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The Godfather · Sep 8, 2006, 11:42 PM

Apple's 24-inch iMac features "upgradeable" graphics - Engadget

Back in the day, the iMac/A caused much angst with its graphics "upgradeability". Do you think the iMac 24" will not do the same thing?

C.A.T.S. CEO · Sep 8, 2006, 11:48 PM

Uh? Theres a thread already about this.

CharlesS · Sep 9, 2006, 04:09 AM

Angst? There did pop up a whole little industry for mezzanine cards, which was somewhat remarkable since these cards, in addition to using a completely non-standard, unsupported interface, would only be compatible with a single computer model made by a company that had less than 5% of the market. Guess it tells you something about that claim that people don't ever really upgrade their computers...

PurpleGiant · Sep 9, 2006, 05:26 AM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Guess it tells you something about that claim that people don't ever really upgrade their computers...

...except for the fact that at the time Mac users were used to having high speed SCSI port, and then found themselves limited to USB1 as the only expansion option. No CD/DVD Burner, no SCSI, no Firewire, slow USB.

These days even the most basic iMac or MacBook has high speed ports and a DVD burner. People upgrading their computers with more than RAM or a bigger HD are very much in the minority these days.

CharlesS · Sep 9, 2006, 05:33 AM

...except for the fact that people were using the mezzanine slot for more than just SCSI. They were also using it to upgrade things like the graphics card...

SirCastor · Sep 9, 2006, 05:58 AM

The only people who knew/cared about the Mezzanine slot were the Mac Geeks and a handful of obnoxious tech writers who were busy bashing the iMac for it's lack of floppy.

People aren't buying the iMac with expandibility in mind. Fiasco isn't the word I'd use...

CharlesS · Sep 9, 2006, 07:37 AM

Originally Posted by SirCastor

The only people who knew/cared about the Mezzanine slot were the Mac Geeks and a handful of obnoxious tech writers who were busy bashing the iMac for it's lack of floppy.

That's apparently why a bunch of companies sold enough mezzanine cards to make it worth their while to make them, right?

turtle777 · Sep 9, 2006, 07:41 AM

-t

wvx · Sep 9, 2006, 09:45 AM

I worked at ComputerWare when this iMac came out and we sold quite a few of those Voodoo graphics upgrades for that card slot. It was quite a cool "hack" really. There was also a FireWire card that someone made I believe.

SirCastor · Sep 9, 2006, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

That's apparently why a bunch of companies sold enough mezzanine cards to make it worth their while to make them, right?

You're right on that one. I'd forgotten that there actually were cards that hit the market.

ambush · Sep 9, 2006, 01:16 PM

good news.

why fiasco?

Eriamjh · Sep 9, 2006, 01:55 PM

Fiasco is a bad word choice. Perhaps "tease" is better.

I am aware of only ONE mezzanine video card for the rev A/B iMac: the voodoo2 card. I do not have any records of how much, if any, money was actually made on those cards. Micro Conversions folded in 1999. They made the Game Wizard VooDoo2 card for the iMac. Doesn't sound like the GW card did them any good.
Apple even publicly warned companies NOT to develop any hardware that used the mezzanine slot as it was likely to go away. It did. So did all the products that used it (Other than the GW card, was there another? Someone mentioned a SCSI card, but I'm not aware of any specifics.)

Apple , ATI, and NVidia are the only companies that write video card drivers for Macs today. Unless someone makes an MXM card for the iMac that uses existing drivers from, say, the Mac Pro, there will be no cards that are usefull. No company has the resources to take the time to develop the product because Aplpe likes to change products so quickly. Only Apple knows what will be around and what will go away.

What would be nice, is if the MXM card was adopted across the line to all the iMacs. Then there would be some market potential for an aftermarket card that might make someone some money without costing $300 or more.

Where are the threads talking about the next iMac? Merom is here. What is next?

awcopus · Sep 9, 2006, 02:07 PM

Originally Posted by what_the_heck

-t

LOL! Thanks for the mid-afternoon chuckle.

CharlesS · Sep 9, 2006, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by Eriamjh

Fiasco is a bad word choice. Perhaps "tease" is better.

I am aware of only ONE mezzanine video card for the rev A/B iMac: the voodoo2 card. I do not have any records of how much, if any, money was actually made on those cards. Micro Conversions folded in 1999. They made the Game Wizard VooDoo2 card for the iMac. Doesn't sound like the GW card did them any good.

And what happened in 1999? Well, January of that year was when Apple removed the Mezzanine port from the iMac. Hmm...

Apple even publicly warned companies NOT to develop any hardware that used the mezzanine slot as it was likely to go away. It did. So did all the products that used it (Other than the GW card, was there another? Someone mentioned a SCSI card, but I'm not aware of any specifics.)

There was a SCSI/TV tuner card from Formac, a company which is still around and doing quite well. There may have been more, but it's extremely difficult to find information these days.

I myself find it somewhat remarkable that cards were developed at all for a completely unsupported slot that Apple said not to use which was only available on one model of computer from a niche vendor and then only available for 5 months before it was removed...

turtle777 · Sep 9, 2006, 06:14 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

I myself find it somewhat remarkable that cards were developed at all for a completely unsupported slot that Apple said not to use which was only available on one model of computer from a niche vendor and then only available for 5 months before it was removed...

How do you know that any of those companies made any money off of that ?
Just the R&D alone could probably never be recovered in such a short period of time.

-t

goMac · Sep 9, 2006, 06:44 PM

I'm really happy Apple finally adopted a mobile GPU slot. Here's to hoping this makes it to the next Macbook Pro revision.

It just makes more sense, even from a repair standpoint. No point in replacing the entire board for a bad GPU.

CharlesS · Sep 9, 2006, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by what_the_heck

How do you know that any of those companies made any money off of that ?
Just the R&D alone could probably never be recovered in such a short period of time.

-t

I don't, of course. I'm just pointing out that they made them, and people bought them. Nothing more.

Frankly, I doubt those companies knew that the mezzanine slot would disappear after such a short time when they made the cards. I don't see it as relevant - the fact is that if there hadn't been an obvious demand for expansion cards for the iMac, no company in their right mind would have spent the R&D to make one in the first place.

Course, after the mezzanine slot disappeared, people were desperate enough to start soldering the connector on to the Rev. C and Rev. D iMac motherboards in order to hook up the mezzanine cards. If that doesn't tell you something...

Oneota · Sep 9, 2006, 07:27 PM

What's important to bear in mind is that the Mezzanine slot was an Apple-only, proprietary thing. MXM is a more-or-less open standard, so as more and more companies start developing for it, all they'll have to do is take the time to write Mac drivers.

Naturally, though, word is that Apple has said that the MXM slot isn't readily accessible, so even if someone does release a card and drivers, it sounds like it'll be a royal pain to actually utilize.