Macintosh Classic
Encyclopedia
The Macintosh Classic was a personal computer
manufactured by Apple Computer. Introduced on October 15, 1990, it was the first Apple Macintosh to sell for less than US$1,000. Production of the Classic was prompted by the success of the Macintosh Plus
and the SE
. The system specifications of the Classic were very similar to its predecessors, with the same 9 inches (22.9 cm) monochrome
CRT
display, 512×342 pixel
resolution, and 4 megabyte
(MB) memory limit of the older Macintosh computers. Apple's decision to not update the Classic with newer technology such as a 68010 CPU, higher RAM capacity or color display ensured compatibility with the Mac's by-then healthy software base as well as enabled it to fit the lower price-point Apple intended for it. Nevertheless, the Classic featured several improvements over the aging Macintosh Plus, which it replaced as Apple's low-end Mac computer. It was up to 25 percent faster than the Plus and included an Apple SuperDrive
3.5 inches (9 cm) floppy disk drive as standard.
The Classic was an adaptation of Jerry Manock
's and Terry Oyama's 1984 Macintosh 128K
industrial design, as had been the earlier Macintosh SE. Apple released two versions that ranged from $1,000 to $1,500. Reviewer reactions were mixed; most focused on the slow processor
performance and lack of expansion slots
. The consensus was that the Classic was only useful for word processing, spreadsheets and databases. The lower price and the availability of education software led to the Classic's popularity in education. It was sold alongside the more powerful Macintosh Classic II
in 1991 until its discontinuation the next year.
left Apple in 1985, product development was handed to Jean-Louis Gassée
, formerly manager of Apple France. Gassée consistently pushed the Apple product line in two directions, towards more "openness" in terms of expandability and interoperability, and towards higher price. Gassée long argued that Apple should not market their computers towards the low end of the market, where profits were thin, but instead concentrate on the high end and higher profit margins. He illustrated the concept using a graph showing the price/performance ratio
of computers with low-power, low-cost machines in the lower left and high-power high-cost machines in the upper right. The "high-right" goal became a mantra among the upper management, who said "fifty-five or die", referring to Gassée's goal of a 55 percent profit margin.
The high-right policy led to a series of machines with ever-increasing prices. The original Macintosh plans called for a system around $1000, but it was released at $2495. From there, the price of Mac systems continued to climb: the Macintosh Plus
was slightly more expensive at $2599, the SE was $2900 or $3900 depending on the model, and a basic Macintosh II
was at least $5500. More modern machines cost even more: the Macintosh IIcx
was $5369, the IIci
$6269, and the IIfx
$9900 - all without monitors or keyboards. Color CRTs were relatively expensive in the late 1980s; Apple's 14" 640x480 monitor had a list price of $999 and Apple's ADB
keyboards, while high quality, were similarly expensive. The only inexpensive machine in the lineup by the late 1980s was the several-year-old Mac Plus, which was now selling for around $2000.
Having abandoned the "low-left" of the market years earlier, and being ignored on the high end for PCs, Apple's fortunes of the 1980s quickly reversed. The Christmas season of 1989 drove this point home, with the first decrease in sales in years, and an accompanying 20 percent drop in Apple's stock price for the quarter.
In January 1990, Gassée resigned and his authority over product development was divided among several successors. Many Apple engineers had long been pressing for lower-cost options in order to build market share and increase demand across the entire price spectrum. With Gassée out, a rush started to quickly introduce a series of low-cost machines. Three systems were identified, a very low-cost machine aimed at costing $1000, a low-cost machine with color graphics, and a more upscale color machine for small business use. In time, these would develop as the Classic, Macintosh LC
, and Macintosh IIsi
.
magazine reported on July 10, 1990 that Apple had paid $1 million to Modular Computer Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Daimler-Benz AG, for the right to use the "Classic" name as part of a five-year contract. Apple did not renew the contract when it ended. MacWEEK speculated the Macintosh Classic would use the same 8 megahertz
(MHz) Motorola 68000
microprocessor
and 9 inches (22.9 cm) display as its predecessors and that the Classic would be priced from $1,500 to $2,150.
On October 15, 1990, John Sculley
(then Apple CEO) introduced the Classic at a press conference, announcing that pricing would start at $1,000 and saying, "To reach new customers, we didn't just lower the prices of our existing products. We redesigned these computers from the ground up with the features customers have told us they value most." Apple's new pricing strategy caused concern among investors, who thought it would reduce profit margin
s. Brodie Keast, an Apple product marketing manager, said, "We are prepared to do whatever it takes to reach more people with Macintosh ... The plan is to get as aggressive on price as we need to be." After the release of the Classic, Apple's share price
closed at $27.75 per share, down 50 cents from October 12, 1990, and far below its previous 12-month high of $50.37.
The Classic was released in Europe
and Japan
concurrently with the United States
release. In Japan, the Classic retailed for 198,000 yen
($1,523), more than in the US but matching the price of the Toshiba Dynabook
laptop computer.
After spending $40 million marketing the Classic to first-time buyers, Apple had difficulty meeting the high demand. Apple doubled its manufacturing space in 1990 by expanding its Singapore
and Cork
, Ireland
factories, where the Classic was assembled. Air freight, rather than sea shipping, was used to speed delivery. The shortage caused concern among dealers, who blamed Apple's poor business planning.
Macintosh Classics and LCs
had been given to Scholastic Software 12 months before they were officially announced, and Scholastic planned to release 16 new Macintosh products in 1991. Peter Kelman, Scholastic's publisher, predicted that the Macintosh would become "the school machine of the nineties." The Classic was sold to schools for $800. This and the availability of education software led to the Classic's popularity in the education sector.
, and cost $999, while the $1,499 model contained an additional 1 MB memory expansion card and a 40 MB hard disk. The Classic featured several improvements over the Macintosh Plus
, which it replaced as Apple's low-end Mac computer: it was up to 25 percent faster than the Plus and included an Apple SuperDrive
3.5" floppy disk drive as standard. The SuperDrive could read and write to Macintosh, MS-DOS
, OS/2
, and ProDOS
disks. Also, the Classic was the last compact Mac to use the Motorola 68000 central processing unit (CPU).
The Classic used the System 6.0.7
operating system
with support for all versions up to System 7.5.5
. A hidden Hierarchical File System
(HFS) disk volume contained in the read-only memory
(ROM) included System 6.0.3. The Mac Classic could be booted into System 6.0.3 by holding down the Command
+ Option
+ X + O keys during boot.
Some dealers included a software bundle called Smartbundle with the Classic. Also sold separately for $349, this included T/Maker
's WriteNow
word processor, Ashton-Tate
's Full Impact
spreadsheet program, RecordHolderPlus database, and Silicon Beach Software
's SuperPaint
2.0 paint and draw program.
The Macintosh Classic was the final adaptation of Jerry Manock
's and Terry Oyama's Macintosh 128K
industrial design, bringing back some elements of the original, while retaining little of the Snow White design language
used in the Macintosh SE
's design. The only remnant of the SE was the stripe across the front panel (bezel) for the floppy drive; the distinctive front bezel lines of the SE were not used on the Classic, and the vertical lines around its base were replaced by four horizontal vent lines, more reminiscent of the original design. Also, the curve of the front bezel was increased to the same 50 inches (1.3 m) radial curve as on the front of both the Macintosh LC
and Macintosh IIsi
. The screen brightness dial on this bezel was also removed in favor of a software control. This curved front bezel became a signature of Apple product design for much of the 1990s.
The logic board
, the central circuit board of the computer, was based on the Macintosh SE design. Its size, however, was reduced using surface mount technology
to 9×5 inches (23×13 cm), half the size of the SE board. This redesign, and the absence of expansion slots, kept manufacturing costs low. This lack of expansion abilities, along with the small screen size and Macintosh's popularity in the burgeoning field of desktop publishing
led to such oddities as video displays which connected through the SCSI
port by users seeking to connect a larger full- or dual-page display to their Mac.The Classic design was used once more in 1991 for the Classic II
, which succeeded the Classic and replaced the Macintosh SE/30
.
capabilities against buying the Classic. Schafer concluded: "The Classic's value is more impressive than its performance, but its performance will get you working on that novel, database, or spreadsheet." PC Week
criticized the lack of a faster processor, stating, "The 7.8 MHz speed is adequate for text applications and limited graphics work, but it is not suitable for power users. As such, the Classic is appropriate as a home computer or for limited computing on the road." Similarly, PC User
s review concluded, "The slow processor and lack of expansion slots on the Macintosh Classic offset the low prices." MacWEEK described it as a "fine, inexpensive replacement for the Macintosh Plus that best embodies the original Macintosh vision six and a half years later".
In the February 1991 edition of Electronic Learning, Robert McCarthy wrote: "Teachers, educational administrators and software developers are enthusiastic about the new, lower cost Apple Macintosh computers". Steve Taffe, manager of instructional strategy at MECC
, a developer and publisher of educational software, explained his excitement about the Classic: "[it] is terrific – both because it's a Mac and because of that low price. Everyone can now afford a Macintosh." Scholastic, an education software developer, was also confident of Apple's ability to compete with MS-DOS
machines, stating: "They are just as cost-effective and as powerful as MS-DOS computers, but the Apples will have a superior comfort-level." Sue Talley, Apple's manager of strategic planning in education, said of the Classic: "we see it going into applications where you need a fair number of powerful stations, but where color is not a big issue." Talley mentioned that it was most suited for writing labs and other basic productivity uses. Many schools decided not to buy Classics because of the lack of a color monitor, an option which the higher priced Macintosh LC had.
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
manufactured by Apple Computer. Introduced on October 15, 1990, it was the first Apple Macintosh to sell for less than US$1,000. Production of the Classic was prompted by the success of the Macintosh Plus
Macintosh Plus
The Macintosh Plus computer was the third model in the Macintosh line, introduced on January 16, 1986, two years after the original Macintosh and a little more than a year after the Macintosh 512K, with a price tag of US$2599...
and the SE
Macintosh SE
The Macintosh SE was a personal computer manufactured by Apple between March 1987 and October 1990. This computer marked a significant improvement on the Macintosh Plus design and was introduced by Apple at the same time as the Macintosh II....
. The system specifications of the Classic were very similar to its predecessors, with the same 9 inches (22.9 cm) monochrome
Monochrome
Monochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or shades of one color. A monochromatic object or image has colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white...
CRT
Cathode ray tube
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
display, 512×342 pixel
Pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
resolution, and 4 megabyte
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
(MB) memory limit of the older Macintosh computers. Apple's decision to not update the Classic with newer technology such as a 68010 CPU, higher RAM capacity or color display ensured compatibility with the Mac's by-then healthy software base as well as enabled it to fit the lower price-point Apple intended for it. Nevertheless, the Classic featured several improvements over the aging Macintosh Plus, which it replaced as Apple's low-end Mac computer. It was up to 25 percent faster than the Plus and included an Apple SuperDrive
SuperDrive
SuperDrive is a trademark used by Apple Inc. for two different storage drives: from 1988–99 to refer to a high-density floppy disk drive capable of reading all major 3.5" disk formats; and from 2001 onwards to refer to a combined CD/DVD reader/writer....
3.5 inches (9 cm) floppy disk drive as standard.
The Classic was an adaptation of Jerry Manock
Jerry Manock
Jerrold C. Manock is an American industrial designer. He worked for Apple Computer from 1977 to 1984, contributing to housing designs for the Apple II, Apple III, and earlier compact Apple Macintosh computers. Manock is widely regarded as the "father" of the Apple Industrial Design Group...
's and Terry Oyama's 1984 Macintosh 128K
Macintosh 128K
The Macintosh 128K machine, released as the "Apple Macintosh", was the original Apple Macintosh personal computer. Its beige case contained a monitor and came with a keyboard and mouse. An indentation in the top of the case made it easier for the computer to be lifted and carried. It had a selling...
industrial design, as had been the earlier Macintosh SE. Apple released two versions that ranged from $1,000 to $1,500. Reviewer reactions were mixed; most focused on the slow processor
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
performance and lack of expansion slots
Expansion card
The expansion card in computing is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard or backplane to add functionality to a computer system via the expansion bus.One edge of the expansion card holds the contacts that fit exactly into the slot...
. The consensus was that the Classic was only useful for word processing, spreadsheets and databases. The lower price and the availability of education software led to the Classic's popularity in education. It was sold alongside the more powerful Macintosh Classic II
Macintosh Classic II
The Apple Macintosh Classic II replaced the Macintosh SE/30 in the compact Macintosh line in 1991. Like the SE/30, the Classic II was powered by a 16 MHz Motorola 68030 CPU and 40 or 80 MB hard disk, but in contrast to its predecessor, it was limited by a 16-bit data bus and a 10 MB memory...
in 1991 until its discontinuation the next year.
Development
After Apple co-founder Steve JobsSteve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
left Apple in 1985, product development was handed to Jean-Louis Gassée
Jean-Louis Gassée
Jean-Louis Gassée is a former executive at Apple Computer, where he worked from 1981 to 1990. He is most famous for founding Be Inc., creators of the BeOS computer operating system. After leaving Be, he became Chairman of PalmSource, Inc. in November, 2004.-1980s: Apple Computer:Gassée worked for...
, formerly manager of Apple France. Gassée consistently pushed the Apple product line in two directions, towards more "openness" in terms of expandability and interoperability, and towards higher price. Gassée long argued that Apple should not market their computers towards the low end of the market, where profits were thin, but instead concentrate on the high end and higher profit margins. He illustrated the concept using a graph showing the price/performance ratio
Price/performance ratio
In economics and engineering, the price/performance ratio refers to a product's ability to deliver performance, of any sort, for its price. Generally speaking, products with a higher price/performance ratio are more desirable, excluding other factors....
of computers with low-power, low-cost machines in the lower left and high-power high-cost machines in the upper right. The "high-right" goal became a mantra among the upper management, who said "fifty-five or die", referring to Gassée's goal of a 55 percent profit margin.
The high-right policy led to a series of machines with ever-increasing prices. The original Macintosh plans called for a system around $1000, but it was released at $2495. From there, the price of Mac systems continued to climb: the Macintosh Plus
Macintosh Plus
The Macintosh Plus computer was the third model in the Macintosh line, introduced on January 16, 1986, two years after the original Macintosh and a little more than a year after the Macintosh 512K, with a price tag of US$2599...
was slightly more expensive at $2599, the SE was $2900 or $3900 depending on the model, and a basic Macintosh II
Macintosh II
The Apple Macintosh II was the first personal computer model of the Macintosh II series in the Apple Macintosh line and the first Macintosh to support a color display.- History :...
was at least $5500. More modern machines cost even more: the Macintosh IIcx
Macintosh IIcx
Half a year following the release of the Macintosh IIx passed before Apple introduced the Macintosh IIcx in 1989. Despite resembling the IIx to a great extent and providing the same performance, the IIcx was quieter than its predecessor. The design was also made much more compact by reducing the...
was $5369, the IIci
Macintosh IIci
The Apple Macintosh IIci was an improvement on the Macintosh IIcx. Sharing the same compact case design with three expansion slots, the IIci improved upon the IIcx's 16 MHz Motorola 68030 CPU and 68882 FPU, replacing them with 25 MHz versions of these chips. The IIci came with either a 40 or...
$6269, and the IIfx
Macintosh IIfx
The Macintosh IIfx was a model of Apple Macintosh computer, introduced in 1990 and discontinued in 1992. At introduction it cost from US $9,000 to US $12,000, depending on configuration, and was the fastest Mac...
$9900 - all without monitors or keyboards. Color CRTs were relatively expensive in the late 1980s; Apple's 14" 640x480 monitor had a list price of $999 and Apple's ADB
ADB
ADB is a three-letter acronym that may refer to the intergovernmental organizations:* The Asian Development Bank, a non-profit financial institution whose aim is to help developing Asian countries...
keyboards, while high quality, were similarly expensive. The only inexpensive machine in the lineup by the late 1980s was the several-year-old Mac Plus, which was now selling for around $2000.
Having abandoned the "low-left" of the market years earlier, and being ignored on the high end for PCs, Apple's fortunes of the 1980s quickly reversed. The Christmas season of 1989 drove this point home, with the first decrease in sales in years, and an accompanying 20 percent drop in Apple's stock price for the quarter.
In January 1990, Gassée resigned and his authority over product development was divided among several successors. Many Apple engineers had long been pressing for lower-cost options in order to build market share and increase demand across the entire price spectrum. With Gassée out, a rush started to quickly introduce a series of low-cost machines. Three systems were identified, a very low-cost machine aimed at costing $1000, a low-cost machine with color graphics, and a more upscale color machine for small business use. In time, these would develop as the Classic, Macintosh LC
Macintosh LC
The Macintosh LC was Apple Computer's product family of low-end consumer Macintosh personal computers in the early 1990s. The original Macintosh LC was released in 1990 and was the first affordable color-capable Macintosh. Due to its affordability and Apple II compatibility the LC was adopted...
, and Macintosh IIsi
Macintosh IIsi
The Macintosh IIsi was a compact three-box desktop unit, effectively a cut-down Macintosh IIci in a smaller case , made cheaper by the redesign of the motherboard and the deletion of all but one of the expansion card slots...
.
Release
MacWEEKMacWEEK
MacWEEK was a controlled-circulation weekly Apple Macintosh trade journal based in San Francisco founded by Michael Tchong, John Anderson , Glenn Patch, Dick Govatski and Michael F. Billings. It featured a back-page rumor column penned by the pseudonymous Mac the Knife.Founded in 1987, it was...
magazine reported on July 10, 1990 that Apple had paid $1 million to Modular Computer Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Daimler-Benz AG, for the right to use the "Classic" name as part of a five-year contract. Apple did not renew the contract when it ended. MacWEEK speculated the Macintosh Classic would use the same 8 megahertz
Hertz
The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
(MHz) Motorola 68000
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...
microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
and 9 inches (22.9 cm) display as its predecessors and that the Classic would be priced from $1,500 to $2,150.
On October 15, 1990, John Sculley
John Sculley
John Sculley is an American businessman. Sculley was vice-president and president of PepsiCo , until he became CEO of Apple on April 8, 1983, a position he held until leaving in 1993...
(then Apple CEO) introduced the Classic at a press conference, announcing that pricing would start at $1,000 and saying, "To reach new customers, we didn't just lower the prices of our existing products. We redesigned these computers from the ground up with the features customers have told us they value most." Apple's new pricing strategy caused concern among investors, who thought it would reduce profit margin
Profit margin
Profit margin, net margin, net profit margin or net profit ratio all refer to a measure of profitability. It is calculated by finding the net profit as a percentage of the revenue.Net profit Margin = x100...
s. Brodie Keast, an Apple product marketing manager, said, "We are prepared to do whatever it takes to reach more people with Macintosh ... The plan is to get as aggressive on price as we need to be." After the release of the Classic, Apple's share price
Share price
A share price is the price of a single share of a number of saleable stocks of a company. Once the stock is purchased, the owner becomes a shareholder of the company that issued the share.-Behavior of share prices:...
closed at $27.75 per share, down 50 cents from October 12, 1990, and far below its previous 12-month high of $50.37.
The Classic was released in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
concurrently with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
release. In Japan, the Classic retailed for 198,000 yen
Japanese yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
($1,523), more than in the US but matching the price of the Toshiba Dynabook
Toshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
laptop computer.
After spending $40 million marketing the Classic to first-time buyers, Apple had difficulty meeting the high demand. Apple doubled its manufacturing space in 1990 by expanding its Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
factories, where the Classic was assembled. Air freight, rather than sea shipping, was used to speed delivery. The shortage caused concern among dealers, who blamed Apple's poor business planning.
Macintosh Classics and LCs
Macintosh LC
The Macintosh LC was Apple Computer's product family of low-end consumer Macintosh personal computers in the early 1990s. The original Macintosh LC was released in 1990 and was the first affordable color-capable Macintosh. Due to its affordability and Apple II compatibility the LC was adopted...
had been given to Scholastic Software 12 months before they were officially announced, and Scholastic planned to release 16 new Macintosh products in 1991. Peter Kelman, Scholastic's publisher, predicted that the Macintosh would become "the school machine of the nineties." The Classic was sold to schools for $800. This and the availability of education software led to the Classic's popularity in the education sector.
Features
The low-end model had 1 MB memory, no hard diskHard disk
A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
, and cost $999, while the $1,499 model contained an additional 1 MB memory expansion card and a 40 MB hard disk. The Classic featured several improvements over the Macintosh Plus
Macintosh Plus
The Macintosh Plus computer was the third model in the Macintosh line, introduced on January 16, 1986, two years after the original Macintosh and a little more than a year after the Macintosh 512K, with a price tag of US$2599...
, which it replaced as Apple's low-end Mac computer: it was up to 25 percent faster than the Plus and included an Apple SuperDrive
SuperDrive
SuperDrive is a trademark used by Apple Inc. for two different storage drives: from 1988–99 to refer to a high-density floppy disk drive capable of reading all major 3.5" disk formats; and from 2001 onwards to refer to a combined CD/DVD reader/writer....
3.5" floppy disk drive as standard. The SuperDrive could read and write to Macintosh, MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
, OS/2
OS/2
OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
, and ProDOS
ProDOS
ProDOS was the name of two similar operating systems for the Apple II series of personal computers. The original ProDOS, renamed ProDOS 8 in version 1.2, was the last official operating system usable by all Apple II series computers, and was distributed from 1983 to 1993...
disks. Also, the Classic was the last compact Mac to use the Motorola 68000 central processing unit (CPU).
The Classic used the System 6.0.7
System 6
System 6 is a graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers. It was released in 1988 by Apple Computer and was part of the Mac OS line of operating systems. System 6 was shipped with various Macintosh computers until it was succeeded by System 7 in 1991. The boxed...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
with support for all versions up to System 7.5.5
System 7
System 7 is the name of a Macintosh operating system introduced in 1991.System 7 may also refer to:* System 7 , a British dance/ambient band* System 7 , 1991 album* IBM System/7, a 1970s computer system...
. A hidden Hierarchical File System
Hierarchical File System
Hierarchical File System is a file system developed by Apple Inc. for use in computer systems running Mac OS. Originally designed for use on floppy and hard disks, it can also be found on read-only media such as CD-ROMs...
(HFS) disk volume contained in the read-only memory
Read-only memory
Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...
(ROM) included System 6.0.3. The Mac Classic could be booted into System 6.0.3 by holding down the Command
Command key
The Command key, also historically known as the Apple key, open-Apple key or meta key is a modifier key present on Apple Keyboards. The Command key's purpose is to allow the user to enter keyboard shortcut commands to GUI applications...
+ Option
Option key
The Option key is a modifier key present on Apple keyboards. It is located between the Control key and Command key on a typical Mac keyboard. There are two option keys on modern Mac desktop and notebook keyboards, one on each side of the space bar....
+ X + O keys during boot.
Some dealers included a software bundle called Smartbundle with the Classic. Also sold separately for $349, this included T/Maker
T/Maker
T/Maker Company was an early personal computer software company. Created in 1979 by software engineer Peter Roizen , the original product, "Table Maker," later shortened to "T/Maker," was one of the first spreadsheet programs designed for the personal computer user...
's WriteNow
WriteNow
WriteNow was one of the two original word processor applications developed for the launch of the Apple Macintosh in 1984, and was the primary word processor for computers manufactured by NeXT....
word processor, Ashton-Tate
Ashton-Tate
Ashton-Tate was a US based software company best known for developing the popular dBASE database application. Ashton-Tate grew from a small garage-based company to become a multinational corporation...
's Full Impact
Full Impact
Full Impact was a spreadsheet program for the Apple Macintosh computer released by Ashton-Tate in the late 1980s. Full Impact was known for excellent graphing and visual display, far better than contemporary versions of Microsoft Excel...
spreadsheet program, RecordHolderPlus database, and Silicon Beach Software
Silicon Beach Software
Silicon Beach Software was an early developer of software products for the Macintosh personal computer. It was founded in San Diego, California by Charlie Jackson and his wife Hallie. Jackson later co-founded FutureWave Software with Jonathan Gay, the company that produced the first version of...
's SuperPaint
SuperPaint (Macintosh)
SuperPaint was a graphics program capable of both bitmap painting and vector drawing simultaneously. It was originally written by William Snyder, published by Silicon Beach Software and originally released in 1986 for the Apple Macintosh. William Snyder wrote and designed the program from his house...
2.0 paint and draw program.
Design
Jerry Manock
Jerrold C. Manock is an American industrial designer. He worked for Apple Computer from 1977 to 1984, contributing to housing designs for the Apple II, Apple III, and earlier compact Apple Macintosh computers. Manock is widely regarded as the "father" of the Apple Industrial Design Group...
's and Terry Oyama's Macintosh 128K
Macintosh 128K
The Macintosh 128K machine, released as the "Apple Macintosh", was the original Apple Macintosh personal computer. Its beige case contained a monitor and came with a keyboard and mouse. An indentation in the top of the case made it easier for the computer to be lifted and carried. It had a selling...
industrial design, bringing back some elements of the original, while retaining little of the Snow White design language
Snow White design language
The Snow White design language was an industrial design language developed by Hartmut Esslinger's Frog Design. Used by Apple Computer from 1984 to 1990, the scheme has vertical and horizontal stripes for decoration, ventilation, and the illusion that the computer enclosure is smaller than it...
used in the Macintosh SE
Macintosh SE
The Macintosh SE was a personal computer manufactured by Apple between March 1987 and October 1990. This computer marked a significant improvement on the Macintosh Plus design and was introduced by Apple at the same time as the Macintosh II....
's design. The only remnant of the SE was the stripe across the front panel (bezel) for the floppy drive; the distinctive front bezel lines of the SE were not used on the Classic, and the vertical lines around its base were replaced by four horizontal vent lines, more reminiscent of the original design. Also, the curve of the front bezel was increased to the same 50 inches (1.3 m) radial curve as on the front of both the Macintosh LC
Macintosh LC
The Macintosh LC was Apple Computer's product family of low-end consumer Macintosh personal computers in the early 1990s. The original Macintosh LC was released in 1990 and was the first affordable color-capable Macintosh. Due to its affordability and Apple II compatibility the LC was adopted...
and Macintosh IIsi
Macintosh IIsi
The Macintosh IIsi was a compact three-box desktop unit, effectively a cut-down Macintosh IIci in a smaller case , made cheaper by the redesign of the motherboard and the deletion of all but one of the expansion card slots...
. The screen brightness dial on this bezel was also removed in favor of a software control. This curved front bezel became a signature of Apple product design for much of the 1990s.
The logic board
Motherboard
In personal computers, a motherboard is the central printed circuit board in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, providing connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard, system board, or, on Apple...
, the central circuit board of the computer, was based on the Macintosh SE design. Its size, however, was reduced using surface mount technology
Surface-mount technology
Surface mount technology is a method for constructing electronic circuits in which the components are mounted directly onto the surface of printed circuit boards . An electronic device so made is called a surface mount device...
to 9×5 inches (23×13 cm), half the size of the SE board. This redesign, and the absence of expansion slots, kept manufacturing costs low. This lack of expansion abilities, along with the small screen size and Macintosh's popularity in the burgeoning field of desktop publishing
Desktop publishing
Desktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
led to such oddities as video displays which connected through the SCSI
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
port by users seeking to connect a larger full- or dual-page display to their Mac.The Classic design was used once more in 1991 for the Classic II
Macintosh Classic II
The Apple Macintosh Classic II replaced the Macintosh SE/30 in the compact Macintosh line in 1991. Like the SE/30, the Classic II was powered by a 16 MHz Motorola 68030 CPU and 40 or 80 MB hard disk, but in contrast to its predecessor, it was limited by a 16-bit data bus and a 10 MB memory...
, which succeeded the Classic and replaced the Macintosh SE/30
Macintosh SE/30
The Macintosh SE/30 is a personal computer that was designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1989 until 1991. It was the fastest and most expandable of the original black-and-white compact Macintosh series....
.
Reception
Some reviewers of the Macintosh Classic focused on the processor performance and lack of expansion slots. Liza Schafer of Home Office Computing praised the Classic's ease of use and price, but criticized the 9 inches (228.6 mm) display because a full US letter page (8½ × 11 inches) would not fit at full size, and warned those who required high-end graphics and desktop publishingDesktop publishing
Desktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
capabilities against buying the Classic. Schafer concluded: "The Classic's value is more impressive than its performance, but its performance will get you working on that novel, database, or spreadsheet." PC Week
EWeek
eWeek is a weekly computing business magazine published by Ziff Davis Enterprise.The magazine consists of a print publication and web site covering enterprise topics and is targeted at IT professionals rather than hobbyists.-Audience:The eWeek audience is actively involved in buying enterprise...
criticized the lack of a faster processor, stating, "The 7.8 MHz speed is adequate for text applications and limited graphics work, but it is not suitable for power users. As such, the Classic is appropriate as a home computer or for limited computing on the road." Similarly, PC User
PC User
PC User is an Australian general computer magazine, published by Australian Consolidated Press. It was first published in 1990 and is issued monthly. It is Australia's best selling computer magazine, with over 350,000 readers and 60,000 copies sold each month...
s review concluded, "The slow processor and lack of expansion slots on the Macintosh Classic offset the low prices." MacWEEK described it as a "fine, inexpensive replacement for the Macintosh Plus that best embodies the original Macintosh vision six and a half years later".
In the February 1991 edition of Electronic Learning, Robert McCarthy wrote: "Teachers, educational administrators and software developers are enthusiastic about the new, lower cost Apple Macintosh computers". Steve Taffe, manager of instructional strategy at MECC
MECC
The Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium , most commonly known as MECC, was an organization founded in 1973. The goal of the organization was to coordinate and provide computer services to schools in the state of Minnesota; however, its software eventually became popular in schools around...
, a developer and publisher of educational software, explained his excitement about the Classic: "[it] is terrific – both because it's a Mac and because of that low price. Everyone can now afford a Macintosh." Scholastic, an education software developer, was also confident of Apple's ability to compete with MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
machines, stating: "They are just as cost-effective and as powerful as MS-DOS computers, but the Apples will have a superior comfort-level." Sue Talley, Apple's manager of strategic planning in education, said of the Classic: "we see it going into applications where you need a fair number of powerful stations, but where color is not a big issue." Talley mentioned that it was most suited for writing labs and other basic productivity uses. Many schools decided not to buy Classics because of the lack of a color monitor, an option which the higher priced Macintosh LC had.
Specifications
| Component | Specification |
|---|---|
| Display Computer display A monitor or display is an electronic visual display for computers. The monitor comprises the display device, circuitry, and an enclosure... |
9 inches (22.9 cm) monochrome Monochrome Monochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or shades of one color. A monochromatic object or image has colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white... CRT Cathode ray tube The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and... display, 512 × 342 pixel resolution |
| Storage Computer storage Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to computer components and recording media that retain digital data. Data storage is one of the core functions and fundamental components of computers.... |
40 MB Megabyte The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000... SCSI SCSI Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it... hard disk drive optional, Built-in SuperDrive SuperDrive SuperDrive is a trademark used by Apple Inc. for two different storage drives: from 1988–99 to refer to a high-density floppy disk drive capable of reading all major 3.5" disk formats; and from 2001 onwards to refer to a combined CD/DVD reader/writer.... 3.5 in floppy disk drive |
| Processor Central processing unit The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in... |
8 MHz Motorola 68000 Motorola 68000 The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor... |
| Bus Speed | 8 MHz |
| Random Access Memory Ram -Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another... |
1 MB Megabyte The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000... , expandable to 2 or 4 MB using 120 ns 30-pin SIMM SIMM A SIMM, or single in-line memory module, is a type of memory module containing random access memory used in computers from the early 1980s to the late 1990s. It differs from a dual in-line memory module , the most predominant form of memory module today, in that the contacts on a SIMM are redundant... s and optional custom RAM-slot expansion card |
| Read-only Memory Read-only memory Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only... |
512 KB Kilobyte The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information... |
| Networking | AppleTalk AppleTalk AppleTalk is a proprietary suite of protocols developed by Apple Inc. for networking computers. It was included in the original Macintosh released in 1984, but is now unsupported as of the release of Mac OS X v10.6 in 2009 in favor of TCP/IP networking... |
| Battery Battery (electricity) An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power... |
3.6 V lithium Lithium battery Lithium batteries are disposable batteries that have lithium metal or lithium compounds as an anode. Depending on the design and chemical compounds used, lithium cells can produce voltages from 1.5 V to about 3.7 V, over twice the voltage of an ordinary zinc–carbon battery or alkaline battery... |
| Physical dimensions Dimensions Dimensions is a French project that makes educational movies about mathematics, focusing on spatial geometry. It uses POV-Ray to render some of the animations, and the films are release under a Creative Commons licence.... |
depth by width by height) 16 lb (7.26 kg) |
| Port connections | 1× ADB Apple Desktop Bus Apple Desktop Bus is an obsolete bit-serial computer bus connecting low-speed devices to computers. Used primarily on the Macintosh platform, ADB equipment is still available but not supported by most Apple hardware manufactured since 1999.... (keyboard Apple keyboard The Apple Keyboard is a keyboard designed by Apple first for the Apple line, then the Macintosh line of computers. It is available in both wired and Bluetooth models.- Layout :... , mouse Apple Mouse The Apple Mouse began as one of the first commercial mice available to consumers. Over the years Apple has maintained a distinct form and function with its mice that reflects its design philosophies.-Features:... ) 2× mini-DIN-8 RS-422 serial port Serial port In computing, a serial port is a serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time... s (printer, modem, AppleTalk AppleTalk AppleTalk is a proprietary suite of protocols developed by Apple Inc. for networking computers. It was included in the original Macintosh released in 1984, but is now unsupported as of the release of Mac OS X v10.6 in 2009 in favor of TCP/IP networking... ) 1× DB-19 DB-19 The DB-19 is a D-subminiature connector found on the Apple Macintosh, NeXT and some Atari computers, and is generally used to connect external floppy disk drives or hard drives to the computer.... (ext. floppy drive) 1× DB-25 SCSI SCSI Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it... connector (ext. hard drive, scanner) 1× 3.5 mm Headphone jack socket |
| Expansion slots | none |
| Audio | 8-bit mono Monaural Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or channels are fed from a common signal path... 22 kHz Sampling rate The sampling rate, sample rate, or sampling frequency defines the number of samples per unit of time taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal. For time-domain signals, the unit for sampling rate is hertz , sometimes noted as Sa/s... |
| Gestalt ID Gestalt (Mac OS) Gestalt was the name of a system call introduced into the Apple Macintosh operating system System Software 6.0.4 in 1989 to allow applications to dynamically query what capabilities were present in the running system configuration.... |
17 (computer identification code) |
| Codename | XO |
See also
- Basilisk IIBasilisk IIBasilisk II is an open source software emulator which emulates the 680x0-based Apple Macintosh computer on a variety of operating systems, including BeOS, Linux, AmigaOS, Windows NT, Mac OS X and even on the Sony PSP....
, emulator with limited support - Mini vMac, emulator capable of booting from the ROM disk
- List of Macintosh models by case type
- List of products discontinued by Apple Inc.
- List of Macintosh models grouped by CPU type
External links
- Macintosh Classic technical specifications at apple.com
- Classic information page mac512.com