so as a few members already know
I have been trying to get a Power Macintosh 9600 for almost 4 years now
and finally that search has come to and end as recently I finally found one
my machine is a Power Macintosh 9600/300, from what I have been told it was an ex avid workstation, and interestingly it was made on the 5th of December 1998 according to its serial number sticker, making it newer then even most G3 beiges out there, it must of been one of the last 9600s apple made, according to the interwebs the 9600 was discontinued in early 1998 so go figure that one out
being a 300Mhz machine means it has a 604ev CPU with 1MB of 100Mhz inline L2 cache and as such it has a code-name Kansas motherboard which has the soldered L2 cache removed and control logic adapted to work with the Apple 604ev CPU cards, the Kansas machines are generally sought after more as they play better with CPU upgrades and the like (the Soldered 512KB of L2 cache on the older code-name tsunami boards can cause issues with G3/G4 CPUs)
as such I was pretty pleased to get a Kansas machine, (for those wondering, any Power Macintosh 8600 or 9600 that is 250Mhz or faster is a "Kansas" machine)
here is a backside picture of the 300Mhz 604ev CPU card from my 9600, worth noting is the "400Mhz" option apple never sold a 400Mhz 604ev System to the public but IBM did sell 400Mhz 604ev Chips, it would be interesting to know if there are any 400Mhz apple prototypes out there (the 2 QFP Motorola chips are 2 of 4 memory chips which make up the 1MB of inline L2 cache)
my machine came to me and is currently equipped with 192MB of RAM via 6 matching 32MB RAM sticks, the machine has a total of 12 RAM slots connected to the "Hammerhead" EDO/FPM memory controller, at some point I hope to get 12 128MB RAM sticks for it and max it out at a whopping (for 1995-1997
) 1.5GB of RAM
now one of the main reasons I wanted to get a 9600 (aside for general shenanigans and the collection on account of how awesome they where back in the day with the 12 RAM slots 6 PCI slots and more CPU upgrade options then you could shake a stick at)
was to test the 2 major software things I had developed
that being my 604/603 10.4.11 tiger kernel project https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/os-x-tiger-on-a-603-604-cpu.1908276/
and a special image of 10.5.8 I built setup in a way that in theory would let someone boot 10.5.8 on a G4 upgraded Beige Mac, https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/power-macintosh-g3-beige-running-os-x-10-5-8-leopard.1937844/
while users @bunnspecial and @tevion5 where kind enough to test my special tiger kernel on their own 604e/604ev equipped machines for me, I have wanted to see my kernel running on actual 60x hardware with my own 2 eyes
and as for the Leopard image I put together, up until now I have only been able to test as far back as the G3 beige, and I have sadly not been able to find anyone to test it for me on anything older then a G3 beige
well im pleased to say that I was able to successfully test both on my new 9600
here is a screen shot of tiger running on the 9600 with its stock 604ev CPU
its worth noting that Apple never updated OpenFirmware on the 9600 to recognise the 604ev CPUs properly hence the "PowerPC 60?" as OpenFirmware does not know what to make of the CPU (With that line in System profiler on PPC macs being pulled from the Open Firmware device tree)
also despite the 9600 having a 50Mhz 60x bus OS X reports a 100Mhz bus because the CPU it self IS on a 100Mhz bus, as on the Kansas macs the CPU card contains a special CPU bus and inline cache controller named "brick" which takes the 50Mhz 60x main bus and then spits out a 100Mhz bus that the inline cache and 604ev CPU sit on. as this 100Mhz bus is an internal bus just for the CPU it self and the inline cache and does not extend to the motherboard, the CPU card still interfaces to the rest of the system via a 50Mhz 60x bus, but OS X reads the bus speed literally from the CPU POV rather then the systems POV so you end up with a fun little "anomaly" in OS X when running on a mac with a 604ev Apple CPU card
now for the proper juicy stuff,
I am pleased to say that I was able to boot 10.5.8 on my 9600
I accomplished this via my custom leopard image and an Apple 350Mhz 7400 G4 ZIF Yikes CPU in an XLR8 "Mach carrier" Slocket, a card which plugs into a 7300-9600 CPU slot and lets you in turn use a ZIF G3/G4 CPU in those systems.
to make my life easier I fitted a Radeon 9200 GPU and an ACARD 6280M ATA133 PCI card with a 16GB CF card attached to it. (the card presents ATA drives as SCSI devices hence the SCSI icons on the desktop) the PCI ATA card+CF card combo allowed me to easily image OSs to the system and edit files on a modern system, and also fitted because the Stock 4GB SCSI HDD is sadly missing from my 9600
I have to say it was pretty awesome to see Leopard boot on a computer that came out in 1997 (with close ties to 1995, the 9600 is heavily based off of the 9500 which came out in 1995, to the point of using the same OpenFirmware image hence the "9500" in system profiler) but its interesting to note that my Main System today is a 2009 Mac Pro which it self is almost 10 years old which the 9600 was in 2007 when Leopard came out, but the 9600 was much more obsolete when it was 10 years old compared to my Mac Pro now at 10 years old. just an interesting thing to think about
also as you can see the bus speed here is properly reported as 50Mhz as the G4 CPU interfaces directly to the main system bus.
and heres a Lobo shot of my 9600 configured to boot 10.5.8
I plan to geekbench the system with various CPUs and OS X configurations once I get more RAM as Geekbench needs at least 512MB of RAM to run properly (the 9500/9600 has 2 separate "Bandit" 60x to PCI Bus controllers each driving 3 slots, giving you 2 PCI buses, allowing you to have 2 high speed devices without them fighting for PCI bus bandwidth)
and heres a bonus shot of the System in Mac OS 9.2.2 (this was taken when I just got the machine booted into an OS for the first time, and was done with the Stock IMS Twin turbo 128 video card hence the wonky video rez)
as mentioned I have been looking for a 9600 for years now and im very happy/excited to have finally acquired one
I will continue to update this thread as I continue to tinker and experiment with it 
and I hope you enjoyed reading this post
(and free internet cookie if you get the title of the thread
)
I have been trying to get a Power Macintosh 9600 for almost 4 years now
and finally that search has come to and end as recently I finally found one
my machine is a Power Macintosh 9600/300, from what I have been told it was an ex avid workstation, and interestingly it was made on the 5th of December 1998 according to its serial number sticker, making it newer then even most G3 beiges out there, it must of been one of the last 9600s apple made, according to the interwebs the 9600 was discontinued in early 1998 so go figure that one out
being a 300Mhz machine means it has a 604ev CPU with 1MB of 100Mhz inline L2 cache and as such it has a code-name Kansas motherboard which has the soldered L2 cache removed and control logic adapted to work with the Apple 604ev CPU cards, the Kansas machines are generally sought after more as they play better with CPU upgrades and the like (the Soldered 512KB of L2 cache on the older code-name tsunami boards can cause issues with G3/G4 CPUs)
as such I was pretty pleased to get a Kansas machine, (for those wondering, any Power Macintosh 8600 or 9600 that is 250Mhz or faster is a "Kansas" machine)
here is a backside picture of the 300Mhz 604ev CPU card from my 9600, worth noting is the "400Mhz" option apple never sold a 400Mhz 604ev System to the public but IBM did sell 400Mhz 604ev Chips, it would be interesting to know if there are any 400Mhz apple prototypes out there (the 2 QFP Motorola chips are 2 of 4 memory chips which make up the 1MB of inline L2 cache)
my machine came to me and is currently equipped with 192MB of RAM via 6 matching 32MB RAM sticks, the machine has a total of 12 RAM slots connected to the "Hammerhead" EDO/FPM memory controller, at some point I hope to get 12 128MB RAM sticks for it and max it out at a whopping (for 1995-1997
now one of the main reasons I wanted to get a 9600 (aside for general shenanigans and the collection on account of how awesome they where back in the day with the 12 RAM slots 6 PCI slots and more CPU upgrade options then you could shake a stick at)
was to test the 2 major software things I had developed
that being my 604/603 10.4.11 tiger kernel project https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/os-x-tiger-on-a-603-604-cpu.1908276/
and a special image of 10.5.8 I built setup in a way that in theory would let someone boot 10.5.8 on a G4 upgraded Beige Mac, https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/power-macintosh-g3-beige-running-os-x-10-5-8-leopard.1937844/
while users @bunnspecial and @tevion5 where kind enough to test my special tiger kernel on their own 604e/604ev equipped machines for me, I have wanted to see my kernel running on actual 60x hardware with my own 2 eyes
and as for the Leopard image I put together, up until now I have only been able to test as far back as the G3 beige, and I have sadly not been able to find anyone to test it for me on anything older then a G3 beige
well im pleased to say that I was able to successfully test both on my new 9600
here is a screen shot of tiger running on the 9600 with its stock 604ev CPU
also despite the 9600 having a 50Mhz 60x bus OS X reports a 100Mhz bus because the CPU it self IS on a 100Mhz bus, as on the Kansas macs the CPU card contains a special CPU bus and inline cache controller named "brick" which takes the 50Mhz 60x main bus and then spits out a 100Mhz bus that the inline cache and 604ev CPU sit on. as this 100Mhz bus is an internal bus just for the CPU it self and the inline cache and does not extend to the motherboard, the CPU card still interfaces to the rest of the system via a 50Mhz 60x bus, but OS X reads the bus speed literally from the CPU POV rather then the systems POV so you end up with a fun little "anomaly" in OS X when running on a mac with a 604ev Apple CPU card
now for the proper juicy stuff,
I am pleased to say that I was able to boot 10.5.8 on my 9600
I accomplished this via my custom leopard image and an Apple 350Mhz 7400 G4 ZIF Yikes CPU in an XLR8 "Mach carrier" Slocket, a card which plugs into a 7300-9600 CPU slot and lets you in turn use a ZIF G3/G4 CPU in those systems.
to make my life easier I fitted a Radeon 9200 GPU and an ACARD 6280M ATA133 PCI card with a 16GB CF card attached to it. (the card presents ATA drives as SCSI devices hence the SCSI icons on the desktop) the PCI ATA card+CF card combo allowed me to easily image OSs to the system and edit files on a modern system, and also fitted because the Stock 4GB SCSI HDD is sadly missing from my 9600
I have to say it was pretty awesome to see Leopard boot on a computer that came out in 1997 (with close ties to 1995, the 9600 is heavily based off of the 9500 which came out in 1995, to the point of using the same OpenFirmware image hence the "9500" in system profiler) but its interesting to note that my Main System today is a 2009 Mac Pro which it self is almost 10 years old which the 9600 was in 2007 when Leopard came out, but the 9600 was much more obsolete when it was 10 years old compared to my Mac Pro now at 10 years old. just an interesting thing to think about
also as you can see the bus speed here is properly reported as 50Mhz as the G4 CPU interfaces directly to the main system bus.
and heres a Lobo shot of my 9600 configured to boot 10.5.8
and heres a bonus shot of the System in Mac OS 9.2.2 (this was taken when I just got the machine booted into an OS for the first time, and was done with the Stock IMS Twin turbo 128 video card hence the wonky video rez)
as mentioned I have been looking for a 9600 for years now and im very happy/excited to have finally acquired one
and I hope you enjoyed reading this post
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