Macintosh PowerBook 100

Introduced: October 1991
Terminated: August 1992

Description

The PowerBook 100 was similar in some respects to the failed Macintosh Portable. It had a Motorola 68000 processor running at 16MHz. The Powerbook 100 came with either a 20 or 40MB internal hard drive. The 2MB RAM was expandable to 8MB. It had a Passive Matrix LCD screen with a resolution of 640 x 400. There was no internal floppy drive or sound recording.

Mouse functions were handled by a centrally located trackball. The battery on the PowerBook 100 was lead acid.

History

The Macintosh PowerBook 100 was the low-end of the just-introduced PowerBook line. Sony was responsible for miniaturizing the processor that had been in the Macintosh Portable for the PowerBook 100.

The PowerBook 100 was slow and the passive matrix screen and lack of a floppy drive were problematic. As the low-end version, it also came in a plastic case that looked cheap, especially when compared to the other models of the line. With an initial price of $2,500, it was well received. However, eventually Apple had to cut prices below $1000 in order to sell off the remaining stock.

Specifications

Processor: Motorola 68000
Processor Speed: 16 MHz
Coprocessor: None
Cache: None
System Bus: 16 MHz
Hard Drive: 20 - 40 MB
Media: None
Weight and Dimensions (US): 5.1 lbs., 1.8” H x 11” W x 8.5” D
Weight and Dimensions (Metric): 2.3 kg, 4.6 cm H x 27.9 cm W x 21.6 cm D
Original Mac OS: System 7.0.1
Maximum Mac OS: System 7.5.5
Firmware: Macintosh ROM
Logicboard RAM: 2 MB of PSRAM
Maximum RAM: 8 MB
Type of RAM Slots: 1 - PowerBook 1xx (70-pin connector)
Minimum RAM Speed: 100 ns
Interleaving Support: No
Graphics Card: None
Graphics Memory: None
Built-in Display: Film SuperTwist Nematic (FSTN) (Passive Matrix) LCD
Resolutions: 640 x 400
Display Connection: None
Expansion Slots: Internal 20-pin connector for optional 2400-baud modem card
Expansion Bays:—
Hard Drive Bus: 40-pin SCSI
Backup Battery:—
Power Adapter:—
System Battery: 2.5-ampere-hour SLA (sealed lead-acid)
Max Watts: 17 W
Ethernet: None
Infrared: None
Modem: None
ADB: 1
Serial: 1
SCSI: HDI-30
USB: None
FireWire: None
Audio In: None
Audio Out: 1 - 3.5-mm analog output jack, 1 - Built-in speaker

Timeline

The Macintosh PowerBook 100 was introduced with the new PowerBook line in October of 1991. It was discontinued in August of 1992 to make way for new models.