Apple Computer Inc last Friday took the wraps off its fall collection of Power Macintoshes, and true to its word, left something on the table for the Mac cloners by pricing the machines above the level of some of its licensed rivals. The new line includes Apple’s very first multiprocessors and its first tower model aimed at the consumer market. The six models, their launch timed to greet visitors to MacWorld Boston this week, range from a 120MHz PowerPC 604e model to the 9500/180 MP model, which costs $5,700 and has dual 180MHz PowerPC 604e processors. It currently operates asymmetrically in master-slave configuration using Macintosh System 7 but will run symmetrically under Copland if it ever arrives. The high-end Power Macintosh 9500 has 200MHz 604e chip, 32Mb memory, eight-times standard speed CD-ROM drive, 2Gb disk and video board and costs $4,900. The 132MHz Power Mac 7600 and 150MHz 8500, at $3,000 and $3,600 respectively, are available now, the other models follow in September . The home computers are the Performa 6400 series 180MHz and 200MHz multimedia machines in the mini-tower configuration, and have a loudspeaker that can either be used alone as a full-range device or as a bass-only subwoofer with external speakers. The Performa 6320CD with 120MHz processor, 16Mb memory, 1.2Gb disk, four times standard speed CD-ROM drive, modem and monitor, is $2,300 to $2,500. Apple also introduced a 180MHz 604e upgrade board and an $800 Pentium board. It is talking of 250MHz PowerPC upgrade boards in future.
