Macintosh Family Hardware Reference

The Macintosh Family Hardware Reference provides the most accurate and complete information on the hardware configurations for all Macintosh computers, including the Macintosh II and the Macintosh SE.

Developed jointly by Apple, IBM and Motorola, this book defines the architecture requirements and minimum system requirements for a common hardware reference platform. It provides essential information for anyone developing an operating system, hardware component, or hardware platform to run on these standard systems.

This is an essential reference for Macintosh developers designing expansion cards, peripheral devices, and drivers. This new edition is revised to provide up-to-date expansion guidelines for the entire Macintosh family, including the newest members.

Discusses the principles of programming any of the machines in the Apple Macintosh family of computers, including event-driven programming, memory management, file management, and use of specialized software.

This book defines the architecture requirements and minimum system requirementsfor a computer system that is designed to become an open industry standard.These requirements provide a description of the devices, interfaces, and dataformats required to design and build a PowerPC-based computer. This standard isdesigned to provide software compatibility for several operating environments.Systems built to these requirements can use industry-standard componentscurrently found in IBM-compatible and Apple® Macintosh® personal computers. Thesesystems are expected to run various future versions of operating systemsincluding Apple Mac OSTM, IBM AIXTM and PowerPCTM Editions of IBM OS/2 Warp ConnectTM,Microsoft Windows NTTM Workstation, Novell NetwareTM, and SunSoft SolarisTM. This book is the primary source of information for anyone developing a hardwareplatform, an operating system, or hardware component to be part of thesestandard systems. It describes the hardware-to-operating-system interface thatis essential to anyone building hardware platforms and provides the minimumsystem configurations that platform designers must meet when building a standardplatform. Component manufacturers require this information to producecompatible chips and adapters to use on these platforms, and software developersrequire the information on mandatory functions and documented interfaces. The architecture is intended to support a range of PowerPC microprocessor-based system implementations including portable, desktop, and server classsystems, and allows multiple operating-system implementations across a widerange of environments and functions. This enables new hardware and softwareenhancements that are necessary for the development of improved userinterfaces, higher performance, and broader operating environments.