The Mac Classic II (a.k.a. Performa 200) has 2 MB soldered to the motherboard. There are two SIMM sockets, which can be used to expand this Mac to a total of 4 MB, 6 MB, or 10 MB.
Personal computing never would have gotten started if not for the invention of microprocessors, which puts a computer’s CPU (central processing unit) on a single chip – sometimes with companion chips. Intel released the first commercial CPU in 1971, and the first 8-bit “home computers” arrived just a few years later.
Prior to 1986, the best Mac had 512 KB of memory with no expansion path, a 400 KB floppy drive, and no standard way of connecting a fast hard drive. The Mac Plus, introduced on January 16, 1986, changed all that.
The Quadra 900 and 950 have no RAM on the motherboard and 16 sockets for four banks of memory expansion. They shipped with 8 MB and can support up to 256 MB of system memory – twice as much as any previous Mac.
The Quadra 700 has 4 MB soldered to the motherboard and one bank of 30-pin SIMMs for memory expansion, allowing up to 68 MB of system memory.
The Mac Classic has 1 MB of memory soldered to the motherboard. A second megabyte is added with a memory expansion board, which also has two SIMM sockets. Using these sockets, RAM can be expanded from 2 MB to 2.5 MB or 4 MB.
The Mac LC has 2 MB of RAM soldered to the motherboard and two SIMM sockets for upgrading memory to as much as 10 MB.
The Mac IIsi is essentially a more compact version of the Mac IIci with no NuBus expansion slots and operating at a reduced CPU speed. It uses the same architecture, sharing the first 1 MB of RAM for video and computing.
Apple broke the speed envelope with the Mac IIfx – the 40 MHz 68030 CPU on a 40 MHz data bus left everything else in the dust. Because it needed faster memory than any previous Mac, it used a special 64-pin dual-ported SIMM. It was the first Mac to ship with 4 MB of RAM.
The Mac IIci took the popular Mac IIcx design and replaced its 16 MHz logic board with a 25 MHz 68030-based design. New features included built-in video and a Level 2 (L2) cache socket. The IIci was the first Mac with “32-bit clean” ROMs.
The Mac SE/30 shipped from the factory with 1 MB installed. It can be upgraded to 2, 4, 5, 8, 16, 17, 20, and 32 MB* configurations using 120ns or faster 1 MB or 4 MB 30-pin SIMMs – and as high as 128 MB using 16 MB SIMMs.
The Mac IIcx was Apple’s first compact model in the Mac II series, essentially a Mac IIx with three NuBus expansion slots instead of six and a smaller power supply. Like the Mac II and IIx, it can only access 8 MB of memory under System 6 and earlier. You need to run some version […]
The Mac IIx was Apple’s first 68030-based computer. You need to run some version of System 7 to have access to the 32-bit option and use the free Mode32 utility to let the IIx run in 32-bit mode. This allows users to use more than 8 MB in the IIx.
The Mac II was Apple’s first modular Macintosh. Using a 68020 CPU instead of the older 68000, it can address far more memory by using 32-bit addressing. Although it took System 7 to provide the 32-bit option and Mode32 to let the Mac II operate in 32-bit mode, this allowed users to use more than […]
The PowerPC platform had a long life on Macs. The first Power Macs arrived on March 14, 1994, 10 years after the first Mac – the Power Mac 6100, 7100, and 8100, running the PowerPC 601 CPU at speeds of 60, 66, and 80 MHz respectively. The PowerPC G5 came to the iMac in August 2004, over […]
The Mac SE shipped from the factory with 1 MB installed in the form of four 256 KB SIMMs. It can be upgraded to 2 MB, 2.5 MB, and 4 MB configurations using 150ns or faster 1 MB 30-pin SIMMs.
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History is one of my favorite podcasts. Then again, I majored in English, history, and philosophy in college, so I like history to begin with. If you enjoy history at all, I think you’ll find this podcast a treat.
So, recently I learned that Apple, as much as I love them, may be thinking of ditching the ol’ headphone port on the iPhone 7. I don’t know how to feel about this, as I once believed the iPod/iPhone to be one of the best media devices on the planet.
The Mac Plus shipped from the factory with 1 MB of system memory installed in the form of four 256 KB SIMMs. It can be upgraded to 2.5 MB and 4 MB configurations using 150ns or faster 1 MB 30-pin SIMMs.
I love the original iPhone – but at nine years old, it really has had it’s day.
Gone are the days when television was controlled by a few big players. There is so much more competition. I check out the streaming Now TV box from Sky.
I’ve been using smartphones for years, starting with a Palm Centro during my last months with Verizon, just before we switched to AT&T and my wife and I each got an iPhone 3GS. Modern smartphones go through batteries much more quickly than old “dumb” phones ever did.
We’re expanding Low End Mac with new recommendation articles, which will generally be shorter than full fledged in-depth reviews. We’ll be sharing our thoughts on what software, services, games, podcasts, devices, accessories, and more items we think might benefit you.
Ever wanted to combine several MP3s in to one file? Now you can with MP3 Trimmer.
Back in the days of reel-to-reel tape and tape hiss interfering with high frequency sound, Dolby Labs made a name for itself with Dolby Noise Reduction, which recorded high frequencies at a higher volume and played them back with an equivalent amount of volume decrease to reduce the impact of tape hiss. Now Dolby wants […]
The PowerPC platform had a long life at Apple. The first Power Macs arrived on March 14, 1994 – the Power Mac 6100, 7100, and 8100 running the PowerPC 601 CPU at speeds of 60, 66, and 80 MHz respectively. The ultimate Power Mac was the G5 Quad, which had two 2.5 GHz dual-core CPUs […]
Apple introduced the $10,000 Lisa in 1983 and the $2,500 Macintosh in 1984. Both used the 68000 CPU. The Atari ST, based on the same processor, arrived in 1985 at just $799 – or $999 with color, which the Mac didn’t have yet.
Back in the early days of personal computing, benchmarks were usually written in BASIC and tweaked for each competing brand of computer and BASIC in use. This article looks at some popular benchmarks from the 8-bit era of home computing.
The most important development in 1983 was the Personal Computer Price War. Texas Instruments had nearly destroyed Commodore International when TI began selling fully assembled calculators for less than Commodore and other calculator makers paid for components. Jack Tramiel, Commodore’s founder, vowed revenge.
Apple shook up the Mac world when it announced in June 2005 that it would switch from PowerPC to Intel CPUs within a year. A lot of longtime Mac users felt betrayed. And when Apple introduced the first Intel Macs at the January 2006 Macworld Expo, we were shocked at how soon Apple had begun […]
