The Power Macintosh 7200 (sold as a Power Macintosh 8200 in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

) 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 ...

designed, manufactured, and sold by

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 ...

from August 1995 to February 1997. The 90 MHz model was sold in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

as the Power Macintosh 7215, and the 120 MHz model 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 ...

7250. When sold as the 8200, it used the Quadra 800/ Power Mac 8100's mini-tower form factor. The 7200 was introduced alongside the

Power Macintosh 7500 The Power Macintosh 7500 is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from August 1995 to May 1996. The 7500 was introduced alongside the Power Macintosh 7200 and 8500 at the 1995 MacWorld Expo in Boston. Apple re ...

and 8500 at the 1995 MacWorld Expo in Boston. Apple referred to these machines collectively as the "Power Surge" line, communicating that this second generation of PowerPC machines offered a significant speed improvement over their predecessors. Introduced as a successor to the

Power Macintosh 7100 The Power Macintosh 7100 is a personal computer that was designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from March 1994 to January 1996. It is the mid-range machine of the first generation of Power Macintosh line, between the Power Macintos ...

, the 7200 represents the low end of this generation of

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 ...

, which replaced

NuBus NuBus (pron. 'New Bus') is a 32-bit parallel computer bus, originally developed at MIT and standardized in 1987 as a part of the NuMachine workstation project. The first complete implementation of the NuBus was done by Western Digital for th ...

with

PCI PCI may refer to: Business and economics * Payment card industry, businesses associated with debit, credit, and other payment cards ** Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of security requirements for credit card processors * Pro ...

. It shares the 7500's "

Outrigger An outrigger is a projecting structure on a boat, with specific meaning depending on types of vessel. Outriggers may also refer to legs on a wheeled vehicle that are folded out when it needs stabilization, for example on a crane that lifts ...

" case. At launch, the 7200 was available with processor speeds of 75 and 90 MHz, with the slower model being replaced by a 120 MHz CPU in February 1996. The 120 MHz model was also available in a " PC compatible" variant, which came with a PCI card that allowed the computer to run

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and other PC operating systems. The card featured a 100 MHz

Pentium Pentium is a brand used for a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel. The original Pentium processor from which the brand took its name was first released on March 22, 1993. After that, the Pentium II and Pe ...

processor. The

Power Macintosh 7300 The Power Macintosh 7300 (also sold with server software as the Apple Workgroup Server 7350) is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from February 1997 to November 1997. It was introduced with 166, 180 and 200&n ...

replaced the 7200 in February 1997.

Upgrades

Unlike other Power Macintosh machines of the time, the CPU is soldered to the motherboard instead of on a

daughterboard In computing, an expansion card (also called an expansion board, adapter card, peripheral card or accessory card) is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an electrical connector, or expansion slot (also referred to as a bus s ...

. This presented a challenge for users who wanted to upgrade to a faster processor. At the time of its introduction, Apple promised an inexpensive

logic board A motherboard (also called mainboard, main circuit board, mb, mboard, backplane board, base board, system board, logic board (only in Apple computers) or mobo) is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expan ...

upgrade to the 7500, but due to high demand for the 7500, this never materialized. When the upgrade was finally made available, it was to the follow-on model, the

Power Macintosh 7600 The Power Macintosh 7600 is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from April 1996 to November 1997. It is identical to the Power Macintosh 7500, but with a PowerPC 604 CPU. Three models were available with 120&nb ...

, and came in the form of a complete logic board replacement. The base price was $1,300 and upgraded the system to a CPU, but did not include L2 cache. The 7200's CPU was considered otherwise impossible to upgrade until, over three years after the 7200 was discontinued, Sonnet eventually produced an G3 upgrade card for the PCI slots.

Models

Introduced August 8, 1995: * Power Macintosh 7200/75 * Power Macintosh 7200/90 Introduced January 11, 1996: * Power Macintosh 7215/90 Introduced February 26, 1996: * Workgroup Server 7250/120 Introduced April 22, 1996: * Power Macintosh 7200/120 * Power Macintosh 7200/120 PC Compatible * Power Macintosh 8200/100 * Power Macintosh 8200/120

References

External links

Power Macintosh 7200
at Low End Mac * Official Power Macintosh 7200/120 page (1996

* Official Power Macintosh 7200/120 (PC Compatible) page (1996

{{Apple hardware before 1998 7200 7200 Macintosh desktops Computer-related introductions in 1995