Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

OWC: We Make DIY Upgrading Easy! Maximize your Apple MacBook / MacBook Pro. Up to 8.0GB Memory, up to 1.0TB HD & More. Easy Guide + Free, Detailed Installation Videos. Click here

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

25 Years of Mac

Cortland

Apple's Failed BigMac Project: Precursor of the Mac II and NeXT Cube

- 2006.11.14

Popularity: LEMLEMLEMLEMLEMLEM

In early 1983, Steve Jobs and several other Apple employees visited Brown University for a tour of its computing lab, where they showed off brand new Apollo workstations. Andy van Dam was shown the Apple Macintosh before its introduction. He told Jobs that they were waiting for a "3M" machine (a term used in the 80s to describe a powerful computer that has at least one Megabyte of memory, a Million pixel display, and a Megaflop of processing power).

At the time Jobs didn't know what a megaflop was.

Big Dreams

Jobs was given control of Apple's new SuperMicro division in 1984, which combined the Macintosh and Lisa teams. His top priority was to create the Macintosh's successor, a 3M machine dubbed BigMac. Rich Page was heavily involved in the project as well, and it was decided that BigMac would be as compatible as possible with the original Macintosh.

BigMac included a new type of computer bus known as FDB, which allowed up to six peripherals - this later became the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB), which was introduced with the Apple IIGS in 1986.

BigMac

BigMac used separate video memory and system memory (RAM), compared to the Macintosh, which dedicated 21 KB of its 128 KB as video memory. The Motorola 68020 CPU would be used. BigMac included two serial ports, two SCSI ports, two disk drive ports, and 3 FDB connectors.

Macs with Unix

BigMac was expected to cost as much as a typical personal computer, even though it was actually a powerful workstation for its time.

BigMacIt would use the Unix operating system, and Jobs had hoped to port Macintosh software to a Unix base so developers could take full advantage of the multitasking and communications features of Unix in combination with the user-friendly interface of the Mac. Apple acquired an expensive Unix license from Unisoft through Jobs' request, but very little progress was being made.

Six prototypes were produced, but they all suffered from several defects. AppleShare never worked, MacBugs was incomplete, only one of the two serial ports was functional, and the sound was never completed.

Mac IIWhen Jobs left the SuperMicros division in the summer of 1985, the project was canceled by his replacement, Jean-Louis Gassée. Many ideas from BigMac made their way into the Macintosh II: two serial ports, internal and external SCSI, room for two internal floppy drives, and two ADB ports. However, the Mac II ran the Mac OS (not Unix), supported color, and had six NuBus expansion slots, one or more of which could be used for video (there was no onboard video).

The Mac II, introduced in March 1987, was Apple's step toward a "3M" machine. It shipped with 1 MB of RAM, had a math coprocessor capable of 160 kflops (one-sixth of a megaflop), and could support megapixel displays. The 25 MHz 68040-based Quadra 700 and 900, introduced in October 1991, would be the first Macs to reach the 3M mark with 3.5 mflops performance.

Jobs resigned from Apple later in 1985 to start his own computer company, NeXT (later NeXT Computer), which would create its own "3M" machine. NeXT produced its first Unix-based workstation, the grayscale, 68030-based NeXT Cube, which was introduced in October 1988. It included 8 MB of RAM, an almost-megapixel display (1120 x 832), and reached 265 kflops.

The NeXT Cube was followed by a line of color and grayscale models in September 1990. These 25 MHz 68040-based computers brought NeXT to the 3M mark a year ahead of Apple. LEM

Sources

Joshua Coventry's writing can also be found on Silicon User.

Recent Cortland articles

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

This article copyright ©2006 by Joshua Coventry. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.

Custom Search

Amazon.com

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
B&H
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.