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Look Ma, No ROMs (7/19/98)
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A bunch of you were wondering just what the heck we were talking about when we recently referred to the iMac as being faster than a Power Macintosh G3 266. Most just assumed we'd made a mistake, but we can assure you, it wasn't an error. While we haven't seen any formal benchmarks to prove the fact, we can say from personal experience that the pre-production iMacs at MacWorld Expo a couple of weeks ago did in fact feel faster than some of the other G3-based systems we've used.
At the time, we shook our heads and just assumed that, since we hadn't used that 266 MHz G3 minitower for a couple of months, we'd simply forgotten just how fast a G3 processor can be. But Mac OS Rumors also makes reference to this fact, explaining the performance discrepancy by stating that the iMac has no hardware ROM. As it turns out, the ROM in all existing Macs (including the current Power Mac G3's), which contains a portion of the Mac OS, is a relatively slow subsystem and acts as a performance bottleneck. We weren't aware that the iMac was a ROMless model, but if that's true, it certainly makes sense that it would outperform other Macs with faster chips because data wouldn't have to pass through a slow ROM. That's also why CHRP-based systems, like the never-released Motorola StarMax 6000, produced benchmark scores higher than anything Apple's released to date-- and did it almost a full year ago.
Now, assuming that all this is true, it's not surprising that Apple's quietly discontinued the lower-end 233 MHz Power Macintosh G3 to be replaced with faster models. And it's also not surprising that, while Apple's been comparing the speed of the iMac to the Wintels (which it simply crushes in certain applications), it hasn't been telling the Mac-using world that the little blue rocket is actually faster than its own more expensive G3's running faster processors. Presumably they don't want Mac buyers to stop buying while waiting for the iMac's release. Remember, the iMac is definitely not for everyone, but if you were concerned about performance, you shouldn't be. The thing absolutely blazes.
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 7/19/98 episode: July 19, 1998: It's all about good press-- so when will Apple get a new set of adjectives appointed? Meanwhile, rumors of upcoming six-slot Macs have all but died and gone to Hearsay Heaven, and yes, Virginia, the iMac really is faster then a Power Mac G3 266, or so it would seem...
Other scenes from that episode: 865: Pressed for Success (7/19/98) Let's all face facts-- Apple's story is one of the most incredible series of blunders and bad decisions in business history. Until Steve Jobs retook the helm and started making some tough choices, the ship looked very likely to sink, which is why for a good solid two years or more, to the press there was no "Apple."... 866: Requiem for Six Slots (7/19/98) Sigh... the last holdout among the rumormongers who claimed that Apple was quietly working on six-slot G3 models has recanted. Mac the Knife, who continued to whisper about six-slot Macs as late as Friday, now reports that those rumors are incorrect and jumps on the "four slots, one very fast" bandwagon...
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