Six months after moving from 16 MHz to 25 MHz with the IIci, Apple introduced the “wicked fast” 40 MHz IIfx. This was the Mac of choice for graphic designers, offering nearly three times the performance of the IIx – thanks to a lightning fast CPU, a new type of RAM, and special SCSI DMA […]
Author Archives: LEM Staff
Building on the success of the Mac IIcx, the IIci offers 56% more power in the same compact case. A new feature was integrated video. The big advantage: Users no longer needed to buy a separate video card. The big disadvantage: The built-in video uses system memory (this is sometimes called “vampire video”). “…may be the best […]
You might not believe the cover from the November 1989 MacUser. They considered the Mac Portable so sexy it was photographed with a swimsuit model for the front cover! (Or maybe so unsexy it needed this treatment.) When the Mac Portable was introduced, it had the same clock speed as the fastest prior Mac (it […]
Building on the success of the Mac IIx, the 1989 IIcx offered the same horsepower in a smaller case. This was made possible by eliminating 3 NuBus slots and using a smaller (90W) power supply. Although advertised as a 32-bit computer, the Mac IIx ROMs were “dirty,” containing some 24-bit code. Running in 32-bit mode […]
Rolled out in January 1989, the SE/30 was the first compact Mac to come standard with the FDHD 1.4 MB floppy drive (a.k.a. SuperDrive) and support more than 4 MB of RAM. It was essentially a IIx in an SEcase. Although advertised as a 32-bit computer, the SE/30 ROMs were “dirty,” containing some 24-bit code, meaning […]
Building on the success of the Mac II, the 1988 Mac IIx housed a 68030 CPU and 68882 FPU (floating point unit) in the same case. Breakthrough features included the DOS-compatible 1.4 MB SuperDrive (a.k.a. FDHD for floppy disk, high density) and virtual memory. Although advertised as a 32-bit computer, the Mac IIx ROMs were […]
Rolled out in March 1987 along with the compact Mac SE, the Mac II was the first modular Mac – a revolutionary change in the Macintosh line (so revolutionary that it had to be kept secret from Steve Jobs, who loved the simplicity of all-in-one designs). Options include two 800K floppy drives and a hard […]
Introduced along with the Mac II in March 1987, the SE came with 1 MB of RAM, one or two double-sided 800K floppies, and space to mount an internal SCSI hard drive (the second drive bay held either a hard drive or second floppy – no room for both, although that didn’t stop some people from […]
Apple replaced the Mac 512K with a model supporting double-sided 3.5″ disks, just like the Mac Plus. Unlike the Plus, the 512Ke used RAM chips rather than SIMMs, just like the 128K and 512K. This precluded upgrading RAM beyond 512 KB by simply plugging in higher capacity chips, although some companies did make memory upgrade […]
Introduced in January 1986, two years after the original Macintosh, the Mac Plus shipped with 1 MB of RAM, a new double-sided 800 KB floppy drive, and a built-in SCSI port (the first Mac so equipped). Not only was 1 MB more RAM than PC-class machines could handle, but the Plus could be expanded to 4 MB total […]
Introduced to replace the Mac 128K in September 1984, the 512K had four times the RAM of the original Mac. This made it possible to work with larger files, more powerful software, and have more files open (running more than one application was still in the future, awaiting MultiFinder). There’s really not a lot more […]
Introduced in January 1984 (along with a revised Lisa), this Macintosh didn’t have a model number – it was simply the Macintosh. There was no name on the front. Early 128Ks simply said Macintosh on the back, while later ones were marked Macintosh 128K to distinguish them from the later Macintosh 512K. Equipped with 128 KB […]
Introduced in January 1983, Apple’s Lisa shipped that June. The first consumer computer with a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) display, a GUI (Graphical User Interface), and a mouse, its $10,000 price tag made it anything but successful. Only 11,000 original Lisas were sold. Lisa had a whopping 1 MB of RAM, […]