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} enhance, elective coloration show (!) and a brand new open structure, it doesn’t disappoint!
Macintosh II launch brings open structure
By far the largest change with the Macintosh II? Its open structure, which allowed customers to increase the pc. Greater than only a tech improve, this marked a basic shift in the way in which Apple engineers thought concerning the Macintosh.
The primary 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 motive for Mac homeowners to wish (or need) to open up their machines and tinker with their insides.
By the point the Macintosh II started growth, nonetheless, Jobs was out of Apple and dealing on his NeXT Pc on the startup he finally 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 the usage of Roman numerals within the Macintosh II’s identify paid tribute to that long-lived pc).
With the Mac II, customers may increase their Macs with out voiding their warranties 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 coloration show and a few fairly spectacular {hardware}
In an age the place each pc show affords hundreds of thousands of colours as commonplace, it’s value reminding youthful readers that coloration wasn’t all the time 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 coloration proved a fairly mouthwatering prospect.
Patrons may slum it by shopping for a less expensive Macintosh II with a monochrome show. Nonetheless, those that opted for the colour choice loved a brand new commonplace. The Mac II boasted a 16.7 million true coloration palette (though the pc may show solely 256 of them on-screen at anybody time).
Customers weren’t confined to the small, 9-inch screens that got here with earlier Macs, both. The Mac II’s freestanding 13-inch monitor might sound small in comparison with right now’s huge iMac shows, but it surely felt extremely roomy to customers in 1987.
Macintosh II specs
These weren’t the one ahead-of-their-time options of the Macintosh II. In comparison with the underpowered authentic, the Mac II excelled from a efficiency perspective. It packed a formidable 16 MHz Motorola 68020 processor, a 68881 floating-point coprocessor, as much as 4MB of RAM and as much as an 80MB onerous 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 fee of 44.1 KhZ.
This all added as much as a hefty price ticket, nonetheless. Anybody complaining that right now’s Macs are dear ought to think about this: A totally kitted-out Macintosh II price $7,145 retail in 1987 {dollars}, the equal of almost $20,000 right now. This was the period of Apple’s “excessive proper” technique for the Mac, the place the pc led the way in which on each efficiency and value.
The thought behind providing a higher-priced Mac like this was that it’d attraction to companies. The truth is, such a machine may look like a cut price when it comes to value versus efficiency when in comparison with the costly workstations it competed in opposition to.
Do you bear in mind the Macintosh II? Go away your feedback under.