Old World ROM Macintosh computers are the Macintosh models that use a
Macintosh ToolboxThe Macintosh Toolbox is a set of application programming interfaces with a particular access mechanism. They implement many of the high-level features of the Mac OS. The Toolbox consists of a number of "managers," software components such as QuickDraw, responsible for drawing onscreen graphics,...
ROMRead-only memory is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. Because data stored in ROM cannot be modified , it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM...
chip, usually in a socket (but soldered to the motherboard in some models). All Macs prior to the
iMacThe iMac is a range of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its introduction in 1998, and has evolved through four distinct forms. In its original form, the iMac G3, the iMac was gum drop- or...
use Old World ROM, while the iMac and all subsequent models until the introduction of the Intel-based EFI Models are
New World ROMNew World ROM Macintosh computers are the Macintosh models that do not use a Macintosh Toolbox ROM on the motherboard, but instead load the Toolbox ROM from disk storage into RAM when needed...
machines. In common use, the "Old World" designation usually applies to the early generations of
PCIConventional PCI is a computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a computer. These devices can take either the form of an integrated circuit fitted onto the motherboard itself, called a planar device in the PCI specification, or an expansion card that fits into a slot...
-based "beige"
Power MacsPower Macintosh, later Power Mac, is a line of Apple Macintosh workstation-class personal computers based on various models of PowerPC microprocessors that was developed, marketed, and supported by Apple Inc. from March 1994 until August 2006. The first models were the Power Macintosh 6100, 7100,...
(and sometimes the very first
NuBusNuBus is a 32-bit parallel computer bus, originally developed at MIT as a part of the NuMachine workstation project. The first complete implementation of the NuBus and the NuMachine was done by Western Digital for their NuMachine, and for the Lisp Machines Inc. LMI-Lambda. The NuBus was later...
-equipped models), but not the older
Motorola 68000The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit
CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...
-based Macs; however, the Toolbox runs the same way on all three types of machines.
PCI Power Macs with an Old World ROM contain an
Open FirmwareOpen Firmware, or OpenBoot in Sun Microsystems parlance, is a standard defining the interfaces of a computer firmware system, formerly endorsed by the IEEE. It originated at Sun, and has been used by Sun, Apple, IBM, and most other non-x86 PCI chipset vendors. Open Firmware allows the system to...
implementation, and a copy of the Macintosh Toolbox as an Open Firmware device.
Old World ROM Macintosh computers are the Macintosh models that use a
Macintosh ToolboxThe Macintosh Toolbox is a set of application programming interfaces with a particular access mechanism. They implement many of the high-level features of the Mac OS. The Toolbox consists of a number of "managers," software components such as QuickDraw, responsible for drawing onscreen graphics,...
ROMRead-only memory is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. Because data stored in ROM cannot be modified , it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM...
chip, usually in a socket (but soldered to the motherboard in some models). All Macs prior to the
iMacThe iMac is a range of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its introduction in 1998, and has evolved through four distinct forms. In its original form, the iMac G3, the iMac was gum drop- or...
use Old World ROM, while the iMac and all subsequent models until the introduction of the Intel-based EFI Models are
New World ROMNew World ROM Macintosh computers are the Macintosh models that do not use a Macintosh Toolbox ROM on the motherboard, but instead load the Toolbox ROM from disk storage into RAM when needed...
machines. In common use, the "Old World" designation usually applies to the early generations of
PCIConventional PCI is a computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a computer. These devices can take either the form of an integrated circuit fitted onto the motherboard itself, called a planar device in the PCI specification, or an expansion card that fits into a slot...
-based "beige"
Power MacsPower Macintosh, later Power Mac, is a line of Apple Macintosh workstation-class personal computers based on various models of PowerPC microprocessors that was developed, marketed, and supported by Apple Inc. from March 1994 until August 2006. The first models were the Power Macintosh 6100, 7100,...
(and sometimes the very first
NuBusNuBus is a 32-bit parallel computer bus, originally developed at MIT as a part of the NuMachine workstation project. The first complete implementation of the NuBus and the NuMachine was done by Western Digital for their NuMachine, and for the Lisp Machines Inc. LMI-Lambda. The NuBus was later...
-equipped models), but not the older
Motorola 68000The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit
CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...
-based Macs; however, the Toolbox runs the same way on all three types of machines.
PCI Power Macs with an Old World ROM contain an
Open FirmwareOpen Firmware, or OpenBoot in Sun Microsystems parlance, is a standard defining the interfaces of a computer firmware system, formerly endorsed by the IEEE. It originated at Sun, and has been used by Sun, Apple, IBM, and most other non-x86 PCI chipset vendors. Open Firmware allows the system to...
implementation, and a copy of the Macintosh Toolbox as an Open Firmware device. These machines are set to boot from this device by default, thus starting the normal Macintosh startup procedure. This can be changed, just as on New World ROM Macs, but with limitations placed on what devices and formats can be used; on these machines, particularly the early machines like the
Power Macintosh 9500The Power Macintosh 9500 is a high-end Macintosh personal computer which was designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from August 1995 until early 1997. It is powered by a PowerPC 604 processor, a second-generation PowerPC chip which was faster than the earlier PowerPC 601 chip...
, the Open Firmware implementation was just enough to enumerate PCI devices and load the Toolbox ROM, and these Open Firmware revisions have several bugs which must be worked around by boot loaders or nvramrc patches.
All Power Macs include an
emulatedThe Mac 68K emulator was a software emulator built into all versions of the Mac OS for PowerPC. This emulator permitted the running of applications and system code that were originally written for the 680x0 based Macintosh models. The emulator was completely seamless for users, and reasonably...
68LC040 core that runs inside a nanokernel; this nanokernel/emulator combination is then used to boot the (predominantly 68k-based) Toolbox, and is also used to support applications written for the 68k once Mac OS is running. 68k machines can boot into the Toolbox directly.
On all Old World ROM machines, once the Toolbox is loaded, the boot procedure is the same. The Toolbox does a memory test, enumerates Mac OS devices it knows about (this varies from model to model), and either starts the onboard video (if present) or the option ROM on a NuBus or PCI video card. The Toolbox then checks for a disk in the floppy drive, and scans all SCSI buses for a disk with a valid System Folder, giving preference to whatever disk is set as the startup disk in the parameter RAM.
If a bootable disk is found, the
Happy MacA Happy Mac is the normal bootup icon of an Apple Macintosh computer running older versions of the Mac OS operating system. It was designed by Susan Kare in the early 1980s. The icon remained unchanged until the introduction of the PowerPC Macs, when it was updated to 8-bit color...
logo is displayed, and control is handed over to the Mac OS. If no disk to boot from is present, an
iconAn icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism...
depicting a floppy disk with a blinking question mark in the middle will be displayed. If a hardware problem occurs during the early part of the boot process, the machine will display the
Sad MacA Sad Mac is an iconic symbol used by older-generation Apple Macintosh computers , starting with the original 128K Macintosh, to indicate a severe hardware or software problem that prevented startup from occurring successfully. The Sad Mac icon was displayed, along with a set of hexadecimal codes...
icon with a hexadecimal error code and freeze; and on Macs made after 1987, this will be accompanied by the
Chimes of DeathThe Chimes of Death, also known as Hawaiian Death Chimes, are the Macintosh equivalent of an IBM PC POST error beep.Most of the time, the Chimes of Death are accompanied by a Sad Mac icon in the middle of the screen....
sound.
Since the Old World ROM usually boots to the Toolbox, most OSes have to be installed using a boot loader from inside Mac OS (
BootXBootX may refer to:* BootX , the default Apple bootloader.* BootX , the free Linux bootloader for Macintosh computers....
is commonly used for Linux installations). 68K-based Macs and NuBus Power Macs
must have Mac OS installed to load another OS (even
A/UXA/UX was Apple Computer’s implementation of the Unix operating system for some of their Macintosh computers. The later versions of A/UX ran on the Macintosh II, Quadra and Centris series of machines as well as the SE/30. A/UX was first released in 1988, with the final version released in 1995...
, which was an Apple product), usually with
virtual memoryVirtual memory is a computer system technique which gives an application program the impression that it has contiguous working memory , while in fact it may be physically fragmented and may even overflow on to disk storage. Systems that use this technique make programming of large applications...
turned off. PCI Power Macs can be configured to boot into Open Firmware, allowing the firmware to load a boot loader directly, or they can use a specially-prepared floppy disk to trick the Toolbox into loading a kernel (this is used for
LinuxLinux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed,...
installation floppy images).
The most simple way to distinguish an OldWorld ROM Mac is that it will not have a factory built-in USB port. Only NewWorld ROM Macs had a USB port as factory equipment.
See also
- BootX
BootX is the name of a graphical bootloader developed by Benjamin Herrenschmidt, which runs as an application or an extension to Mac OS 8 and 9 that allows Old World Apple computers to boot Linux. It is no longer maintained by its original author, as it does not work with any current hardware, but...
, the standard LinuxPPC boot loader for Old World machines
- Quik (boot loader)
quik is a boot loader designed to start Linux on Apple Macintosh PowerPC systems based on the Old World ROM architecture. It was originally written by Paul Mackerras, and portions of its code were reused in all other Linux boot loaders for PowerPC, including the one known as BootX , which is...
, a replacement boot loader for Old World PCI systems
External links