (sold as the Power Macintosh 8515 in Europe and Japan) is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from August 1995 to February 1997. Billed as a high-end graphics computer, the Power Macint ...

, used the Quadra 800 case, as did the European version of the

Power Macintosh 7200 The Power Macintosh 7200 (sold as a Power Macintosh 8200 in Europe) is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from August 1995 to February 1997. The 90 MHz model was sold in Japan as the Power Macintosh 7215, and ...

(marketed as the Power Macintosh 8200). A taller, highly modified variant of the case was also used for the

Power Macintosh 9500 The Power Macintosh 9500 (sold as Power Macintosh 9515 in Europe and Asia) is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from June 1995 to February 1997. It is powered by a PowerPC 604 processor, a second-generation ...

Hardware

Case: Apple introduced a new mini-tower case design for the Quadra 800, which was subsequently used for the

, 8200 and 8500. Infoworld's review of the Quadra 800 described the case's design as follows: "Apple recommends that you take your machine into an authorized dealer to install additional memory. It’s no wonder — the procedure is fraught with difficulties (although not as bad as previous compact models such as the SE). In order to access the SIMM slots, you need to detach the logic board from its plastic holders (which are easily broken). You then flip the board over to access the slots. If you have any boards in the machine, you need to remove them. And when you try to put it all back together, you may find some of your internal SCSI connections have come loose." Video: The logic board has 512 KB of on-board VRAM; this is sufficient to provide 256-color (8-bit) support on monitors up to 16 inches in size. Two VRAM SIMM slots provide the ability to upgrade to 1 MB of VRAM, which allows for 32,768 color (16-bit) resolutions. The Quadra 800 is not capable of operating at 24-bit color, regardless of how much VRAM is installed, or whether an external video card is used.

David Pogue David Welch Pogue (born March 9, 1963) is an American technology and science writer and TV presenter. He is an Emmy-winning correspondent for ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' and author of the "Crowdwise" column in ''The New York Times'' Smarter Livi ...

described this as "Apple deliberately crippling this machine to enhance the attractiveness of the Quadra 900 and 950 models." CD-ROM: Some configurations included an

AppleCD AppleCD is a range of SCSI-based CD-ROM drives for Apple Macintosh personal computers, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from the late 1980s to late 1990s. Earlier AppleCD drives required a CD caddy in order to be used, while later models ...

300i 2x CD-ROM. The Quadra 800 was one of the first Macintoshes shipped with a bootable CD-ROM.

Models

All configurations include an external SCSI port, two ADB and two serial ports, 3 NuBus slots, a Processor Direct Slot, mono audio in, and stereo audio out. The inclusion of an AAUI Ethernet port varied by region. The newly-introduced

Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II Apple Inc. has designed and manufactured several models of mice, trackpads and other pointing devices, primarily for use with Macintosh computers. Over the years, Apple has maintained a distinct form and function with its mice that reflect t ...

was included with all configurations. Introduced February 10, 1993: * Macintosh Quadra 800: Sold in multiple configurations. ** 8 MB RAM (onboard), 512 KB VRAM (onboard), no HDD ** 8 MB RAM (onboard), 512 KB VRAM (onboard), 230 MB HDD. US$4,679. ** 8 MB RAM (onboard), 512 KB VRAM (onboard), 500 MB HDD ** 24 MB RAM (8 MB onboard + 16 MB SIMM), 1 MB VRAM (512 KB onboard + 512 KB SIMM), 1 GB HDD Introduced March 22, 1993: * Workgroup Server 80

Timelines

References

External links

Quadra 800
at Low End Mac

an

at EveryMac.com {{Apple hardware before 1998

800 __NOTOC__ Year 800 ( DCCC) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. It was around this time that the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years, so ...

Quadra 800 The Macintosh Quadra 800 (also sold with bundled server software as the Apple Workgroup Server 80) is a personal computer that is a part of Apple Computer's Quadra series of Macintosh computers. Introduced in February 1993 alongside the first ...