PowerBook 165, 165c and 180c Developer Notes

Apple published short developer notes for three of the 1993 PowerBooks: the PowerBook 165, the colour PowerBook 165c and the colour PowerBook 180c. Each describes only what differs from the PowerBook 160 and 180 and refers back to the Macintosh PowerBook 160 and Macintosh PowerBook 180 Developer Note, which is hosted on PowerBook 160 Documentation. None contains service procedures, schematics or component values; for those see PowerBook 160, 165 and 180 Service Source and PowerBook 165c and 180c Service Source. In all three the printed page number is the PDF page minus 10.

PowerBook 165

Developer Note: Macintosh PowerBook 165, Apple Developer Press, 1993, 16 PDF pages.

Section	PDF pages
Introduction and features	12-13
Compatibility issues: RAM expansion slot, identifying the PowerBook 165	13
RAM expansion interface and card design guide	14-15

What it settles:

• Apple describes the 165 as a 160 running at 33 MHz, with a 16 MHz power-saving mode, 1 MB of ROM, 4 MB of PSRAM and room for a 10 MB card, 14 MB in all (p. 12).
• The display is a 16-grey 640 × 400 FSTN panel lit by one cold-cathode lamp, and the video output drives 256 colours on Apple monitors up to 16 inches (p. 12).
• It lists 40, 80 and 120 MB disks (p. 12); Apple's specification page gives 80-160 MB.
• RAM cards for the 165 and the 165c have different mechanical design limits (p. 13). The Gestalt machine type is 84 (p. 13).

PowerBook 165c

Developer Note: Macintosh PowerBook 165c, 25 PDF pages; this copy is a later Developer Technical Publications reprint.

Section	PDF pages
Chapter 1, Hardware: introduction, features, block diagram	12-14
Compatibility issues: colour display, RAM expansion slot	15
Hardware overview: memory maps, ROM, RAM, wait states, battery backup	16-19
Colour LCD interface and LCD screen	19-20
RAM expansion interface, connector location, card design guide	20-22
Chapter 2, Software: ROM, system software, identification, control panel changes	23-24

What it settles:

• Features: 33 MHz 68030 with a 68882 FPU at 33 MHz; 4 MB of PSRAM, 14 MB maximum; a 256-colour 640 × 400 FSTN display with 0.30 mm dot pitch, lit by two lamps at the top and bottom; 80 and 120 MB disks; a 2.9 Ah NiCad battery and a 3 V lithium backup battery; and a new 24 W adapter (pp. 12-13, 20).
• The display circuitry emulates a NuBus video card in slot $C, built round a Western Digital WD90C26 controller, a WD90C55 display driver, Apple's Pangola bus interface ASIC and 512 KB of DRAM (pp. 18-19). The block diagram shows the frame buffer as 256K × 16 DRAM (p. 14).
• The RAM slot takes cards made for earlier PowerBooks and allows larger cards (p. 15).
• The PowerBook Display control panel never turns the backlight fully off; it dims it, so that users do not mistake the machine for being shut down (p. 24). The Gestalt machine type is 50 (p. 24).

PowerBook 180c

Developer Note: Macintosh PowerBook 180c, 23 PDF pages; this copy is also a later reprint.

Section	PDF pages
Introduction, features, block diagram	12-14
Compatibility issues, identifying the PowerBook 180c	15
Hardware overview: memory map, ROM, RAM, wait states, battery backup	16-19
Colour LCD interface and LCD screen	19-20
RAM expansion interface	20-22

What it settles:

• "With the exception of the display and its associated circuitry, the PowerBook 180c is identical to the PowerBook 180", although for developers it is closer to the 165c (p. 12).
• The display is a 256-colour 640 × 480 TFT panel with 0.27 mm dot pitch, lit by two lamps at the top and bottom (pp. 12, 20). Disk options are 80 and 160 MB (p. 13).
• The 24 W adapter can also be used with the PowerBook 100 to 180 and the PowerBook Battery Recharger (p. 13).
• The 4 MB of 85 ns PSRAM sits on the RAM/ROM board to make room for the colour circuitry on the secondary logic board. Fitting a 100 ns expansion card adds a wait state to every memory access (p. 18).
• The display controller is a Western Digital WD90C26A with the Pangola ASIC and 512 KB of DRAM (p. 19). The Gestalt machine type is 71 (p. 15).

Pages that cite these documents

• PowerBook 165
• PowerBook 180