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FireWire Lurking on iBook Motherboard



The mysterious port is located
between the USB and sound output ports

Mac Treasure Tracing Club reports that Japan’s hardware guru Tak Imai has found patterns for a FireWire port and transceiver on the iBook motherboard and has posted images on his Mystic Room Web site (Japanese only).

The pattern perfectly fits a 6-pin FireWire port and the other side of the motherboard has a pattern that matches a physical layer transceiver, a Lucent FW-801. The only problem is that there are other discrete parts missing, eliminating the chance of implementing FireWire on the current iBook. This should be an indication for the inclusion of FireWire on a future (rev. b) iBook.

Tak Imai has already overclocked this newest IBM copper G3 CPU (PPC750L-FB0H300) to 400 MHz and has it running at a cool 55C/131F. He attributes this success to the fact that 300 MHz is at the lower end of the 300 to 466 range of offerings. He has also swapped the internal hard disk to a Toshiba MK-6412MAT Super Slimline (8.5 mm) 6.4 GB drive. He reports that the swap procedure is very complicated.

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.