The PowerBook 3400c is a
laptop computer in the
PowerBook line manufactured by
Apple Computer from February to November 1997. It was briefly the fastest laptop in the world. Using the
PowerPC 603e processor running at speeds of up to 240 MHz, this PowerBook was the first to feature a
PCI architecture,
[Macintosh PowerBook User's Manual, p 175. Apple Computer, 1997.] EDO memory,
[Macintosh PowerBook 3400 Technical Information, p 1. Apple Computer, 1997.] and a 64-bit wide, 40 MHz
internal bus. It was also the first PowerBook to feature a PC card slot capable of being used as a
zoomed video port. Like all Apple laptops since the
PowerBook 500
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 firs ...
series, it featured a built-in
trackpad
A touchpad or trackpad is a pointing device featuring a tactile sensor, a specialized surface that can translate the motion and position of a user's fingers to a relative position on the operating system that is made output to the screen. Touchp ...
as the pointing device.
Specifications
The PowerBook 3400c series was issued in three different models, distinguished primarily by their processor speed. The base model ran at 180 MHz, and the two higher end models ran at 200 MHz and 240 MHz. Thus, the different models were referred to as the 3400c/180, 3400c/200, and 3400c/240. The 3400c/180 model was usually sold with only a built-in modem and a floppy drive; all 3400c/200 and 3400c/240 machines came with a built-in modem/Ethernet combination port and
hot-swappable
Hot swapping is the replacement or addition of components to a Computer, computer system without stopping, shutdown (computing), shutting down, or Reboot, rebooting the system; hot plugging describes the addition of components only. Components ...
1.4 MB floppy disk and CD drives. The only other difference between them was the capacity of the hard drive, ranging from 1.3 to 3.0
GB depending on the model.
Names
Prior to the PowerBook 3400c series, the names of PowerBooks reflected (among other things) the type of screen they had installed. For example, the PowerBook 1400cs had a
passive matrix Passive matrix addressing is an addressing scheme used in early LCDs. This is a matrix addressing scheme meaning that only ''m'' + ''n'' control signals are required to address an ''m'' × ''n'' display. A pixel in a passi ...
screen, and the 1400c an
active matrix Active matrix is a type of addressing scheme used in flat panel displays. In this method of switching individual elements (pixels), each pixel is attached to a transistor and capacitor ''actively'' maintaining the pixel state while other pixels ar ...
screen. Because all PowerBook 3400c computers came with the same 16-bit color, active matrix screen, the "c" designation at the end of the PowerBook 3400c name was somewhat superfluous, and is often dropped, even by Apple itself, for example in the
user's manual.
The internal code name used for the PowerBook 3400c during development was "Hooper",
[Paul Kunkel & Rick English, ''Apple Design'' pp 265–267, Graphis. .] named so after the dog of one of the product design engineers.
Industrial design
In terms of
industrial design the PowerBook 3400c owed much to the earlier
PowerBook 5300 series. There were some key changes made, however, including the larger
LCD screen; a wider removable
drive bay
A drive bay is a standard-sized area for adding hardware to a computer. Most drive bays are fixed to the inside of a case, but some can be removed.
Over the years since the introduction of the IBM PC, it and its compatibles have had many form ...
allowing the use of
CD readers; and a curved display housing that allowed for the inclusion of a second set of
loudspeakers
A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or "l ...
.
[
The first generation of G3 PowerBooks retained the same external appearance as the PowerBook 3400c.
]
CardBus compatibility
Like the PowerBook 5300 series, the 3400s came with a pair of PC card slots, but whereas those on the 5300s were strictly 16-bit device compatible, those on the 3400s were, at least in theory, compatible with 32-bit CardBus cards being based around the 32-bit Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globa ...
PCI1130 PC card controller. In reality, the PC card slots were designed to physically accept only 16-bit cards, though many users have managed to get a variety of CardBus cards to work with them.[Dan Palka]
- FireWire
/ref> Using CardBus cards allows 3400 Series PowerBooks to be used with, for example, USB devices like printers
Printer may refer to:
Technology
* Printer (publishing), a person or a company
* Printer (computing), a hardware device
* Optical printer for motion picture films
People
* Nariman Printer ( fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist
* Jam ...
and FireWire devices such as iPods.
Models
Timeline
References
External links
Low End Mac: PowerBook 3400c
Classic Macs at MyMac.com: PowerBook 3400
*Apple Technical Specifications: PowerBook
3400c/180
3400c/200
3400c/240
{{Apple hardware before 1998
3400c
PowerPC Macintosh computers