Introduction to 15-inch PowerBook G4 Developer Note

This developer note is a technical description of the 15-inch PowerBook G4. The note provides information about the computer’s internal design, input-output features, and expansion capabilities.

This developer note is intended to help hardware and software developers design products that are compatible with the Macintosh products described here. If you are not already familiar with Macintosh computers or if you would like additional technical information, you may wish to read the supplementary reference documents described in Appendix A.

Organization of This Document

The information in this note is arranged in four chapters and two appendixes.

• Chapter 1, Overview of the 15-inch PowerBook G4, introduces the 15-inch PowerBook G4 and describes its features.

• Chapter 2, Architecture, describes the internal logic of the computer, including the main ICs that appear in the block diagram.

• Chapter 3, Devices and Ports, describes the standard I/O ports and the built-in I/O devices.

• Chapter 4, Expansion Features, describes the expansion features of interest to developers. It includes development guides for expansion-bay devices, the RAM expansion modules, and the PC Card slot.

• Appendix A contains links to supplemental reference documents.

• Appendix B is a list of the abbreviations used in this developer note.