Apple Power Mac G4 Classified as Weapon by US Government in 1999

In 1999, the US government classified the Apple Power Mac G4 as a weapon because its performance exceeded 1 billion calculations per second. This classification led to an export ban on the 400 MHz, 450 MHz, and 500 MHz models to 50 countries.

Export ban covered three models

The Power Mac G4 was Apple's high-end desktop at the time. Apple marketed it as offering up to double the performance of G3 predecessors and triple that of Pentium III PCs clock-for-clock.

The 400 MHz Yikes! model delivered 0.8 to 3.2 gigaflops. The ban was based on the machine's ability to surpass 1 billion calculations per second, a threshold that triggered US export controls.

Steve Jobs turned the ban into a marketing opportunity. He created a video ad that compared the G4 to a weapon, with a narrator saying, "For the first time in history a personal computer has been classified as a weapon by the US government." The ad closed with Jobs belittling Intel: "As for Pentium PCs, well they're harmless."

The ban was lifted in January 2000 when the US raised the gigaflop threshold for export controls to 6.5 GFLOPS. The Power Mac G4 then became available for export to the previously restricted countries.