personal computer by Apple

The Power Mac 5500 was the second PCI-bus Power Mac with an integrated monitor; it replaced the slower 5400 . It shipped in 225, 250, and 275 MHz versions. Xemplar distributed a 225 MHz educational version in the UK as the Power Macintosh One. A black 275 MHz “Director’s Edition” was available in Australia. The 5500 was the direct predecessor to the Beige Power Mac G3 All-in-One .

A reader notes: “Many PM 5500s sold in Australia in 1998 did not have any Level 2 cache fitted. This seriously hampered the performance.” Adding a 256 KB or 512 KB L2 cache makes these much better performers.

The logic board of the 5500 is based on the “Gazelle” architecture, which is shared by the 20th Anniversary Mac and the Power Mac 6500 , the latter being essentially the same computer without a built-in display.

Specs (via Low End Mac)

• Cpu: 225, 250, or 275 MHz PPC 603e or 603ev
• Bus: 50 MHz
• Performance: not measured
• Ram: 32 MB, expandable to 128 MB using two 64 MB 60ns 168-pin EDO DIMMs. Supports 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 MB DIMMs.
• L2 Cache: 256 KB (apparently not present in some 5500s sold in Australia)
• Hard Drive: 2 GB IDE
• Video: ATI 3D Rage II chip set
• Vram: 2 MB SGRAM
• Adb: 1 port for keyboard and mouse
• Scsi: DB-25 connector on back of computer
• Serial: 2 DIN-8 GeoPorts on back of computer
• Resolution: 15″ screen, millions of colors at up to 832 x 624, thousands at up to 1024 x 768
• Cd-Rom: 12x or 24x max.
• Microphone: standard 3.5mm minijack, compatible with line-level input including Apple’s PlainTalk microphone
• See: Online resources and links for the Power Mac 5500 (Power Mac One)