PIZZA BOX Nomenclature?

[CTB]

I have seen various people using the term "pizza box" for many different types of shorter Mac cases. From back in the day it was my understanding that "pizza box" referred to the original LC case all the way up to the LC475 but also included the Quadra 605. I believe the MacWorld article announcing the original LC gave it this nickname when describing its appearance for obvious reasons.

Now that many in the hobby are referring to Quadra 610 style cases (and I have even seen LC630 cases referred to as "pizza boxes") should we consider all short mac cases as pizza boxes?

 

[Phipli]

I have seen various people using the term "pizza box" for many different types of shorter Mac cases. From back in the day it was my understanding that "pizza box" referred to the original LC case all the way up to the LC475 but also included the Quadra 605. I believe the MacWorld article announcing the original LC gave it this nickname when describing its appearance for obvious reasons.

Now that many in the hobby are referring to Quadra 610 style cases (and I have even seen LC630 cases referred to as "pizza boxes") should we consider all short mac cases as pizza boxes?

Its a slang term for a low height case, not just limited to macs. There are also Pizza box Sun systems and others that I can't think of.

Some people have always called the 610 / 660 / 6100 case a Pizza box.

Given its a slang term, it doesn't have an official definition. Besides, if it did, people wouldn't have anything to argue about.

 

[Phipli]

Ah, handy. If in doubt, wikipedia :

Pizza box form factor - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[joshc]

What Phipli said. The pizza box term was used for a lot of computers, anything low height, even if wide. The 6100 style case is definitely a pizza box too.

 

[CTB]

Definitely a topic to cause arguments. The first time I heard it used in reference to any computer was when I first started working at Apple and internally we were calling the newly release LC “The Pizza Box”. Was this the first “pizza box” before it became a more general term OR was it already a general term and I was in an Apple bubble?

 

[cheesestraws]

I doubt it was a term that had just one origin. It feels like the kind of thing that different people will have started using independently for that kind of shape.

 

[Melkhior]

Was this the first “pizza box” before it became a more general term OR was it already a general term and I was in an Apple bubble?

I'm afraid the second. The term was already in use before the LC, introduced in late 1990. The form factor was commonly used and already described as such, though usually for entry-level systems or for 'dumber' devices such as X terminal.

The SPARCstation 1 introduced in early 1989 was one of the reason the term became popular due to its success; it offered in the form factor a level of performance and extensibility comparable to much, much larger offerings. The SPARCstation 1 could compete with the massive 3-VME-slots deskside systems like the Sun 4/330. It was a far cry from previous systems in the form factor like Sun's own 3/50 or even 3/60, and those were still physically larger than the SPARCstation 1 (and not commonly describe as pizza box, they were too large). There was a detailed description of the SS1 (and its 68030-based sibling the 3/80, intended as an upgrade path for legacy 68k users) in Byte from May 1989. There's a use of the term 'pizza box' to describe those machines in Time magazine in April of 1989.

 

[CTB]

Awesome. That puts that one to bed. I love a well articulated and researched/experienced comment rather than a “let’s have an argument” response typical of certain social media sites. We do have an amazing community here.

 

[joshc]

when I first started working at Apple

Forgive me if you cannot divulge more but what did you work on there?

 

[CTB]

Lot of things I can’t talk about but some I can. Firstly, I ran Apple’s K-12 Education Sales group in Australia for a few year. The New South Wales Department of Education - DET (an Australia State education system) was the biggest single Apple customer (based on purchase orders)
in the world from 1996-1998 with research projects with the eMate and a real K-6 school based on the Apple Classroom of Tomorrow (ACOT) as well as one to one (basically one laptop per student) computer based learning. There are aspects of the shipping eMate that came directly out of DETs research with prototypes). Other models of Mac only existed because of the DET contract such as the LC475 auto inject case and floppy drive (which was a rework of surplus LCIII’s in the Singapore factory warehouse and the PM 7220 which had to be rebadged from the 4400 as the not offend Chinese students.

I moved to Apple’s Worldwide Developer Relations group in 1999 and ran Asia Pacific for 22 years. That is the stuff I can’t talk about. Retired in 2021 as Senior Director of Asia Pacific. I never used the “title” though. Very un-Apple to do so.

 

[Quadraman]

Its a slang term for a low height case, not just limited to macs. There are also Pizza box Sun systems and others that I can't think of.

Some people have always called the 610 / 660 / 6100 case a Pizza box.

Given its a slang term, it doesn't have an official definition. Besides, if it did, people wouldn't have anything to argue about.

This is the nomenclature that I would use, as the cases for these models is closer in size to an actual pizza box, then the smaller, low profile case models.

 

[zefrenchtoon]

Other models of Mac only existed because of the DET contract such as the LC475 auto inject case and floppy drive (which was a rework of surplus LCIII’s in the Singapore factory warehouse

Thank you !!
Now I know a bit more of real history behind my auto-inject 475. Who knows how it came in France from Australia ...
I was only aware of the fact that it was from LC3 surplus in Singapore factory.