Apple Macintosh Plus

Summary

With the Macintosh, Apple promised to “free the world from the clutches of a totalitarian power”, taking aim at IBM. Ridley Scott’s dark commercial for the computer declared that “1984 won’t be like 1984”, alluding to George Orwell’s novel.

The technique tailored to creative users packed Apple in a tasteful cubic housing. It has a Motorola 68000 CPU, 128 KiB memory and a 3.5-inch disk drive with 400 KiB storage. The integrated monitor measures 9 inches and has a resolution of 512 x 342 pixels. The graphics are black and white, the sound is mono, which is why the computer seems unsuitable as a play device.

At its January 1984 launch, the Mac cost around 2500 USD. Its 128 KiB of memory was limited for a computer with a graphical interface and proved a major weakness. The Macintosh 512K therefore followed in September. The Macintosh Plus appeared in 1986 with a numeric keypad. With a production run of 4 years and 10 months, it was Apple’s longest-produced Mac.

At first the case was beige, later platinum grey. The fan does not have the Macintosh Plus, so the vents at the top and bottom of the case must remain free, otherwise the device quickly overheats.

The Macintosh Plus is the first Macintosh that can be expanded internally by plug-in modules. Thus, the Mac can be expanded from 1 MiB to 4 MiB, although it is already better equipped with 1 MB than its predecessors. A larger ROM of 128 instead of 64 KiB also removes it from its predecessors, as well as a SCSI interface. A Motorola 68000 with 8 MHz clock frequency is installed as a processor. Although the Mac has connection options for a 5.25 inch drive, this must not be used, as this can damage the controller. Therefore, 3.5 inch drives and Apple Super Drives are to be used.

At its launch, the Macintosh Plus cost USD 2599. The successor is Macintosh SE.