Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White)

The blue & white Power Macintosh G3, codenamed "Yosemite" and sometimes simply referred to as "Power Mac G3", is the redesigned successor to the original Power Macintosh G3 series, retroactively referred to as "beige".

Features
Introduced on January 5, 1999 at the Macworld Conference & Expo, the blue & white G3 was the first new Power Macintosh model to be released after the iMac. Its novel enclosure positioned the logic board on the access door, which allowed easy access when swung down (this case style was also used on all Power Mac G4 models except for the Cube). These models used new -based PowerPC G3 CPUs made by IBM, which used about 1/4 the power of the Motorola versions. 300, 350, and 400 MHz versions were made; a 450 MHz version was added on June 1, 1999. The logic board had four PCI slots: three 64-bit 33 MHz slots, and one 32-bit 66 MHz slot dedicated for the graphics card, an ATI Rage 128. Four RAM slots accepted PC100 SDRAM modules, allowing for a maximum of 1 GB of RAM, running on a 100 MHz bus. The onboard IDE was upgraded to Ultra ATA/33, but SCSI was no longer present, having been replaced by two FireWire ports. The serial ports were gone, too, having given way to two USB 1.1 ports. The ADB port remained, as did the option for an internal modem. 100Base-TX Ethernet was now standard, and audio was moved back to the logic board. Zip remained as an option, and some configurations included a DVD-ROM drive and a DVD-Video decoder daughtercard for the graphics card, allowing hardware-assisted DVD video playback. The blue-and-white Power Mac G3 was the first Power Mac with the "New World" architecture based on Open Firmware, as well as the first Power Mac without onboard SCSI. Initially, many buyers chose to buy the older "platinum" G3s instead, in order to maintain compatibility with existing peripherals.

Issues
Early "Revision 1" blue & white G3s had IDE controller problems, which made it impossible to connect two hard drives and also resulted in data transmission problems with drives containing newer controller boards. The logic boards of the "Revision 2" units have a revised IDE controller which allows two hard disks, and works correctly with newer drives, within the 28-bit LBA constraint. The Revision 2 units also contain a hard disk bracket designed for two drives and an updated graphics card.