mac classic

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Introduced October 1990
Discontinued September 1992
Release Price    $1499.00

 

        The Macintosh Classic can best be described as a Macintosh SE without the expansion slot, but at half the price. It replaced both the Mac Plus and the Mac SE in the product line. 

        There were two versions of the Classic, a $999.00 version that had only a single floppy drive and 1MB of built in RAM, and a $1499.00 version that included a 40MB hard drive and 2MB of RAM standard and are both capable of being expanded to 4MB internally. The cheaper Mac was intended to go head to head with the just released IBM PS/1. The Mac Classic came with a 1.4MB Super Drive that was able to read and write MS-DOS, OS/2, and Apple II ProDOS disks. 

         The Classic has six ports along the bottom of its case in the rear. From left to right they are a 4 pin mini-DIN plug for connecting up to 3 input devices (such as the keyboard, mouse, and light pen), a19 pin female D-plug for connecting an external floppy drive, a 25 pin female D-plug for connecting up to 7 SCSI devices ( such as hard drives, CD ROMS, or scanners), an 8 pin mini-DIN plug for connecting a printer, another 8 pin mini-DIN plug for connecting a MODEM, and finally a mini stereo jack for earphones. 

         As with all the earlier models of the Macintosh, the Classic comes with a built in 9 inch monochrome monitor capable of producing a very sharp image of 512 pixels by 342 pixels.

          This Mac Classic was added to the museum on August 15, 1999. It was purchased at a local flea market along with an Image Writer II printer and complete documentation. This was my first Mac and I was so impressed with it that I decided to add the Macintosh line to my museum even though they are not really 8-bit machines. 

 

System Architecture

   

Memory

 
Microprocessor 68000   Standard on system board 1 MB
Clock speed 7.8336 MHz   Maximum on system board 1 MB
Bus type Apple proprietary   Maximum total memory 4 MB by expansion card
Data bus width 16 bit   Memory speed and type 150 ns
Address bus width 24 bit   System board memory socket type 30 pin SIM
Interrupt levels N/A   Number of memory module sockets 2 slots
DMA channels N/A   Memory used on system board dynamic

Standard Features

   

Disk Storage

 
ROM size 512k   Internal disk and tape drive bays 2
Optional math coprocessor none   Standard floppy drives 1 - 3.5 inch 1.4 MB
Parallel port type yes   Optional floppy drives: yes
RS232C serial ports 2-RS232/RS422   * 5 1/4 inch 160k no
Mouse ports yes   * 5 1/4 inch 1.2MB no
UART chip used N/A   * 3 1/2 inch 720k optional
Maximum speed N/A   * 3 1/2 inch 1.44MB optional
CMOS real time clock yes   * 3 1/2 inch 2.88MB no
CMOS RAM yes   Hard disk controller included yes - scsi

Video & Graphics

   

Sound

 
Graphics Processor     Sound Interface device  
Screen size - Col x Rows     Sound generation 4 voice / 8 bit digital
Resolution - Colors/High 1 / 512 x 342 pixels   ADSR capable no
Resolution - Colors/Low        
Max colors mono-black & white   Programming language  
Sprites or Missiles no   Built in language none
      Built in M L monitor no

Expansion Slots

   

Keyboard Specs.

 
Total adapter slots 0   Number of keys 80
Number of 8/16/32 bit slots 0/0/0   Upper/lower case yes/yes
      Keyboard cable length 4 feet

Physical Specs.

   

Environmental Specs .

 
* Height 13.2 inches   Operating voltage @ 60 Hz 120 VAC
* Width 9.7 inches   Maximum power supplied 100 watts
* Depth 11.2 inches   Power supply output - volts  
* Weight 17.1 pounds   Power supply output - amps