Macintosh Classic
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| Macintosh Classic | |
|---|---|
| CPU: | 8 MHz Motorola MC68000 |
| RAM Type: | 30-pin SIMM |
| Maximum RAM: | 4 MiB |
| Supported OS: | System 1.1g - System 7.5.5 |
| Introduced: | October 15 1990 |
| Discontinued: | September 14 1992 |
| MSRP: | $999 or $1500 with HD (US) |
| Full Specifications | |
The original Macintosh had been released to great fanfare in 1984. Six years later Apple's new Macintosh Classic was hardly what fans had been hoping for.
History
In 1984 an 8 MHz 68000 powered desktop machine sporting a B&W (black and white) graphical user interface (GUI) had been something revolutionary and staggering. In 1990, such a machine didn't exactly cut the mustard; not that this stopped Apple from releasing just that in the shape of the Macintosh Classic.
The Mac Classic may have been conceived with good intentions in mind. A genuine Mac for under $1000? A bargain in anyone's book — although, if users wanted a 40 MiB hard drive, then they needed to find an extra $500. The end result was a machine that was outdated, underpowered, and woefully out of place. Shipping with 1 MiB of RAM, the Classic certainly had some nods towards the march of time — it still sported ADB and SCSI ports on the back — but elsewhere it was a throwback to a bygone age, and all of this felt especially insulting following on from the powerhouse Mac SE/30.
The Classic reverted back to using the (now antique) 68000 running at a pedestrian 8 MHz. The floating point unit was ditched; any expansion slots were eliminated; the sound was demoted from stereo to mono; and even the brightness control was ditched in favour of a software driven control. If that wasn't enough, the few plus points that Classic had over the Macintosh 128k came with compromises: the memory expansion was via a special daughtercard, which supposedly eliminated the need to remove the motherboard to upgrade the memory.
Amidst all of this, the Classic did have one unique selling point: it could be booted without the need for a floppy or hard disk. Apple engineers had sufficient space on the machine's ROM to fit a stripped down — though fully functional, including AppleTalk for networking and the MacsBug debugger — version of System 6.0.3 with Finder 6.1x. Users simply had to hold down Command-Option-X-O (⌘⌥XO) at startup to get it to boot from ROM. The System folder of the ROM disk contains an invisible folder with credits inside.
Full Specifications
- General
- CPU: 8 MHz Motorola MC68000
- ROM: 512 KiB
- Bus Speed: 8 MHz
- Data Path: 24-bit
- RAM Type: 30-pin SIMM (120 ns)
- Standard RAM: 1 MiB
- RAM Slots: 0
- Maximum RAM: 4 MiB
- I/O & Expansion
- ADB: 1
- Serial: 2
- SCSI: 1
- Floppy Connector: 1
- Audio Out: 8-bit mono (mini-jack)
- Built-in Speaker: Mono
- Storage
- Hard Drive: 40 MiB
- Hard Drive Type: SCSI
- Floppy Drive: One 1.44 MiB SuperDrive
- Video
- Built-in Display: Internal 9" B&W
- Max Resolution: 512×342 pixels (1-bit)
- Miscellaneous
- Apple Model Number: M0420
- Codename: XO, Civic
- Gestalt ID: 17
- Power: 76W
- PRAM Battery: 3.6V Lithium
- Case Style: Macintosh Classic
- Dimensions: 9.6" x 10.9" x 13.6" (W x D x H)
- Weight: 16 lbs.
- Mac OS Support: System 6.0.6 - System 7.5.5
- Introduced: October 15 1990
- Introduced: September 14 1992
- MSRP: $999 or $1500 with HD (US)
