Reverse engineered mac 512s from Brazil? The Unitron!

[FunnymanSE30]

Hey guys! It's been about 9 years since I last logged in, but a few months ago I found a CC with a battery damaged logicboard  at the transfer station. With nothing gained and nothing lost, as well as a performa 636cd, I decided to try to make a takky and it worked! That got me googling all sorts of mac witchcraft, catching up on the hobby. I saw the page on the replica SE board thread, and it reminded me of this effort from 1986

https://www.cultofmac.com/266710/meet-unitron-mac-512-worlds-first-macintosh-clone/

Many moons ago (possibly pre-crash)I posted a thread pondering the existence of any MacColbys, it turned out there were some!

I wonder if any of the unitron clones survived, or perhaps any of the engineers and students that worked on the project? 

Update: I found this apparent sighting in 2004

https://chester.me/mac512/ 

Somewhere around 500 were sold, surely there's more than one left to examine

 

[bibilit]

http://www.tabalabs.com.br/apple/mac_512/index.htm

Probably some around, but 500 is not a huge number, the probability to find a complete unit is thin on the ground. 

 

[bibilit]

http://www.evolucaotecnologica.com.br/?p=1589

Apparently a single drive unit was also available. 

 

[bibilit]

http://www.merlintec.com/lsi/mac512.html

 

[CC_333]

http://www.merlintec.com/lsi/mac512.html

It sure would be neat to get a hold of one of those "turbo Macs"!  It sounds more or less like an improved version of the 512k!

I wonder if the PAL equations the author of the above page apparently wrote could be programmed into an otherwise standard, OEM 512k board (instead of Unitron's clone board) to improve its performance?  Or, perhaps it could be used for an improved, modern-day 128/512k clone!

Or....  maybe they could be used in the SE clone project to enhance its performance a bit relative to a standard SE?

c

 

[Kai Robinson]

@CC_333 I believe quorten is aware of this, and is going to/has put it into the BBU verilog