Macintosh Classic

Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.

The featured article for Wednesday, 14 September 2022 is Macintosh Classic.

The Macintosh Classic is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from October 1990 to September 1992. It was the first Macintosh to sell for less than US$1,000. Production of the Classic was prompted by the success of the original Macintosh 128K, then the Macintosh Plus and finally the Macintosh SE. The system specifications of the Classic are very similar to its predecessors, with the same 9-inch (23 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 newer CPU, higher RAM capacity or color display resulted in criticism from reviewers, with Macworld describing it as having "nothing to gloat about beyond its low price" and "unexceptional". But it ensured compatibility with the Mac's by-then healthy software base as well as enabled it to fit the lower price Apple intended for it. And, the Classic did feature 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-inch (9 cm) floppy disk drive as standard. Unlike the Macintosh SE/30 and other compact Macs before it, the Classic does not have an internal Processor Direct Slot, making it the first non-expandable desktop Macintosh since the Macintosh Plus. Instead, it has a memory expansion/FPU slot.

The Classic is 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. The 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.





This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:04 UTC on Wednesday, 14 September 2022.

For the full current version of the article, see Macintosh Classic on Wikipedia.

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This has been Matthew Standard. Thank you for listening to featured Wiki of the Day.