Power Macintosh 5500

Introduced: February 1997
Terminated: Early 1998

Description

The Power Macintosh 5500 ran a PowerPC 603e processor at 225, 250 or 275Mhz.  The hard drive had 2Gb of space.  It came with a 1.4Mb floppy drive and either a 12x or 24x CD-ROM.  The maximum RAM of 128Mb was possible utilizing the two EDO DIMM slots.  The built-in display was a 15” multiscan monitor with a 12.8” viewable area.  Expansion slots consisted of a PCI slot, a Comm II slot, a video in and a TV tuner slot.  It had audio in and outs, built-in microphone and built-in speakers.  There was an ATI Rage IIc graphics card.

History

The biggest advancement in the Power Macintosh 5500 over its predecessor the 5400 was the 2D and 3D graphics acceleration.  In addition, it had a number of options for video and audio input/output.

Originally the Power Macintosh 5500 was only available to educational customers.

Specifications

Processor: PowerPC 603e
Processor Speed: 225, 250, 275 MHz
Cache: 32 KB L1, 256 or 512 KB L2
System Bus: 50 MHz
Hard Drive: 2.0 GB
Media: 12x or 24x CD-ROM, 1.44 MB floppy
Weight and Dimensions (US): 47 lbs., 17.5” H x 15.1” W x 16” D
Weight and Dimensions (Metric): 21.3 kg, 44.5 cm H x 38.4 cm W x 40.6 cm D
Original Mac OS: System 7.5.5 (System Enabler 411)
Maximum Mac OS: Mac OS 9.1
Firmware: Open Firmware with Macintosh ROM
Logicboard RAM: None
Maximum RAM: 128 MB
Type of RAM Slots: 2 - 168-pin 5-volt buffered EDO DIMMs
Minimum RAM Speed: 60 ns
Interleaving Support: No
Graphics Card: ATI Rage IIc
Graphics Memory: 2 MB SGRAM
Built-in Display: 15-inch multiscan monitor (12.8-inch viewable)
Display Connection: DB-15
Expansion Slots: 1 - PCI, 1 - Comm II, 1 - Video-In, 1 - TV Tuner
Hard Drive Bus: ATA
Backup Battery: 4.5 V Alkaline
Max Watts: 220 W
Line Voltage: 100–240 V
Ethernet: 10BASE-T
Modem: None
ADB: 1
Serial: 2
SCSI: 1 - DB-25
USB: None
FireWire: None
Audio In: 1 - 3.5-mm analog input jack, 1 - Built-in microphone
Audio Out: 2 - 3.5-mm analog output jacks, 2 - Built-in speakers

Timeline

Introduced in February 1997, the Power Macintosh 5500 was discontinued in early 1998.

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