• Updated 2023-07-12: Hello, Guest! Welcome back, and be sure to check out this follow-up post about our outage a week or so ago.

Developer Transition Kit

CJ_Miller

Well-known member
Nice score! There certainly don't appear to be many of those out there. Coolest thing IMO is that adaptor PCB for running the D915 mobo in a G5 case. Even though it was the closest to a "supported" OSX86 hackintosh, support for this and other 32-bit boards is waning. Congratulations on your find!

 

Anonymous Freak

Well-known member
That has a 64-bit processor. Whether or not OS X would support 64-bit operation on that board is unknown, though.

Thanks for the info. I'll have a friend who is still at Intel look up the model number and see if he can find any more useful info on the motherboard.

I can tell from the BIOS string that it's a modified D915GEV, though. For which, the included processor is the fastest it can run. (The processor is a Pentium 4 660.) The board can take up to 4 GB of DDR2-533 memory. (Either as 4x1 GB or 2x2GB.)

 

LCGuy

LC Doctor/Hot Rodder
Oh wow. :O I'm actually amazed that any of those still exist - didn't they all have to be handed back to Apple at the end of the evaluation period? I assumed they would've all been crushed by now. Either way, congrats on your find! I'd imagine the DTK machines would be extremely rare now.

 

madmax_2069

Well-known member
I have only seen pictures of the motherboards of these transition kits, Nice to see one complete (if you will).

very nice score.

 

~Coxy

Leader, Tactical Ops Unit
I'd agree that they are very likely extremely rare by now, but they didn't *have* to be sent back to Apple.

They were bought outright by Select/Premier Devs, and could be returned at the end of the programme for a sizable discount on a new Mac Pro to replace it.

 

Anonymous Freak

Well-known member
Nope, they were officially rented from Apple at $999 for a maximum 18 month span. At the introduction of the Intel iMac, the developer got a free iMac Core Duo when they sent their Transition Kit back. The DTKs were *NOT* purchased. They were *REQUIRED* to be returned by December 31, 2006. (Although Apple didn't exactly make a huge effort to get them back.) The iMac became theirs to keep, though; which obviously prompted most developers to trade in. (Not to mention the Core Duo was a *MUCH* better chip, other than lacking 64-bit support.)

My Intel friend says it is a "Barracuda" board. (As you could probably tell from your photos.) And other than the basics of what's on the board, that I've already told you, not much more info is available from Intel. It was just another OEM-specific prototype based on a production board to them. On Intel's internal part lookup site, there wasn't even any mention that it was for Apple. (I didn't tell him exactly what the board was, I just gave him the part number and serial number. He could tell the basic stats, and that it was a prototype not for sale.)

 

defor

You can make up something and come back to it late
Staff member
Nod- more or less what I already knew- working on a pinout to get the vga header functional.

also, the case parts are late 2005 g5 case parts.. interesting as the system came out in early/mid 2005... i guess in a sense, it qualifies as a "prototype" of the late 2005 g5 case as well :) ...

Currently, due to the shipping damage to the outer "band", I'm looking for a cheap late 2005 g5 case to use as a donor.

Another interesting thing to note is that unlike ANY g5, the door has no markings of any kind on the inside where normally is an quick components disassembly guide printed in black.

 
Top