March 2, 1987: Three years after releasing the unique Macintosh 128K, Apple launches a correct sequel, the almighty Macintosh II.
Though 4 Mac fashions have already got been launched, the definitive, full-number identify of the Macintosh II makes clear that this can be a main improve for the product line. With an enormous {hardware} increase, optionally available shade show (!) and a brand new open structure, it doesn’t disappoint!
Mac II brings open structure
By far the largest change with the Mac II? Its open structure, which permits customers to develop the pc. Greater than only a tech improve, this marked a basic shift in the way in which Apple engineers thought in regards to the Macintosh.
The principle argument in opposition to making the Mac expandable had come from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Not like the hobbyist computer systems that got here earlier than it, Jobs’ imaginative and prescient for the Mac was for a pc that “simply labored.” Ideally, there can be no purpose for Mac homeowners to wish (or need) to open up their machines and tinker with their insides.
By the point the Mac II started growth, nonetheless, Jobs was out of Apple and dealing on his NeXT Pc on the startup he ultimately offered again to Apple. With out Jobs’ enter, the Mac II’s philosophy owed rather more to the open structure of the Apple II. (Even using Roman numerals within the Mac II’s identify paid tribute to that long-lived laptop).
With the Mac II, customers might develop their Macs with out voiding their guarantee for the primary time. Six NuBus slots allowed for element upgrades and the insertion of enlargement playing cards. Due to this expandability, some individuals referred to the Mac II because the “Open Mac.”
Mac II: A shade show and a few fairly spectacular {hardware}
In an age the place each laptop show presents thousands and thousands of colours as commonplace, it’s value reminding youthful readers that shade wasn’t at all times taken as a right on dwelling computer systems. The first-gen Macintosh was strictly monochrome.
So, the prospect of having the ability to translate the Mac’s graphical interface into shade proved a fairly mouthwatering prospect.
Patrons might slum it by shopping for a less expensive Mac II with a monochrome show. Nonetheless, those that opted for the colour possibility loved a brand new commonplace. The Mac II boasted a 16.7 million true shade palette (though the pc might show solely 256 of them on-screen at anybody time).
Customers weren’t confined to the small, 9-inch displays that got here with earlier Macs, both. The Mac II’s freestanding 13-inch monitor may appear small in comparison with in the present day’s large iMac shows. But it surely felt extremely roomy to customers in 1987.
Mac II specs
These weren’t the one ahead-of-their-time options of the Mac II. In comparison with the underpowered authentic, the Macintosh II excelled from a efficiency perspective. It packed a powerful 16 MHz Motorola 68020 processor, a 68881 floating-point coprocessor, as much as 4MB of RAM and as much as an 80MB exhausting drive.
The Mac II’s audio was additionally excellent for its day. The pc used a four-voice stereo customized sound chip for the primary time. It delivered a most frequency of seven.5 kHz and a pattern charge of 44.1 KhZ.
This all added as much as a hefty price ticket, nonetheless. Anybody complaining that in the present day’s Macs are dear ought to take into account this: A totally kitted-out Macintosh II price $7,145 retail in 1987 {dollars}, the equal of $17,683 in the present day. This was the period of Apple’s “excessive proper” technique for the Mac, the place it led the way in which on each efficiency and worth.
The thought behind providing a higher-priced Mac like this was that it’d attraction to companies. And actually, such a machine would possibly appear to be a cut price when it comes to worth versus efficiency when in comparison with the costly workstations it competed in opposition to.
Do you keep in mind the Mac II? Depart your feedback beneath.
