Newer Technology Inc, still soldiering on in the Apple Computer Inc processor upgrade market, has two new PowerPC G3 upgrade cards for owners of the original Apple PowerBook 1400. Apple chose not to provide the half a million or so PowerBook 1400 users with upgrade options to the G3 third generation PowerPC 750 chip, and as Newer points out, the only option up until now has been to buy a new G3-based mobile from Apple for around $5,000. Newer, a Wichita, Kansas-based company, says its Nupower G3 card with 216MHz processor, 512Kb cache and 108MHz bus costs just under $700. The 250MHz version with 1Mb cache and 125MHz bus costs just under $1,000. Both ship in April. The G3 chip is both faster and more efficient than the older PowerPC iteration used in the 1400 Series, which were introduced late in 1996. Newer says it’s added further power-saving features to the card, so that the upgraded machines will have an extended battery life as well as being faster.
