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Documenting: Buffalo G3 Accelerators

Forums > Vintage Apple > Macintosh > Beige PowerPC (Old World ROM) > PCI-based Power Macintosh

chikorita157
New Tinkerer
Germantown, MD
--------
Joined: Jun 19, 2024
Posts: 11
Likes: 6
Jun 19, 2024 - #1
Believe it or not, Interware wasn't the only Japanese manufacturer that made G3 accelerators. Buffalo and Hoshino Metal Industries Ltd, later SOLDAM corporation, is a defunct PC parts, accessory and case company from what I get from looking at their site at soldam.co.jp on Internet Archive. Buffalo is still around, selling PC components, network equipment, and network attached storage solutions mostly for the Japanese market. Most don't know about them since they are only sold in the Japanese market

Apparently, at one time, Buffalo, which made some accessories for Mac teamed up with Hoshino Metal Industries using their "WinDy" brand name made G3 accelerators for PCI Macintoshes and later ZIF processor upgrades.

The one I have is a HG3-PM366LC and a more powerful HG3-PM466. The HG# line range consists of 300 MHz, 366 Mhz, 400 MHz, 466 MHz, and 500 MHz. Apparently, there were G4 versions of the accelerators as well, but I haven't seen one yet, maybe they are rare. 400 Mhz+ has a fan attached and 300-366 MHz only used a heat sink with a plate over it saying "Feel The Ultimate Power!, Produced by WinDy Buffalo"

400 MHz or higher models:





300-366 MHz

Drivers located at Macintosh Garden: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/buffalo-g3-accelerator-upgrade-card-driver-hg4utility-ver140

Apparently, there is a boot disk that has a minimal System Folder. However, when you insert it, it will just eject the disk and restart the computer. It's used when the system is unable to boot when the accelerator is installed.
Attachments:
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IMG_3966.jpg [View]
IMG_3967.jpg [View]

Liked by eric

V.Yakob
Tinkerer
Syktyvkar
--------
Joined: Sep 6, 2023
Posts: 129
Likes: 46
Jun 20, 2024 - #2
Please show the MacBench 5.0 processor test result.
It would be interesting to compare the performance of different processors and vendors.

chikorita157
New Tinkerer
Germantown, MD
--------
Joined: Jun 19, 2024
Posts: 11
Likes: 6
Jun 22, 2024 - #3
>> V.Yakob said:
Please show the MacBench 5.0 processor test result. It would be interesting to compare the performance of different processors and vendors. Click to expand...
I won a Sonnet Crescendo G3 450 MHz for the Power Computing Clone from Yahoo Japan Auctions, but when I can get it, I can compare it to the Buffalo G3 466 MHz.

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