The SuperMac was a line of

Macintosh clones A Macintosh clone, also known as a Clonintosh (a portmanteau of " Clone" and "Macintosh"), is a computer running the Mac OS operating system that was not produced by Apple Inc. The earliest Mac clones were based on emulators and reverse-engineere ...

produced by

UMAX Technologies UMAX Technologies (), originally known as UMAX Computer Corporation, is a manufacturer of computer products, including scanners, mice, and flash drives, based in Taiwan. The company also uses the Yamada and Vaova brand names. History UMAX was f ...

from 1996 to 1998. Their models included the SuperMac S900/S910, J700, C500 and C500e/i/LT, C600e/v/LT/x and Aegis 200. The C500 was marketed as the Apus 2000 in Europe. They used versions of Apple's motherboard like Tsunami, Alchemy, and Tanzania, which were designed to use standard

IBM PC compatible IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM Personal Computer, IBM PC, IBM Personal Computer XT, XT, and IBM Personal Computer/AT, AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such ...

components in addition to Apple-proprietary components then in common use in the

Power Macintosh The Power Macintosh, later Power Mac, is a family of personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer as the core of the Macintosh brand from March 1994 until August 2006. Described by ''MacWorld'' as "the most important te ...

family. The machines were popular in places like Asia, Europe, and North America due to their low price and reliability. After Steve Jobs returned to

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

as the new CEO, he revoked all of the clone producers' licenses to produce Mac clones except for UMAX, due to their sub-US$1,000 low-end offerings, a market in which Apple was not strong, and UMAX's stated desire to expand the Macintosh platform's presence in East Asian markets. UMAX was the only Macintosh clone manufacturer to get a license for Mac OS 8, which expired in July 1998. UMAX knew that they couldn't continue producing the SuperMac without the Mac OS 8 license and sought to get the license extended or renewed, but conflict between Apple and UMAX over the latter's proposed J710 and Apple's own upcoming

iMac G3 The iMac G3, originally released as the iMac, is a series of Macintosh personal computers sold by Apple Computer from 1998 to 2003. The iMac was the first major new product release for Apple under Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO and cofounder ...

resulted in Apple not renewing their license. UMAX also considered continuing the brand as a PC manufacturer, but instead decided to shut down the brand. On May 27, 1998, UMAX ceased production of MacOS-based computers, and sold all remaining inventory by August 31, 1998. UMAX's license for Mac OS 8 had expired by July 31, and all remaining SuperMac utilities (included technical support) were either terminated or absorbed into UMAX's regular operations by 31 December 1998. UMAX continued to provide technical support for SuperMac machines until July 31, 2002.

Product line

The SuperMac was sold in three different product lines: Pulsar (S900), Centauri (J700), and Apus (C500/C600). There was the European-exclusive SuperMac Aegis 200, which was a specialized SuperMac J700 motherboard inside a SuperMac C600 case. There was also the SuperMac S900Base (w/ G3), which was a S900 with a

PowerPC G3 The PowerPC 7xx is a family of third generation 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors designed and manufactured by IBM and Motorola (spun off as Freescale Semiconductor bought by NXP Semiconductors). This family is called the PowerPC G3 by its well-kn ...

processor. It was the last SuperMac to be sold by UMAX before its discontinuation. In addition, UMAX was developing the J710, a planned successor to the J700 but more powerful and with a G3 processor when UMAX discontinued the SuperMac brand. Only a handful of prototypes survive. SuperMac models numbers were derived using a standard system: (product line)/(CPU speed) *product line was C500, C600, J700, or S900 and designated the CPU used in the machine **C500 and C600 used PowerPC 603e processors **J700 and S900 used

PowerPC 604e The PowerPC 600 family was the first family of PowerPC processors built. They were designed at the Somerset facility in Austin, Texas, jointly funded and staffed by engineers from IBM and Motorola as a part of the AIM alliance. Somerset was opened ...

processors. *cpu speed was the processor's

clock speed In computing, the clock rate or clock speed typically refers to the frequency at which the clock generator of a processor can generate pulses, which are used to synchronize the operations of its components, and is used as an indicator of the pro ...

, in megahertz

Upgrades

The S900 was one of the most popular Macintosh clone to ever be made. The S900 and other UMAX SuperMacs can officially go up to

Mac OS 8.1 Mac OS 8 is an operating system that was released by Apple Computer on July 26, 1997. It includes the largest overhaul of the classic Mac OS experience since the release of System 7, approximately six years before. It places a greater emphasis on ...

due to the Mac OS 8 license UMAX made with Apple (all other Macintosh clones can only officially go up to

Mac OS 7.6 System 7, codenamed "Big Bang", and also known as Mac OS 7, is a graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers and is part of the classic Mac OS series of operating systems. It was introduced on May 13, 1991, by Apple ...

). While most SuperMacs came with Mac OS 7, a UMAX Update Disk for the SuperMac S900 & J700 series allows them to update to Mac OS 8.0 and 8.1, although the FWB Hard Disk Toolkit driver must be updated to version 2.0.6 or newer before the system can be updated to Mac OS 8 and newer. However, despite officially only going up to Mac OS 8.1, the SuperMac is capable of being upgraded to

Mac OS 8.5 Mac OS 8 is an operating system that was released by Apple Computer on July 26, 1997. It includes the largest overhaul of the classic Mac OS experience since the release of System 7, approximately six years before. It places a greater emphasis ...

(8.5 came out after UMAX's license expired) and up to

Mac OS 9.1 Mac OS 9 is the ninth major release of Apple's classic Mac OS operating system which was succeeded by Mac OS X (renamed to OS X in 2011 and macOS in 2016) in 2001. Introduced on October 23, 1999, it was promoted by Apple as "The Best Internet O ...

, although this is not officially supported by Apple. Powered by a PowerPC 604e processor, the S900 cannot run

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

natively, but with the addition of a G3 processor upgrade and the use of

XPostFacto {{Rewrite, date=June 2022 XPostFacto is an open source utility that enables the installation of PowerPC versions of Mac OS X up to Mac OS X v10.4 (Tiger), and Darwin on some PowerPC-based Apple Macintosh systems that are not officially supporte ...

4.0, the S900 could run several versions of Mac OS X up to 10.4 Tiger, with some limitations. A number of SuperMac community websites have appeared over the years.

References

{{Reflist Macintosh clones Products introduced in 1996 Products and services discontinued in 1998 Products and services discontinued in 2002 PowerPC computers