Other Apple Networking

The Apple Network Server (ANS) was a short-lived line of PowerPC-based server computers manufactured by Apple Computer from February 1996 to April 1997, when it was discontinued due to very poor sales. more...

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It was codenamed \"Shiner\" and originally consisted of two models, the Network Server 500/132 (\"Shiner LE\") and the Network Server 700/150 (\"Shiner HE\"), which got a companion model, the Network Server 700/200 (also \"Shiner HE\") with a faster CPU in September 1996. They are 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 Mac OS. This makes them the last non-Macintosh computers by Apple. The 500/132, 700/150, and 700/200 sold for US$11,000, US$15,000 and US$19,000, respectively.

Apple Network Servers are not to be confused with the Apple Workgroup Servers and the Macintosh Servers, which were Macintosh workstations that shipped with server software and used Mac OS; the sole exception, the Workgroup Server 95—a Quadra 950 with an added SCSI controller that shipped with A/UX—was still able to run Mac OS. Apple did not have comparable server hardware in their product lineup again until the introduction of the Xserve and the Xserve RAID (the Xserve is a Macintosh and uses Mac OS X Server).

Hardware

There is doubt about the Apple Network Server's hardware heritage. The general motherboard layout seems to suggest a close relationship with PowerPC-based RS/6000 systems by IBM, which also were designed to run AIX. On the other hand, many motherboard components, especially the Open Firmware boot ROM, are similar to the \"Tsunami\" board used in the Power Macintosh 9500 and some Macintosh clones.

The ANS 500/132 uses a PowerPC 604 CPU clocked at 132 MHz, and the ANS 700/150 has the same CPU at 150 MHz. Both had a L1 cache of 32 KB. The ANS 700/200 features the more advanced PowerPC 604e at 200 MHz, with a L1 cache of 64 KB. The L2 cache of the ANS is mounted on a SIMM, with a standard size of 512 KB for the 500 and 1 MB for the 700s. The system bus speed is 44 MHz for the 500, and 50 MHz for the 700s. The ANS motherboard has eight 168-pin DIMM parity RAM slots with six of them free (with a maximum amount of 512 MB of RAM specified, even though up to 1 GB is reported to work ). The ANS 500/132 and the ANS 700/2150 shipped with 32 MB of RAM installed, and the ANS 700/200 with 48 MB.

All Network Servers feature an internal two-channel Wide SCSI-2 controller, an external 25-pin SCSI-1 connector and a standard 1.44 MB \"SuperDrive\" floppy. Six free PCI slots are available for expansion - parts supported under AIX include two Ethernet cards and a SCSI RAID card. Other ports include one ADB port, two serial ports and one AAUI port. Unlike all other Apple computers of the era, the ANS uses a VGA connector for the onboard video; an adapter for Apple displays was included.

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