Macintosh

Apple's 128K Macintosh personal computer, launched January 24, 1984, at $2,495. Pi's coverage tracks the Mac line from its launch through Pi's final issue in 2016.

Specs at launch (Jan 1984)

• Motorola 68000 CPU, 8 MHz
• 128 KB RAM (later "Fat Mac" upgrade to 512 KB in fall 1984)
• 3.5" 400KB floppy drive (single, built-in)
• 9" black-and-white CRT (built-in)
• Detachable keyboard + single-button mouse
• Closed case (no expansion slots — controversial at Pi)
• $2,495 retail

Canonical Pi coverage

• First Look: 1984-02 — V06 N02 — Tom Warrick "The Macintosh: A First Look"
• Engineer's view: 1984-02 — V06 N02 — Tom Riley
• Launch software survey: 1984-02 — V06 N02 — Robert C. Platt "MacSoftware: More than Fast Food"
• First member transfer how-to: 1984-05 — V06 N05 — Donald C. Schmitt "Macintosh (—) Apple ][ Transfer"
• First benchmarks: 1984-05 — V06 N05 — Morganstein + Weikert (BASIC), Norling (general)
• Mac Innards: 1984-10 — V06 N10 + 1984-11 — V06 N11 — Raymond Hobbs 2-part
• Fat Mac 512K upgrade: 1984-12 — V06 N12

Successors

The Mac line evolves through Mac Plus (1986), Mac II/SE (1987), Mac Portable (1989), Power Macintosh (1994), iMac (1998), Intel Macs (2006), and beyond — each line tracked through Pi's coverage.

Connections

• Macintosh Launch 1984 — full topic page on Pi's 1984 launch response
• Apple Lisa — Mac's predecessor; first Pi coverage 1983-03 — V05 N03
• Inside Macintosh — Apple's canonical developer reference; first Pi notice 1984-11 — V06 N11