Apple Network Server

The machines were not a part of the Apple Macintosh line of computers; they were designed to run IBM's AIX operating system and their ROM specifically prevented booting the classic Mac OS.

CEO Gil Amelio cancelled both Network Server and OpenDoc in the same meeting as it was determined that they were low priorities.

[3] The Apple Network Server's hardware was supposed to be based on a new logic board design specific to the product.

During the development of the hardware, Apple abandoned the original mainboard design for unconfirmed reasons.

In order to move forward and ship the product, Apple made modifications to the Power Macintosh 9500 logic board and ROM (locking out all Mac OS calls) and ported AIX to the new hardware.

Whether related to the hardware change or by coincidence, Apple also abandoned its NetWare on PowerPC development (codename: Wormhole) at this time.

The general logic board layout seems to suggest a close relationship with PowerPC-based RS/6000 systems by IBM, which also were designed to run AIX.

[citation needed] While the circuit board layout of the Apple Network Server (ANS) may resemble RS/6000 systems, logically and physically it is almost identical to a Power Macintosh 9500 (PM9500), although running quite different firmware, and which is specific to its unique mission function.

On the ANS, Grand Central, the two 53C825A SCSI chips, the 54M30 video controller and the upper two PCI slots are supported by Bandit 1.

Going down further in the hierarchy, the Grand Central chip is a sort of I/O bus for miscellaneous logic board devices.

Both the ANS and the PM9500 use the CURIO chip (AM79C950, custom part from AMD) to support serial ports, a slow (5 MB/s, 53C94/96 based) SCSI bus and 10 Mbit/s ethernet.

The SWIM floppy controller is also common to both machines and connected through the Grand Central chip.

All Network Servers feature an internal two-channel Wide SCSI-2 controller (narrow, to the CD-ROM drive, and to any hard drives which have been installed with the Apple accessory Narrow SCSI-2 installation kit), an external 25-pin SCSI-1 connector and a standard 1.44 MB "SuperDrive" floppy.

[5] A unique aspect of the Apple Network Servers is their case: It is fully lockable and extremely accessible, it features a small LCD for diagnostics, and its front has seven device slots, with a CD-ROM and one hard drive mounted in them in the standard configuration.

Additional hot-swappable SCSI hard drive modules or a DAT tape streamer can be added to the free slots.

Due to their AIX OS and hardware similarities, the Network Servers are mostly binary compatible with the RS/6000 series.

[7] During the development of the product, Apple tested alpha versions of Novell NetWare for PowerPC.

Apple also tested and produced limited numbers of ROM SIMMs which supported Windows NT for PowerPC on the Network Server 500 and 700.

It is possible, with prototype Macintosh ROMs, to boot an Apple Network Server 500 or 700 into Mac OS 7.5 or later, however Ethernet support was not complete.

Major issues remain, such as the dual "Bandit" bus controllers, the proprietary floppy format, and possibly the CD-ROM.

The CPU board of an ANS 700/200. The ANS 500/132 and 700/150 CPUs are made from the same board but each employs unique configuration jumpers. All ANS CPUs have an applied printed label (shown on the extreme left) which identifies the CPU's speed: 132, 150 or 200 MHz. As in this generation of Apple's PowerPC products, the installed processor card determines the system's CPU speed, and the system's bus speed is derived from the CPU's speed: 44 MHz for /132, and 50 MHz for /150 and /200.