Technical information

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Compatibility Issues

Expansion Bay Modules 1

The expansion bay in the PowerBook computer is not the same as those in the

PowerBook G3 Series and PowerBook 3400 computers. Expansion bay modules

designed for earlier PowerBook computers will not ﬁt in the PowerBook

computer. For more information, see “Mechanical Design of Expansion Bay

Modules” (page 60).

RAM Expansion Modules 1

For RAM expansion, the PowerBook G3 computer uses standard SO-DIMMs

that contain SDRAM devices. For information, see “RAM Expansion Slots”

(page 69).

IMPORTANT

The RAM DIMMs in the PowerBook computer must be

SO-DIMMs that use SDRAM devices. SO-DIMMs that use

EDO devices will not work.

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USB Ports and Devices 1

The USB ports take the place of the ADB and serial I/O ports found on earlier

Macintosh computers. Software shims have been added to allow existing

applications designed to work with ADB mice and keyboards to work with the

equivalent USB devices. See “USB Ports” (page 30).

The AppleVision display uses an ADB connection for computer calibration of

the display. The PowerBook G3 computer has no ADB port, and the

USB-to-ADB adapter does not work in this capacity, so the user cannot use

system software to calibrate the display. The user can still adjust the display

manually.

System Software 1

The PowerBook computer has newly designed system software that provides

Open Firmware booting and Mac OS ROM in RAM. The system software is

described in Chapter 5.

The system software that comes with the PowerBook computer is Mac OS 8.6

with the addition of the extensions and control panels required for