Macintosh IIvx

Macintosh IIvx
Release date October 19, 1992 (1992-10-19)
Introductory price US$2,950 (equivalent to $4,983 in 2015)
Discontinued October 21, 1993 (1993-10-21)
Operating system System 7.1, System 7.1.1-Mac OS 7.6.1
CPU Motorola 68030 @ 32 MHz
Memory 4 MB, expandable to 68 MB (80 ns 30-pin SIMM)

The Macintosh IIvx (code name Brazil) is the last of the Macintosh II series of Macintosh computers from Apple Computer. The IIvx included either a 40, 80, 160 or 400 MB hard drive, three NuBus slots, and a Processor Direct Slot. It was the first Macintosh to have a metal case and the first case design of any personal computer to provide for an internal CD-ROM drive.[1][2] An internal double-speed CD-ROM drive which used a disc caddy was available as an option from Apple.

History

The Mac IIvx began its life in development as a proof-of-concept to see how an internal CD-ROM drive could be added to a Mac. But after Apple CEO John Sculley gave a speech at MacWorld Tokyo which promised a Mac with a CD-ROM drive, the IIvx was rushed into production.[3] Several shortcuts were taken in its design; most notably, its 32 MHz processor was crippled by a 16 MHz bus, making it slightly slower than the popular but aging Macintosh IIci.[4] Its serial port was limited to 57.6 kbit/s, which could cause problems with serial connections and MIDI hardware. The Macintosh IIvi (a slower version of the IIvx with a 16MHz processor) was introduced at the same time but discontinued only four months later. The high-end member of the original Performa family, the Performa 600 was also based on the same architecture. The IIvx was the only model in the series with a 32K L2 cache.

Industrial design

The Macintosh IIvx has the same chassis as the Centris 650 (later known as the Quadra 650). It can be upgraded to this machine by a simple logic board swap.

Legacy

The much-more-powerful Macintosh Centris 650 was released four months after the IIvx for $250 less, immediately rendering the IIvx obsolete. The IIvx's base price was slashed by over a third and it would remain on sale for another eight months.[4] For a while afterwards, people who bought an expensive Mac that quickly became outdated were said to have been "IIvx-ed".[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Macintosh IIvx".
  2. ↑ "The Macintosh IIvx".
  3. 1 2 O'Grady, Jason D. (2008). Apple Inc. (Corporations That Changed the World). ABC-CLIO. ISBN 0-313-36244-0.
  4. 1 2 "Macintosh IIvx". Low End Mac.
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