Mac128
Well-known member
http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=40372#40372
Some European variant? It ships with a FULL Mac Plus keyboard!
Some European variant? It ships with a FULL Mac Plus keyboard!
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What The Hell Is A 512K/800?
- Thread starter Mac128
- Start date
Quadraman
Well-known member
A 512Ke maybe or an educational model? I am sure there was a 512k model on sale for at least part of the Plus's lifespan. It wouldn't surprise me if the 800k drives from the Plus were used in it since it wouldn't have made sense to keep the 400k drives in production at that time. It also wouldn't have made sense to keep the old keyboard minus the keypad in production, either.
Edit
LEM shows this
http://www.lowendmac.com/compact/macintosh-512ke.html
The 512Ke did come with the 800k drive built in. It would likely have shipped with the full sized keyboard, too. They probably put the 512k/800 designation on the box so the two different models wouldn't be confused on the shelf. You wouldn't want to sell someone the older model with the 400k drive if they paid for the newer one.
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Scott Baret
Well-known member
I think the 512K/800 is the European name for the 512Ke.
Mac128
Well-known member
Quadraman, the 512Ke did NOT come with a full sized keyboard. Apple likely discontinued the numeric keypad in order to encourage an upgrade to the Plus keyboard. The 512K was discontinued in March '86, so Apple was likely still making 400K external drives until then to encourage accessory purchases. Then again the HD20 init made the 800K external usable so, they probably discontinued it when they introduced the 800K ext. drive (they could charge more too).
See this for more details:
http://homepage.mac.com/chinesemac/earlymacs/#Plus_hardware
If you look at photo DSC_0029 you can see the serial number and the model number M0001D (which is the EDU 512ke). The 512ke was introduced in April 1986 and came with a 800K floppy drive standard (according to Mactracker) and was discontinued in Sept. 1987. The Plus was introduced in Jan. 1986 so there was an almost a 1.5 year overlap hence the 800K drives in the 512ke
Mac128
Well-known member
Then there's this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41999914@N00/16287486
Kami, I have no idea what point you are making.
Kami, I have no idea what point you are making.
The disks are the same as the one in the box:
The label says Made in Ireland - I wonder if they printed the manuals there as well? I don't want to open them to find out though!
As to date, it's beige not platinum and the date marker inside the case says the case was formed in Feb '86 although quite how long it would have taken from case pressing to becoming a Macintosh I have no idea
JDW
Well-known member
Anyone remember the PowerBook 550c? Probably you don't unless, like me, you've lived in Japan for many years. Apple sold this beefed up variant of the 540c only in Japan. (Bigger 10.4" active matrix screen, full 040 CPU with FPU, black coloration -- a prized 68k notebook, to be sure!) No doubt it would have sold well in other markets too, but they only sold it here. They are still so popular you can hardly find them even on Japanese auction sites!
Now turn back to this 512k/800. It's a 512ke (you can see the 800k drive in one of those photos, and as you can read in the title of the thread linked to), and I will assume it also has the 128k ROMs even though I can't read the chip numbers in those so-tiny-I-could-scream photos. Yes, it has a Plus keyboard. But that's one of the perks for those who lived outside the US at the time.
As with the PB550c, the 512k/800 simply offered something special for Apple's foreign faithful.
As a side note, the 512ke (and its foreign variants) are quite worthless in my book. Why? Because they are nothing more than a Mac Plus with insufficient RAM. I would consider the original Mac 512k to hold more value because of it's 64k ROMs alone, but it also has the original 400k drive too, which I consider to have some value. But even with the older ROMs, you can still add 800k drives to the original 512k. So when I see 512ke's selling on EBAY, I chuckle to myself because many buying those machines actually think they have something special. They do, insofar as "simply owning a 68k Mac" is concerned. But realistically, they would be better off with a Mac Plus. That doesn't hold true for 128k and 512k owners though, as we are not better off with newer ROMs. I like my 64k ROMs and I feel there is more value in them. If you want the most value from a 128k ROM machine, you would go with a full Mac Plus.
Now turn back to this 512k/800. It's a 512ke (you can see the 800k drive in one of those photos, and as you can read in the title of the thread linked to), and I will assume it also has the 128k ROMs even though I can't read the chip numbers in those so-tiny-I-could-scream photos. Yes, it has a Plus keyboard. But that's one of the perks for those who lived outside the US at the time.
As with the PB550c, the 512k/800 simply offered something special for Apple's foreign faithful.
As a side note, the 512ke (and its foreign variants) are quite worthless in my book. Why? Because they are nothing more than a Mac Plus with insufficient RAM. I would consider the original Mac 512k to hold more value because of it's 64k ROMs alone, but it also has the original 400k drive too, which I consider to have some value. But even with the older ROMs, you can still add 800k drives to the original 512k. So when I see 512ke's selling on EBAY, I chuckle to myself because many buying those machines actually think they have something special. They do, insofar as "simply owning a 68k Mac" is concerned. But realistically, they would be better off with a Mac Plus. That doesn't hold true for 128k and 512k owners though, as we are not better off with newer ROMs. I like my 64k ROMs and I feel there is more value in them. If you want the most value from a 128k ROM machine, you would go with a full Mac Plus.
Mac128
Well-known member
Yes see, that's specious reasoning. The 512Ke as far as I know NEVER shipped with a Plus keyboard. As far as the 512K/800 goes, that seems to be the only difference.
What really confused me was this, I'm not sure what it means since the Mac Plus had 800K drives well after Superdrives were introduced:
What I was really asking was what is the difference between the 512K/800 and 512Ke, so sorry for the confusion.
One thing that I will now speculate on is the fact I have never seen a picture of a Macintosh ED without a full keyboard. While the keyboard could have gotten there at any time during the intervening 20 years, given that it is the same model number as the 512K/800 (M0001D) which also has a full keyboard, I am going to suggest that was the standard configuration for the ED models as well, including the the 512K M0001ED model, which I suspect followed the discontinuation of the 512Ke. The rational being that schools would have more need for a keypad than the average household, just as businesses would. But of course that is all specious reasoning as well.
Here's one more thought ... outside of the UK, it makes sense to call an "Enhanced" 512K something else since "enhanced" would not always translate to the letter "e", but a number like 800 would mean something. Were there otherwise in fact 512Kes in Europe and Asia?
equill
Well-known member
If my 512Ke (detailed in Mac128's database) is worth anything as a yardstick, and it was first owned by the U of Western Australia under an Apple/Universities consortium arrangement, the 512Ke was always M0001E (extended), acquiring the extra D for education purposes only when sold into that environment. The full keyboard originally supplied (demonstrated by its dated, non-factory label) was part of the deliberate conception of the 512Ke as the 'Mac Minus' (its Apple code-name) low-end partner to the high-end Mac Plus.
If that thinking about suffixes was consistently applied by Apple, somewhere, at some time, a 512K may turn up bearing M0001WD.
de
OK here's a link to the original image (it's 4.4mb sorry!)
http://idisk.mac.com/pjlarge/Public/Mac512/512K_board.jpg
JDW
Well-known member
The italic emphasis on "been" implies a disassociation with of the PB550c and Japan. And seeing that you live in the UK seems to imply that you are not alone in owning a PB550c there? Was the PB550c indeed sold widely in Europe?
Everything I have studied about the PB550c suggests it was built by Apple for the Japanese market, and sold exclusively in that market. I also lived in Japan during the release of the PB550c and can remember articles in Japanese about that fact. Nevertheless, if there is strong evidence to show that the PB550c was also sold directly by Apple to other markets (such as Europe), that would be news of interest to the classic Mac community. Please educate us, Neil!
dogcow, your fine hi-rez photo (bless you!) shows that you have Mac Plus ROMs in your logic board (342-0341 & 342-0342). In other words, it's a 512ke.
