The was the first personal computer model of the
Macintosh II Series in the
Apple Macintosh line. (Not to be confused with the
Apple II Family of non-Macintosh computers.)
Retailing for US$3,898 base price, the Macintosh II was the first "modular" Macintosh model, so called because it came in a standard desktop case. All previous Macintosh computers used an
All-in-one Design With A Built-in Black-and-white Monitor . The Mac II allowed Macintosh users a choice of larger displays, color displays, and even multiple displays. The Macintosh II was designed by hardware engineers
Michael Dhuey (computer) and
Brian Berkeley (monitor).
Introduced in 1987, the Mac II featured a
Motorola 68020 processor operating at 16
MHz teamed with a
Motorola 68881 Floating Point Unit . Standard memory was 1 megabyte, expandable to 68 MB, though not without the special FDHD upgrade kit; otherwise, 20 MB was the maximum. RAM could be maxed out to 128 MB, however, if the ROMs were upgraded to those used in the IIx (or if
MODE32 was used), as the Mac II's
Memory Controller supported higher-density memory modules than did the stock ROM. The Mac II had eight 30-pin SIMMs, and memory was installed in groups of four. A 5.25-inch 40 MB internal
SCSI hard disk was optional, as was a second internal 800 kilobyte 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. Six
NuBus slots were available for expansion (at least one of which had to be used for a
Graphics Card , as the Mac II had no onboard graphics). The Mac II was the first Macintosh with color graphics capabilities.
The Macintosh II was followed by a
Series of confusingly-named modular Macintosh II models including the
Macintosh IIx and
Macintosh IIfx , all of which used the
Motorola 68030 processor. It was possible to upgrade a Macintosh II to a Macintosh IIx or IIfx with a motherboard swap. The Macintosh II was the first Macintosh to have the
Chimes Of Death accompany the
Sad Mac logo whenever a serious hardware error occurred.
