October 12th, 1999

[2:30 PM] Sonnet Announces Blue & White Compatibility With Their G4 Upgrades

Sonnet Technologies has announced that their G4 upgrade cards will now work with Blue & White G3s. Sonnet is the second company to announce a workaround for the G4 ROM block installed into Blue & White G3s with a firmware update. According to Sonnet:

Sonnet Technologies, Inc., the leading manufacturer of performance upgrade products for Apple Macintosh computers, announces that its Encore G4 processor upgrades are now compatible with all versions of Blue & White G3 machines. The Sonnet card ships with a software utility that will disable a G4 ROM block in the Blue & White G3 computer if present.

Like Sonnet's Encore G3 products, Sonnet Encore G4 cards have the unique ability to be installed in any Power Mac G3 without requiring any switch or jumper change. In a Blue & White G3, the 400MHz Sonnet Encore hardware will self-configure to run at 4x the 100MHz bus. In the G3 Desktop, Server, Mini Tower, or All-in-one, the 400MHz Encore will auto-sense the 66 MHz bus and configure itself to run at 6x bus speed.

While Sonnet is excited to be offering the G4 technology to increase performance for specialized applications, the company remains committed to the Macintosh G3 upgrade market as well. Sonnet will maintain its robust product lines of G3 upgrade cards and will continue to introduce ever-higher speed G3 products as the processors become available. Power Mac owners can now upgrade to 500 MHz with Sonnet's G3 product line.

The company says that they Encore G4 400/1M upgrade card will ship in November. The card is priced at US$999. 450 MHz and 500 MHz versions will not ship until the 1st quarter of 2000. Pricing on those models has not been announced. The company has not yet added information on this product line to their web site.

The Mac Observer Spin: This is good news to the thousands of Blue & White owners who will be looking to get extended use out of their machines, especially those who recently purchased their Blue & Whites. With two companies having broken through the barrier, it is likely that the other upgrade companies will be following suit soon.

Sonnet Technologies