Anybody ever seen one of these? (Mac "clone"?)

[aftermac]

I've had one of these (ACUSON AEGIS QV100) floating around my collection for years. Technically, I guess it's not a "clone" since it has an actual Mac motherboard. It's never worked and I've never really messed with it too much, so recently I've been doing some research. The one in the pictures isn't mine... I've had mine for probably 8-10 years now.

http://longevityllc.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1775

Here's a couple articles I found related to it:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3498/is_n11_v55/ai_14534838/

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6253214.html

I guess Apple licensed several different Mac's to be sold in these systems for medical imaging. The second article references the QV100 using a "650" motherboard, but mine uses a IIvi mobo (which ironically, is one of 2 Mac II's I don't have ). The board very clearly has bad caps and I'm not sure if anything else is bad.

 

[Bunsen]

The really interesting bits are going to be the video hardware - and whatever software is still extant on the internal HD.

mine uses a IIvi mobo / The board very clearly has bad caps

http://lowendmac.com/ii/macintosh-iivi.html

upgrade path: Quadra 700, Quadra 650, Power Mac 7100

sp: Macs / IIs

 

[Quadraman]

Companies have been taking computer motherboards and adapting them to specific uses for a long time. I saw a Tandy Color Computer in a blue case with an Agway label on it once. Apparently, Agway had a service for farmers for looking up weather reports, relevant farming information and placing orders and the Tandy computers were used as terminals to access the service. There was also a company called AllData that made specialized computers for use in the auto repair trade for invoicing and parts cataloging that had Atari ST motherboards inside.

Technically, it doesn't really qualify as a clone since that isn't how it was marketed. Imagine, though, this company bought a Q650 for a few thousand, installed some specialty software on it then turned around and charged $600,000 for it. How many pieces of software would you pay $597,000 for?

 

[aftermac]

Yeah, the contents of the HD should be pretty interesting. I don't know why I've never taken the time to tear into the machine. It has a few cards in it... I'll have to take a closer look. At least one of them is network card.

I'll probably try and repair the IIvi board, but I also might drop a IIcx (though the ports are different) or a Q700 board in there also (still different)...

I still thought this was a pretty interesting find. I had never heard of Apple entering into agreements with companies to basically sell rebranded Apple hardware. I'm pretty sure mine came from the University of Michigan Hospital, since that's where one of my vintage hardware sources gets a lot of computers from. I might be able to tell more depending on the contents of the HD.

 

[Bunsen]

this company bought a Q650 for a few thousand, installed some specialty software on it then turned around and charged $600,000 for it.

Piffle.

Aegis is based on custom hardware accelerators and software developed by Acuson/ medical-grade printers

/ Kodak / medical color imagers

/ service and maintenance

/ At level two / up to eight ultrasound systems equipped with QV100 modules

/ At level three / high-resolution review stations / The physicians also can interact with the sonographer and decide whether an exam is complete from a remote location.

/ The Aegis system can cost up to $200,000.

emphases added

Have you any idea what a ~single~ medical grade video card would have cost in 1993? Let alone the medical grade (and most likely huge) monitor attached to it? Let alone they could expect to sell maybe a few thousand systems max to recoup all their R&D and the regulatory & insurance nightmare of getting a therapeutic device approval?

This was a cutting edge, medical grade, hospital-wide networked system, which Aegis would have consulted, designed, specced, installed and supported; not a single rebadged Quadra with some software.

 

[Bunsen]

I had never heard of Apple entering into agreements with companies to basically sell rebranded Apple hardware.

Avid? Protools? Freestyle? Axiotronic ModBook?

Come to think of it, quite a few of the early System 7 era legal clones were Apple-manufactured motherboards in OEM cases IIRC.

 

[aftermac]

Yeah... I guess I didn't quite think about it like that. I was just surprised to see a Mac motherboard in such a device. The agreement between Apple and Acuson - according to the article - was also three years before the accepted time frame of the "clone era". It does make you wonder how many other devices out there have Mac motherboards shoved in them...

 

[Mars478]

Axiotronic is not certified by Apple AFAIK.

 

[Bunsen]

AFAIK, they've been a certified Apple reseller since the beginning.