115-451: Mac Mini (stylized as Mac mini ) is a small form factor desktop computer developed and marketed by Apple Inc . As of 2022, it is positioned between the consumer all-in-one iMac and the professional Mac Studio and Mac Pro as one of four current Mac desktop computers. Since launch, it has shipped without a display , keyboard , and mouse . The machine was initially branded as "BYODKM" (Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard, and Mouse) as
230-684: A spindle that holds flat circular disks, called platters , which hold the recorded data. The platters are made from a non-magnetic material, usually aluminum alloy , glass , or ceramic . They are coated with a shallow layer of magnetic material typically 10–20 nm in depth, with an outer layer of carbon for protection. For reference, a standard piece of copy paper is 0.07–0.18 mm (70,000–180,000 nm) thick. The platters in contemporary HDDs are spun at speeds varying from 4200 rpm in energy-efficient portable devices, to 15,000 rpm for high-performance servers. The first HDDs spun at 1,200 rpm and, for many years, 3,600 rpm
345-470: A DVI port, and adapters for VGA , S-Video , and composite video output were available. The system contains a built-in speaker and an 1/8-inch stereo mini jack for analog sound output. The new Wi-Fi card no longer used an MMCX-Female connector for the antenna, as do prior models, but rather a proprietary Apple one. The Mac Mini G4 was initially supplied with Mac OS X 10.3 , then later with Mac OS X 10.4 , and can run Mac OS 9 applications, as long as
460-704: A normative definition and is consequently open to interpretation and misuse. Manufacturers often provide definitions that serve the interests of their products. According to marketing strategy, one manufacturer may decide to mark their product as "small form factor" while other manufacturers are using different marketing name (such as "Minitower", "Microtower" or "Desktop") for personal computers of similar or even smaller footprint. The acronym SFF originally stood for " Shuttle Form Factor," describing shoebox-sized personal computers with two expansion slots. The meaning of SFF evolved to include other, similar PC designs from brands such as AOpen and First International Computer, with
575-665: A small form factor computer had been widely speculated upon and requested before the Mac Mini. In January 2005, the Mac Mini G4 was introduced alongside the iPod shuffle at the Macworld Conference & Expo ; Apple CEO Steve Jobs marketed "The cheapest, and most affordable Mac ever". The machine was intended as an entry-level computer for budget-minded customers. In comparison to regular desktops, which use standard-sized components such as 3.5-inch hard drives and full-size DIMMs ,
690-522: A stepper motor . Early hard disk drives wrote data at some constant bits per second, resulting in all tracks having the same amount of data per track, but modern drives (since the 1990s) use zone bit recording , increasing the write speed from inner to outer zone and thereby storing more data per track in the outer zones. In modern drives, the small size of the magnetic regions creates the danger that their magnetic state might be lost because of thermal effects — thermally induced magnetic instability which
805-416: A "stopgap" technology between PMR and Seagate's intended successor heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). SMR utilises overlapping tracks for increased data density, at the cost of design complexity and lower data access speeds (particularly write speeds and random access 4k speeds). By contrast, HGST (now part of Western Digital ) focused on developing ways to seal helium -filled drives instead of
920-569: A Field Generation Layer (FGL) and a Spin Injection Layer (SIL), and the FGL produces a magnetic field using spin-polarised electrons originating in the SIL, which is a form of spin torque energy. A typical HDD has two electric motors: a spindle motor that spins the disks and an actuator (motor) that positions the read/write head assembly across the spinning disks. The disk motor has an external rotor attached to
1035-418: A bit cell comprising about 18 magnetic grains (11 by 1.6 grains). Since the mid-2000s, areal density progress has been challenged by a superparamagnetic trilemma involving grain size, grain magnetic strength and ability of the head to write. In order to maintain acceptable signal-to-noise, smaller grains are required; smaller grains may self-reverse ( electrothermal instability ) unless their magnetic strength
1150-559: A bootable copy of the OS 9 system folder is installed from which to run the Classic environment (although the Mac Mini G4 cannot natively boot to Mac OS 9). As of Mac OS X 10.5 , the ability to run the Classic environment was removed. Later, Mac OS 9 was able to run on the Mac Mini G4 through an unofficial patcher, though this was not supported by Apple. It is compatible with operating systems designed for
1265-489: A breather port, unlike their air-filled counterparts. Other recording technologies are either under research or have been commercially implemented to increase areal density, including Seagate's heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). HAMR requires a different architecture with redesigned media and read/write heads, new lasers, and new near-field optical transducers. HAMR is expected to ship commercially in late 2024, after technical issues delayed its introduction by more than
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#17328515145011380-521: A built-to-order option. Its internal cooling system has a thermal-based design that according to Apple performs five times more quickly than the best-selling Windows -based desktop computer in its price range. The price of the Apple silicon Mac Mini dropped US$ 100 from that of the previous model to $ 699. It added support for Wi-Fi 6 , USB4 , and 6K video output to run the Pro Display XDR . Externally, it
1495-446: A component of the IBM 305 RAMAC system. It was approximately the size of two large refrigerators and stored five million six-bit characters (3.75 megabytes ) on a stack of 52 disks (100 surfaces used). The 350 had a single arm with two read/write heads, one facing up and the other down, that moved both horizontally between a pair of adjacent platters and vertically from one pair of platters to
1610-1080: A decade, from earlier projections as early as 2009. HAMR's planned successor, bit-patterned recording (BPR), has been removed from the roadmaps of Western Digital and Seagate. Western Digital's microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR), also referred to as energy-assisted magnetic recording (EAMR), was sampled in 2020, with the first EAMR drive, the Ultrastar HC550, shipping in late 2020. Two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) and "current perpendicular to plane" giant magnetoresistance (CPP/GMR) heads have appeared in research papers. Some drives have adopted dual independent actuator arms to increase read/write speeds and compete with SSDs. A 3D-actuated vacuum drive (3DHD) concept and 3D magnetic recording have been proposed. Depending upon assumptions on feasibility and timing of these technologies, Seagate forecasts that areal density will grow 20% per year during 2020–2034. The highest-capacity HDDs shipping commercially in 2024 are 32 TB. The capacity of
1725-613: A high-end model with more RAM options until the release of an updated model based on the M2 and M2 Pro chips in January 2023. In October 2024, Apple redesigned the Mac Mini for the first time since 2010. The new design is much smaller than previous models and features ports on the front and back of the device. The new design debuted with the M4 and M4 Pro chips, with the M4 Pro computers supporting Thunderbolt 5 for
1840-607: A lack of desk or floor space as the footprint is small when placed vertically. It may also fit nicely into a TV cabinet/shelf and act as a cheaper, faster, upgradable alternative to gaming consoles. The graphics card may be sectioned off internally as to isolate it from the heat produced by the CPU. Until 2005, SFF cases were usually sold as barebones units (case, power supply, and motherboard) to system integrators and home-based builders. In 2005, Apple Inc. introduced its Mac Mini (volume of 1.4 L , excluding external power brick ). Later in
1955-579: A late 2009 Mac Mini with 2 GB of RAM has 3056 making the two machines fairly comparable. The built-in Intel GMA was criticized for producing stuttering video despite supporting hardware accelerated H.264 video playback, and disappointing frame rates in graphics-intensive 3D games. Early and Late 2009 models corrected these performance issues with an improved Nvidia GeForce 9400M chipset. The Intel-based Mac Mini includes four USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port. The I/O ports were changed with
2070-438: A maximum of 1 gigabyte (GB) of memory, a relatively small amount. Because of the small amount of memory, the system often had to page against the hard drive , slowing operation considerably. The Mac Mini G4 uses a single 2.5-inch Ultra ATA /100 hard drive that offers a maximum transfer rate of 100 megabytes per second (MB/s). It is not possible to open the sealed enclosure to upgrade the hard drive without possibly voiding
2185-495: A microATX form factor. True SFF systems use SFX , TFX or smaller power supplies , and some require a laptop-style external "power brick." Some SFF computers even include compact components designed for mobile computers , such as notebook optical drives , notebook memory modules, notebook processors, and external AC adapters , rather than the internal power supply units found in full-size desktop computers. Crowdfunding and availability of rapid prototyping tools has enabled
2300-442: A miniature HTPC replicates the look of other smaller-than-rack-sized home theatre components such as a DVR or mini audio receiver . The front panel interface is emphasized, with the optical disc drive rotated relative to the case in order to maintain horizontal mounting, and more motherboard port connectors (such as for USB ) are routed to the front panel, they normally are as powerful as PC desktops. A computer-on-module (COM)
2415-422: A moving actuator arm, which read and write data to the platter surfaces. Data is accessed in a random-access manner, meaning that individual blocks of data can be stored and retrieved in any order. HDDs are a type of non-volatile storage , retaining stored data when powered off. Modern HDDs are typically in the form of a small rectangular box . Hard disk drives were introduced by IBM in 1956, and were
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#17328515145012530-469: A removable disk module, which included both the disk pack and the head assembly, leaving the actuator motor in the drive upon removal. Later "Winchester" drives abandoned the removable media concept and returned to non-removable platters. In 1974, IBM introduced the swinging arm actuator, made feasible because the Winchester recording heads function well when skewed to the recorded tracks. The simple design of
2645-442: A second bay for PCIe -based NVMe flash storage; hard drive-only models require an aftermarket adapter. The price of the base model was lowered by $ 100. Two holes that were used to open the case were removed from the case because the memory, being soldered to the logic board, was no longer upgradable. Because the integrated GPU does not have its own dedicated memory, the system shares some of the main system memory with it. Comparing
2760-530: A second set. Variants of the IBM 350 were the IBM 355 , IBM 7300 and IBM 1405 . In 1961, IBM announced, and in 1962 shipped, the IBM ;1301 disk storage unit, which superseded the IBM 350 and similar drives. The 1301 consisted of one (for Model 1) or two (for model 2) modules, each containing 25 platters, each platter about 1 ⁄ 8 -inch (3.2 mm) thick and 24 inches (610 mm) in diameter. While
2875-518: A single-core processor. An updated server version of the machine was released in October 2009, having been marketed as an affordable server for small financial and academic uses; this model omitted the optical drive and used a hard drive instead. The 2006 and 2007 models are fitted with 32-bit Intel Core Solo or Duos, CPUs that is upgradable with the 64-bit Core 2 Duo processors. The 2006 and 2007 Merom -based Mac Mini models were supplied with socketed CPUs;
2990-496: A solid range of features. Reviews noted it is possible to purchase small computers at the same price with faster CPUs, better graphics cards, more memory, and more storage. The small size has made the Mac Mini particularly popular for home theater use, and its size and reliability has helped keep resale values high. The G4 model received a considerably lukewarm score among critics. Those at CNET positively identified it as an affordable, quiet, and compact machine, but they disliked
3105-526: A strategic pitch to encourage users to switch from Windows and Linux computers. In January 2005, the original Mac Mini was introduced with the PowerPC G4 CPU . In February 2006, Apple announced a new Intel Core Solo model, the first with an Intel processor. A thinner unibody redesign, unveiled in June 2010, added an HDMI port, and was more readily positioned as a home theater device and an alternative to
3220-616: A swing arm drive, the IBM 0680 (Piccolo), with eight inch platters, exploring the possibility that smaller platters might offer advantages. Other eight inch drives followed, then 5 + 1 ⁄ 4 in (130 mm) drives, sized to replace the contemporary floppy disk drives . The latter were primarily intended for the then fledgling personal computer (PC) market. Over time, as recording densities were greatly increased, further reductions in disk diameter to 3.5" and 2.5" were found to be optimum. Powerful rare earth magnet materials became affordable during this period, and were complementary to
3335-423: A thin film of ferromagnetic material on both sides of a disk. Sequential changes in the direction of magnetization represent binary data bits . The data is read from the disk by detecting the transitions in magnetization. User data is encoded using an encoding scheme, such as run-length limited encoding, which determines how the data is represented by the magnetic transitions. A typical HDD design consists of
3450-499: A tiny fraction of the detected errors end up as not correctable. Examples of specified uncorrected bit read error rates include: Within a given manufacturers model the uncorrected bit error rate is typically the same regardless of capacity of the drive. The worst type of errors are silent data corruptions which are errors undetected by the disk firmware or the host operating system; some of these errors may be caused by hard disk drive malfunctions while others originate elsewhere in
3565-497: Is a carryover from Mac Minis released between 2010 and 2014, and has the same dimensions, but its color was changed from silver to "space gray", similar to the iMac Pro. The 2018 Mac Mini removes legacy I/O such as the SD card reader, SATA drive bay, IR receiver, optical S/PDIF (TOSLINK) audio out, and audio in. macOS Catalina added support for Dolby Atmos , Dolby Vision , and HDR10 . Memory can again be replaced. According to Apple, memory
Mac Mini - Misplaced Pages Continue
3680-486: Is a complete computer built on a single circuit board . They are often used as embedded systems due to their small physical size and low power consumption. Gumstix is one manufacturer of COMs. Each model of Dell's OptiPlex line of computers typically includes an Ultra-Small Form Factor (USFF) chassis option. In the Core 2 era, these machines used 8.9 cm (3.5") desktop hard drives and external power supplies, such as
3795-495: Is another mini computer. The HP Slimline uses a non-standard motherboard that is very similar in size to Mini-ITX. In addition to its industrial use, the extremely small Mini-ITX motherboard form factor has also been incorporated into SFF computers. These are often extremely compact, incorporating low-power components such as the VIA C3 processors. The Travla C134 is an example of this design. At 17.8 x 25.4 x 5.1 cm (7 × 10 × 2")
3910-446: Is capable of scheduling reads and writes efficiently on the platter surfaces and remapping sectors of the media that have failed. Modern drives make extensive use of error correction codes (ECCs), particularly Reed–Solomon error correction . These techniques store extra bits, determined by mathematical formulas, for each block of data; the extra bits allow many errors to be corrected invisibly. The extra bits themselves take up space on
4025-586: Is commonly known as the " superparamagnetic limit ". To counter this, the platters are coated with two parallel magnetic layers, separated by a three-atom layer of the non-magnetic element ruthenium , and the two layers are magnetized in opposite orientation, thus reinforcing each other. Another technology used to overcome thermal effects to allow greater recording densities is perpendicular recording (PMR), first shipped in 2005, and as of 2007 , used in certain HDDs. Perpendicular recording may be accompanied by changes in
4140-669: Is improving faster than HDDs. NAND has a higher price elasticity of demand than HDDs, and this drives market growth. During the late 2000s and 2010s, the product life cycle of HDDs entered a mature phase, and slowing sales may indicate the onset of the declining phase. The 2011 Thailand floods damaged the manufacturing plants and impacted hard disk drive cost adversely between 2011 and 2013. In 2019, Western Digital closed its last Malaysian HDD factory due to decreasing demand, to focus on SSD production. All three remaining HDD manufacturers have had decreasing demand for their HDDs since 2014. A modern HDD records data by magnetizing
4255-418: Is increased, but known write head materials are unable to generate a strong enough magnetic field sufficient to write the medium in the increasingly smaller space taken by grains. Magnetic storage technologies are being developed to address this trilemma, and compete with flash memory –based solid-state drives (SSDs). In 2013, Seagate introduced shingled magnetic recording (SMR), intended as something of
4370-469: Is modular. The M4 model supports up to three external displays via the Thunderbolt ports, running two 6K displays and one 5K display simultaneously. The M4 Pro model can support up to three 6K displays running at 60Hz. High-performance cores: 192 KB L1i, 128 KB L1d Energy-efficient cores: 128 KB L1i, 64 KB L1d The Mac Mini has been praised as a relatively affordable computer with
4485-1064: Is not officially user-replaceable, and requires service by an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider. The CPU and flash storage are soldered to the logic board and cannot be replaced. In March 2020, Apple doubled the default storage in both base models. Apple discontinued the Core i3 model following the release of the M1 Mac Mini in November 2020, but continued to sell the Core i5/i7 models until January 2023. 2 displays with 4096×2304 resolution at 60 Hz via Thunderbolt 3 , plus 1 display with 4096×2160 resolution at 60 Hz via HDMI 2.0 or 1 display with 5120×2880 resolution at 60 Hz via Thunderbolt 3, plus 1 display with 4096x2160 resolution at 60 Hz via HDMI 2.0 Thunderbolt 3 digital video output supports HDMI 2.0 display video output Optional 512 GB, 1, or 2 TB available at time of purchase only. Before March 2020, 256 GB
4600-460: Is shaped rather like an arrowhead and is made of doubly coated copper magnet wire . The inner layer is insulation, and the outer is thermoplastic, which bonds the coil together after it is wound on a form, making it self-supporting. The portions of the coil along the two sides of the arrowhead (which point to the center of the actuator bearing) then interact with the magnetic field of the fixed magnet. Current flowing radially outward along one side of
4715-588: Is specified in unit prefixes corresponding to powers of 1000: a 1- terabyte (TB) drive has a capacity of 1,000 gigabytes , where 1 gigabyte = 1 000 megabytes = 1 000 000 kilobytes (1 million) = 1 000 000 000 bytes (1 billion). Typically, some of an HDD's capacity is unavailable to the user because it is used by the file system and the computer operating system , and possibly inbuilt redundancy for error correction and recovery. There can be confusion regarding storage capacity, since capacities are stated in decimal gigabytes (powers of 1000) by HDD manufacturers, whereas
Mac Mini - Misplaced Pages Continue
4830-542: Is very similar to the 2018 Mac Mini but has a lighter, silver finish similar to that of the models released from 2010 to 2014. The release of the Apple silicon Mac Mini was preceded by the June 2020 release of the A12Z -based Developer Transition Kit , a prototype with a Mac Mini enclosure made for developers to port their apps to Apple silicon. The 2020 DTK has 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage, and two USB-C ports. On January 17, 2023, Apple announced updated models based on
4945-633: The Apple Macintosh . Many Macintosh computers made between 1986 and 1998 featured a SCSI port on the back, making external expansion simple. Older compact Macintosh computers did not have user-accessible hard drive bays (indeed, the Macintosh 128K , Macintosh 512K , and Macintosh Plus did not feature a hard drive bay at all), so on those models, external SCSI disks were the only reasonable option for expanding upon any internal storage. HDD improvements have been driven by increasing areal density , listed in
5060-532: The Apple TV . The 2018 Mac Mini model had Thunderbolt , an Intel Core i3 , Core i5 or i7 CPU , and also changed the case's default silver for space gray. This model also had solid-state storage and replaces most of the data ports with USB-C sockets. The Apple silicon Mac Mini based on the Apple M1 chip was introduced in November 2020 in the original silver style; the 2018 space gray model remained available as
5175-463: The M2 and M2 Pro chips. The updated models also include Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E connectivity. The M2 Pro model includes two additional USB-C/Thunderbolt ports and supports HDMI 2.1. High-performance cores: 192 KB L1i, 128 KB L1d Energy-efficient cores: 128 KB L1i, 64 KB L1d The base memory is increased to 16GB for M4 models and 24GB for M4 Pro models, with the maximum configurable memory increased to 64GB. The SSD storage
5290-520: The PowerPC architecture. Users can install the AmigaOS -compatible MorphOS , OpenBSD , and Linux distributions such as Debian and Ubuntu . The serial number and specifications sticker on the underside of the latest revision do not carry the actual specs of the upgrade. For example, on a 1.5 GHz model, 1.42 GHz is listed. The product packaging also did not reflect the upgrade. Apple did not revise
5405-564: The Shannon limit and thus provide the highest storage density available. Typical hard disk drives attempt to "remap" the data in a physical sector that is failing to a spare physical sector provided by the drive's "spare sector pool" (also called "reserve pool"), while relying on the ECC to recover stored data while the number of errors in a bad sector is still low enough. The S.M.A.R.T ( Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology ) feature counts
5520-451: The T2 series chip for internal security, Bluetooth 5 , four Thunderbolt 3 ports with USB 3.1 gen 2 support, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, and HDMI 2.0. PCIe-based flash storage is standard with no option to fit a hard drive. The baseline storage was changed to 128 GB with a maximum of 2 TB. RAM was increased to a baseline of 8 GB and a maximum of 64 GB of SO-DIMM DDR4 . The chassis
5635-462: The Zonbu , fit-PC , Linutop , and A9home . With the release of Intel Atom CPU, AOpen also made Nettop systems: the uBox series with model LE200 and LE210. The uBox series equips a dual-core Intel Atom 270/330 processor, single-channel DDR-II 533/667 memory, Intel 945GC+ICH7 chipset, three SATA connectors and 5.1-channel high-definition audio output. Essentially a bookshelf-style case lying on its side,
5750-408: The aesthetic and ergonomic design of SFFs since users are more likely to place them on top of a desk or carry them around. Advancements in technology combined with a reduced size enables a powerful computer to be a smaller size. Small form factor designs do not include computing devices that have traditionally been small, such as embedded or mobile systems. However, "small form factor" lacks
5865-452: The volume and footprint of a desktop computer compared to the standard ATX form factor. For comparison purposes, the size of an SFF case is usually measured in litres . SFFs are available in a variety of sizes and shapes, including shoeboxes, cubes, and book-sized PCs. Their smaller and often lighter construction has made them popular as home theater PCs and as gaming computers for attending LAN parties . Manufacturers also emphasize
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#17328515145015980-433: The 2012 models. The 2014 revision underwent internal process transition to dual-core CPUs, performing a lower-quality of multi-threaded workloads compared to the quad-core processors in the 2012 model, though the single-threaded workload interactions speeds increased. According to Apple, all of these models are obsolete. In October 2018, Apple announced a "space gray"-colored Mac Mini with Intel Coffee Lake series CPUs,
6095-407: The 32-bit processor can be removed, and replaced with a compatible 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Models manufactured in and after 2009 had their CPUs soldered onto a logic board, preventing its upgradability. The upgrades make the 2006/2007 models perform better than the 2009 models. Geekbench has shown the 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo fitted Mac Mini with 2 GB of RAM has a score of 3060 whereas
6210-562: The GeForce GTX-295. Most SFF computers use highly integrated motherboards containing many on-board peripherals, reducing the need for expansion cards. As of 2020 many SFF PC cases do not include any expansion bays larger than 2.5 inches (large enough to accommodate SATA SSDs), due to the declining popularity of optical disc drives and 3.5-inch hard drives in the consumer space. Even if labeled "SFF," cube-style cases that support full-sized (PS2 form factor) power supplies actually have
6325-520: The HDD, but allow higher recording densities to be employed without causing uncorrectable errors, resulting in much larger storage capacity. For example, a typical 1 TB hard disk with 512-byte sectors provides additional capacity of about 93 GB for the ECC data. In the newest drives, as of 2009 , low-density parity-check codes (LDPC) were supplanting Reed–Solomon; LDPC codes enable performance close to
6440-491: The I/O shield and the two PCI slots being located in common with mini-ITX motherboards. Most ShFF systems utilize Shuttle's proprietary heat pipe (liquid cooling) system, "Integrated Cooling Engine" (ICE), for the processor, although several also feature heat pipe cooling for the voltage regulator and/or the chip set ( Northbridge ). When an ShFF system is upgraded to a mini-ITX motherboard, an Intel or compatible processor fan must replace
6555-477: The IBM GV (Gulliver) drive, invented at IBM's UK Hursley Labs, became IBM's most licensed electro-mechanical invention of all time, the actuator and filtration system being adopted in the 1980s eventually for all HDDs, and still universal nearly 40 years and 10 billion arms later. Like the first removable pack drive, the first "Winchester" drives used platters 14 inches (360 mm) in diameter. In 1978, IBM introduced
6670-659: The ICE cooler. The ShFF's ICE computer fan is so designed that it may be repurposed as a case fan when the case is upgraded to mini-ITX use. When so upgraded, the repurposed fan would be connected to the motherboard's case fan connector (3-pin) while the new CPU fan would be connected to the motherboard's CPU fan connector (4-pin). AOpen Inc. produced a stackable S120 case, allowing the user to stack up to four components vertically or horizontally. These layers can be for add-on cards, optical drives, and hard drives, using either internal power supplies or external AC adapter power sources. After
6785-472: The Mac Mini G4 uses low-power laptop components to fit into small cases and avoid overheating. The aluminum case, the top and bottom of which is capped with polycarbonate plastic, has an optical drive slot on the front, and the I/O ports and vents for the cooling system on the back. It has an external 85W power supply. Mac Mini G4 has no visible screws, reflecting Apple's intention the computer may not be upgraded by
6900-665: The Mac Mini, giving it a more compact, thinner unibody aluminum case that has an internal power supply, an SD card slot, a Core 2 Duo CPU, and a HDMI port for video output that Apple marketed as HDMI 1.4 compliant, replacing the Mini-DVI port of the previous models. In July 2011, a hardware update was announced; models were now fitted with a Thunderbolt port, dual-core Intel Core i5 and 4-core i7 CPUs, support for up to 16 GB of memory, Bluetooth 4.0, and either an Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated graphics or an AMD Radeon HD 6630M dedicated graphics. The revision, however, removed
7015-614: The OptiPlex 745 and 755. More recent units use 6.4 cm (2.5") laptop hard drives and have integrated power supplies, such as the OptiPlex 990 USFF. The compact size comes at the cost of restricted expandability, as USFF models have no PCI or PCIe slots and may have limited CPU and memory options. Starting from Series 5, USFF was replaced with Micro variants, an even smaller size option that uses external power supplies and does not have optical drives. Understood as comprising nano-ITX (12 × 12 cm) and pico-ITX (10 × 7.2 cm) boards,
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#17328515145017130-594: The S120, AOpen made more small form factor cases for systems with Micro ATX and Mini-ITX. The graphics card is placed behind the motherboard and PSU , connecting to it via a PCI Express x16 extension cable. This design is popular with SFF enthusiasts as it packs high-performance hardware into a small space while providing adequate cooling. Water cooling radiators may be added on to the top, bottom or sides to further increase cooling capacity. An electrically insulating sheet, such as thermoplastic polyurethane , may be placed between
7245-502: The Travla C134 is somewhat larger than the Mac mini which is 16.5 x 16.5 x 5.1 cm (6.5 × 6.5 × 2") and barely bigger than a standard 13.3 cm (5.25") optical drive . Beginning in 2007, several other companies have released other very small computers that besides a small size, focus on a low price, and extremely high power efficiency (typically 10 W or below in use). These include
7360-515: The XPC is provided with mounting points which accommodate both "Shuttle form factor" (ShFF) and mini-ITX motherboards. In order to accommodate mini-ITX motherboards, two of the ShFF mounting points are simply relocated (the remaining mini-ITX mounting points are in common with the remaining ShFF mounting points). A "standard" ShFF motherboard is 20.6 cm (8 1/8″) wide by 27.3 cm (10 3/4″) deep, with
7475-443: The arrowhead and radially inward on the other produces the tangential force . If the magnetic field were uniform, each side would generate opposing forces that would cancel each other out. Therefore, the surface of the magnet is half north pole and half south pole, with the radial dividing line in the middle, causing the two sides of the coil to see opposite magnetic fields and produce forces that add instead of canceling. Currents along
7590-400: The base 2018 model. Options for more than 16 GB of RAM are not available on M1-based systems. Support for external displays is reduced to one display over USB-C/Thunderbolt, though a second display can be connected using HDMI; the previous Intel-based model could drive two 4K displays over USB-C/Thunderbolt. On April 20, 2021, 10 Gigabit Ethernet with Lights Out Management was added as
7705-447: The case of embedded servo, otherwise known as sector servo technology). The servo feedback optimizes the signal-to-noise ratio of the GMR sensors by adjusting the voice coil motor to rotate the arm. A more modern servo system also employs milli and/or micro actuators to more accurately position the read/write heads. The spinning of the disks uses fluid-bearing spindle motors. Modern disk firmware
7820-401: The case of the mini PC MP945 series. Since 2006, major OEM PC brands such as HP and Dell have begun to sell fully assembled SFF systems. These are often described as bookshelf units since they resemble a miniature tower case small enough to fit on a bookshelf. The HP Slimline series and Dell Dimension C521 (volume 1.65 L) are good examples of this trend. The Maxdata Favorite 300XS
7935-441: The connection between the drive and the host. The rate of areal density advancement was similar to Moore's law (doubling every two years) through 2010: 60% per year during 1988–1996, 100% during 1996–2003 and 30% during 2003–2010. Speaking in 1997, Gordon Moore called the increase "flabbergasting", while observing later that growth cannot continue forever. Price improvement decelerated to −12% per year during 2010–2017, as
8050-449: The disks; the stator windings are fixed in place. Opposite the actuator at the end of the head support arm is the read-write head; thin printed-circuit cables connect the read-write heads to amplifier electronics mounted at the pivot of the actuator. The head support arm is very light, but also stiff; in modern drives, acceleration at the head reaches 550 g . The actuator is a permanent magnet and moving coil motor that swings
8165-522: The dominant secondary storage device for general-purpose computers beginning in the early 1960s. HDDs maintained this position into the modern era of servers and personal computers , though personal computing devices produced in large volume, like mobile phones and tablets , rely on flash memory storage devices. More than 224 companies have produced HDDs historically , though after extensive industry consolidation, most units are manufactured by Seagate , Toshiba , and Western Digital . HDDs dominate
8280-467: The earlier IBM disk drives used only two read/write heads per arm, the 1301 used an array of 48 heads (comb), each array moving horizontally as a single unit, one head per surface used. Cylinder-mode read/write operations were supported, and the heads flew about 250 micro-inches (about 6 μm) above the platter surface. Motion of the head array depended upon a binary adder system of hydraulic actuators which assured repeatable positioning. The 1301 cabinet
8395-513: The early 2009 revision, adding a fifth USB 2.0 and swapping the FireWire 400 port for a FireWire 800 port. An infrared receiver was added, allowing the use of an Apple Remote . Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and 802.11g Wi-Fi became standard and the Ethernet port was upgraded to Gigabit . A built-in 56k modem was no longer available. The 2009 models added 802.11 draft-n and later 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth
8510-432: The expensive cost to buy associated accessories and displays. The Mac Mini was modeled on the shape of a standard digital media player, and runs the macOS operating system (previously Mac OS X and OS X). It was initially advertised as "BYODKM" (Bring Your Own Display , Keyboard , and Mouse ), aiming to expand Apple's market-share of customers using other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Linux . Mac Mini
8625-547: The first time. A server version of the Mac Mini that is bundled with the Server edition of the OS X operating system was offered from 2009 to 2014. The Mac Mini received generally tepid reviews except for the Apple silicon model, which was praised for its compatibility, performance, processor, price, and power efficiencies, though it drew occasional criticism for its ports, speaker, integrated graphics, non-user-upgradable RAM and storage, and
8740-521: The format was championed by VIA Technologies . Intel now describes its own Next Unit of Computing (NUC) products (10.2 x 10.2 cm or 4 × 4") as UCFF. Hard disk drive A hard disk drive ( HDD ), hard disk , hard drive , or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnetic material. The platters are paired with magnetic heads , usually arranged on
8855-443: The growth of areal density slowed. The rate of advancement for areal density slowed to 10% per year during 2010–2016, and there was difficulty in migrating from perpendicular recording to newer technologies. As bit cell size decreases, more data can be put onto a single drive platter. In 2013, a production desktop 3 TB HDD (with four platters) would have had an areal density of about 500 Gbit/in which would have amounted to
8970-416: The heads to the desired position. A metal plate supports a squat neodymium–iron–boron (NIB) high-flux magnet . Beneath this plate is the moving coil, often referred to as the voice coil by analogy to the coil in loudspeakers , which is attached to the actuator hub, and beneath that is a second NIB magnet, mounted on the bottom plate of the motor (some drives have only one magnet). The voice coil itself
9085-477: The high-end models of both releases, the 2012 model has a 4-core, 8-thread Intel Core i7 -3720QM whereas the 2014 model has a 2-core, 4-thread Intel Core i7 -4578U. The 2014 updated model has Intel Iris graphics (GT3), which greatly outperforms the Intel HD Graphics 4000 (GT2) in the previous models. The 2014 CPUs were more energy-efficient: their maximal thermal design power (TDP) was 62% lower than that of
9200-446: The internal CD/DVD optical drive. The server model was upgraded to a quad-core Core i7 processor. Apple updated the line in October 2012, with Ivy Bridge processors, USB 3.0 , and upgraded graphics. In October 2014, the line was updated with Haswell processors, improved graphics, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 4K output via HDMI and Thunderbolt 2, with a second Thunderbolt port replacing the FireWire 800 port. The Fusion Drive and SSD models include
9315-427: The largest hard drive had a capacity of 15 TB, while the largest capacity SSD had a capacity of 100 TB. As of 2018 , HDDs were forecast to reach 100 TB capacities around 2025, but as of 2019 , the expected pace of improvement was pared back to 50 TB by 2026. Smaller form factors, 1.8-inches and below, were discontinued around 2010. The cost of solid-state storage (NAND), represented by Moore's law ,
9430-458: The logic board. An ATI Radeon 9200 graphics processor (GPU) with 32 megabytes (MB) of DDR SDRAM was supplied as standard; in the final 2005 model, Apple added a high-end option of 64 MB VRAM. In Apple's early marketing of the Mac Mini G4, it touted the superiority of the discrete graphics board over the integrated graphics in many budget PCs. The machine uses 333 MHz DDR SDRAM and has one desktop-sized DIMM slot for RAM, allowing
9545-444: The magnetization of the material passing immediately under it. In modern drives, there is one head for each magnetic platter surface on the spindle, mounted on a common arm. An actuator arm (or access arm) moves the heads on an arc (roughly radially) across the platters as they spin, allowing each head to access almost the entire surface of the platter as it spins. The arm is moved using a voice coil actuator or, in some older designs,
9660-422: The manufacturing of the read/write heads to increase the strength of the magnetic field created by the heads. In 2004, a higher-density recording media was introduced, consisting of coupled soft and hard magnetic layers. So-called exchange spring media magnetic storage technology, also known as exchange coupled composite media , allows good writability due to the write-assist nature of the soft layer. However,
9775-420: The most commonly used operating systems report capacities in powers of 1024, which results in a smaller number than advertised. Performance is specified as the time required to move the heads to a track or cylinder (average access time), the time it takes for the desired sector to move under the head (average latency , which is a function of the physical rotational speed in revolutions per minute ), and finally,
9890-405: The motherboard/PSU and graphics card to implement separate airflow zones, isolating heat sources from each other to improve cooling. Resembling a gaming console (such as Xbox One or PlayStation 4 ), the graphics card is placed directly above or below the motherboard and PSU. The graphics card is connected to motherboard with a PCIe x16 extension cable. This form factor is popular for those with
10005-519: The non-standard motherboards, cramped interior space, and power and airflow concerns. The Power Mac G4 Cube , released in 2000, and the Shuttle XPC are good examples of this design. MSI and Asus produce similar designs. The Xi3 Modular Computer is an example of a cube computer with a little more upgrade possibilities. Shuttle has adapted several of its XPC models (some 5-series and most later) to alternately accept mini-ITX motherboards. The base of
10120-559: The norm in most computer installations and reached capacities of 300 megabytes by the early 1980s. Non-removable HDDs were called "fixed disk" drives. In 1963, IBM introduced the 1302, with twice the track capacity and twice as many tracks per cylinder as the 1301. The 1302 had one (for Model 1) or two (for Model 2) modules, each containing a separate comb for the first 250 tracks and the last 250 tracks. Some high-performance HDDs were manufactured with one head per track, e.g. , Burroughs B-475 in 1964, IBM 2305 in 1970, so that no time
10235-589: The official specifications on their web site. According to Apple, all of these models are obsolete. In February 2006, Apple announced the first Intel Mac Mini, as part of the Mac's transition to Intel processors . Based on the Intel Core Solo and Duo CPUs, they are four times faster than its predecessor PowerPC G4. This would be the only Mac to have the Core Solo, and by extension the only Intel-based and final Mac with
10350-530: The platters, increasing areal density. Normally hard drive recording heads have a pole called a main pole that is used for writing to the platters, and adjacent to this pole is an air gap and a shield. The write coil of the head surrounds the pole. The STO device is placed in the air gap between the pole and the shield to increase the strength of the magnetic field created by the pole; FC-MAMR technically doesn't use microwaves, but uses technology employed in MAMR. The STO has
10465-529: The production of several mini-ITX cases focusing on efficiently organizing commercial computer components into small volumes including the Ghost S1, DAN A4-SFX, and Thor Zone MJOLNIR. Communities of enthusiasts and reviewers now develop and promote enhanced SFF assembly, maintenance, and performance criteria. 3D printing and laser cutting have enabled customization and one-off production by both manufacturers like Lazer3D and individual users with access to
10580-416: The relevant equipment. The many different types of SFFs are categorized loosely by their shape and size. The types below are available as of 2013 . Many SFF computers have a cubic shape. Smaller models are typically sold as barebones units, including a case, motherboard , and power supply designed to fit together. The motherboard lies flat against the base of the case. Upgrade options may be limited by
10695-416: The revenue of hard disk drives as of 2017 . Though SSDs have four to nine times higher cost per bit, they are replacing HDDs in applications where speed, power consumption, small size, high capacity and durability are important. As of 2019 , the cost per bit of SSDs is falling, and the price premium over HDDs has narrowed. The primary characteristics of an HDD are its capacity and performance . Capacity
10810-510: The same year, the first AOpen mini PC MP915 (renamed to XC mini in 2007 since "mini PC" could not be registered as a trademark), was announced. The size of the XC mini series PC—16.5(W) × 5.0(H) × 16.5(D) cm—makes it one of the smallest desktop PC systems (1.3L volume). It was criticized for looking like the Apple Mac Mini but Apple has not taken action on this subject. In February 2007, AOpen redesigned
10925-612: The slow hard drive and that it only had two below-expected quantities of USB 2.0 ports. Ars Technica indicated criticisms on its non-user-upgradable RAM and storage options and the extra expensive fees for additional drives. Overall, they felt that the performance was fairly acceptable. Small form factor (desktop and motherboard) Small form factor ( abbreviated : SFF ) is a term used for desktop computers and for some of their components, chassis and motherboard , to indicate that they are designed in accordance with one of several standardized form factors intended to minimize
11040-416: The small size of SFF cases may limit expansion options; many commercial offerings provide only one 8.9 cm (3.5") drive bay and one or two 13.3 cm (5.25") external bays. Standard CPU heatsinks do not always fit inside an SFF computer, so some manufacturers provide custom cooling systems. Though limited to one or two expansion cards , a few have the space for 3 ⁄ 4 -length cards such as
11155-427: The speed at which the data is transmitted (data rate). The two most common form factors for modern HDDs are 3.5-inch, for desktop computers, and 2.5-inch, primarily for laptops. HDDs are connected to systems by standard interface cables such as SATA (Serial ATA), USB , SAS ( Serial Attached SCSI ), or PATA (Parallel ATA) cables. The first production IBM hard disk drive, the 350 disk storage , shipped in 1957 as
11270-438: The stack of disk platters when the drive was powered down. Instead, the heads were allowed to "land" on a special area of the disk surface upon spin-down, "taking off" again when the disk was later powered on. This greatly reduced the cost of the head actuator mechanism, but precluded removing just the disks from the drive as was done with the disk packs of the day. Instead, the first models of "Winchester technology" drives featured
11385-447: The swing arm actuator design to make possible the compact form factors of modern HDDs. As the 1980s began, HDDs were a rare and very expensive additional feature in PCs, but by the late 1980s, their cost had been reduced to the point where they were standard on all but the cheapest computers. Most HDDs in the early 1980s were sold to PC end users as an external, add-on subsystem. The subsystem
11500-439: The table above. Applications expanded through the 2000s, from the mainframe computers of the late 1950s to most mass storage applications including computers and consumer applications such as storage of entertainment content. In the 2000s and 2010s, NAND began supplanting HDDs in applications requiring portability or high performance. NAND performance is improving faster than HDDs, and applications for HDDs are eroding. In 2018,
11615-400: The thermal stability is determined only by the hardest layer and not influenced by the soft layer. Flux control MAMR (FC-MAMR) allows a hard drive to have increased recording capacity without the need for new hard disk drive platter materials. MAMR hard drives have a microwave generating spin torque generator (STO) on the read/write heads which allows physically smaller bits to be recorded to
11730-475: The top and bottom of the coil produce radial forces that do not rotate the head. The HDD's electronics controls the movement of the actuator and the rotation of the disk and transfers data to/from a disk controller . Feedback of the drive electronics is accomplished by means of special segments of the disk dedicated to servo feedback. These are either complete concentric circles (in the case of dedicated servo technology) or segments interspersed with real data (in
11845-491: The total number of errors in the entire HDD fixed by ECC (although not on all hard drives as the related S.M.A.R.T attributes "Hardware ECC Recovered" and "Soft ECC Correction" are not consistently supported), and the total number of performed sector remappings, as the occurrence of many such errors may predict an HDD failure . The "No-ID Format", developed by IBM in the mid-1990s, contains information about which sectors are bad and where remapped sectors have been located. Only
11960-557: The user. Some Mac Mini owners used a putty knife or a pizza cutter to open the case to install third-party memory, which could be obtained more cheaply than Apple's offering. The Mac Mini G4 is based on a single-core, 32-bit , PowerPC CPU with 512 KB of on-chip L2 cache . The processor, running at 1.25, 1.33, 1.42, or 1.5 GHz depending on the model, accesses memory through a front-side bus clocked at 167 MHz. The CPU can be overclocked to higher frequencies by either soldering or desoldering certain zero-ohm resistors on
12075-433: The usual filtered air. Since turbulence and friction are reduced, higher areal densities can be achieved due to using a smaller track width, and the energy dissipated due to friction is lower as well, resulting in a lower power draw. Furthermore, more platters can be fit into the same enclosure space, although helium gas is notoriously difficult to prevent escaping. Thus, helium drives are completely sealed and do not have
12190-499: The volume of storage produced ( exabytes per year) for servers. Though production is growing slowly (by exabytes shipped ), sales revenues and unit shipments are declining, because solid-state drives (SSDs) have higher data-transfer rates, higher areal storage density, somewhat better reliability, and much lower latency and access times. The revenues for SSDs, most of which use NAND flash memory , slightly exceeded those for HDDs in 2018. Flash storage products had more than twice
12305-486: The warranty of the system. The Mac Mini G4 also contains a second ATA cable that connects to the optical drive. A Combo drive was included as standard while a SuperDrive that could write to DVDs was also an option. The Mac Mini G4 has two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port. Networking is supported with 10/100 Ethernet and a 56k V.92 modem , while 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth were additional, build-to-order options. External displays are supported via
12420-470: The word "Small" replacing the word "Shuttle". The term SFF is used in contrast with terms for larger systems such as "mini-towers" and "desktops." Small form factor computers are generally designed to support the same features as modern desktop computers , but in a smaller space. Most accept standard x86 microprocessors , standard DIMM memory modules, standard 8.9 cm (3.5") hard disks , and standard 13.3 cm (5.25") optical drives . However,
12535-520: Was about the size of three large refrigerators placed side by side, storing the equivalent of about 21 million eight-bit bytes per module. Access time was about a quarter of a second. Also in 1962, IBM introduced the model 1311 disk drive, which was about the size of a washing machine and stored two million characters on a removable disk pack . Users could buy additional packs and interchange them as needed, much like reels of magnetic tape . Later models of removable pack drives, from IBM and others, became
12650-427: Was lost physically moving the heads to a track and the only latency was the time for the desired block of data to rotate into position under the head. Known as fixed-head or head-per-track disk drives, they were very expensive and are no longer in production. In 1973, IBM introduced a new type of HDD code-named " Winchester ". Its primary distinguishing feature was that the disk heads were not withdrawn completely from
12765-503: Was not sold under the drive manufacturer's name but under the subsystem manufacturer's name such as Corvus Systems and Tallgrass Technologies , or under the PC system manufacturer's name such as the Apple ProFile . The IBM PC/XT in 1983 included an internal 10 MB HDD, and soon thereafter, internal HDDs proliferated on personal computers. External HDDs remained popular for much longer on
12880-593: Was optional. As part of the Mac transition to Apple silicon , Apple announced a new Mac Mini with the Apple M1 chip on November 10, 2020. It was released on November 17, 2020, and was one of the first three Apple silicon-based Macs released (alongside the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro ). With the M1, this Mac Mini has a 3x faster eight-core CPU, a 6x faster GPU, and 15x faster machine learning performance than its predecessor,
12995-514: Was the company's only consumer computer that shipped without a paired display, keyboard, and mouse since its original release in 2005. Since the unibody redesign in 2010, the Kensington Security Slot and the optical drive were removed from all models, leaving internal storage spaces for either a second internal hard drive or an SSD , which can be ordered from Apple or as an upgrade kit from third party suppliers. Apple's release of
13110-408: Was the norm. As of November 2019 , the platters in most consumer-grade HDDs spin at 5,400 or 7,200 rpm. Information is written to and read from a platter as it rotates past devices called read-and-write heads that are positioned to operate very close to the magnetic surface, with their flying height often in the range of tens of nanometers. The read-and-write head is used to detect and modify
13225-574: Was upgraded from 2.0 to 2.1. External displays are supported through a DVI port. The 2009 models have Mini-DVI and Mini DisplayPort video output, allowing the use of two displays. The Mini DisplayPort supports displays with a resolution up to 2560×1600, which allows use of the 30-inch Cinema Display. The Intel-based Mac Mini has separate Mini-TOSLINK / 3.5 mm mini-jacks that support both analog audio input and output, and optical digital S/PDIF input and output. According to Apple, all of these models are obsolete. In June 2010, Apple redesigned
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