The
Personal Computer replaced the
Macintosh Plus and was introduced by
Apple at the same time as the
Macintosh II .
It had a similar case to the
Original Macintosh computer, but with slight differences in colour and styling.
The SE's notable new features, compared to its similar predecessor the
Macintosh Plus , were:
- First Compact Macintosh with space for an internal hard disk (originally 20 MB or 40 MB), or, if the user preferred, dual floppy drives.
- First compact Macintosh that featured an expansion slot (SE stood for "System Expansion").
- Used the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB), introduced with the Apple IIGS , for keyboard and mouse interface.
- Improved SCSI support with faster data throughput.
Originally the SE could use only Single Density (SD) (400 KB) and Double Density (DD) (800 KB) formatted floppy disks. In August 1989, Apple introduced the with the new
SuperDrive , a floppy disk drive that could handle 1.4 MB High Density (HD) floppy disks. HD floppies would become the de- facto standard on both the Macintosh and PC computers from then on.
After Apple introduced the
Macintosh SE/30 in January 1989, they sold an SE/30 motherboard as a high-cost upgrade for the SE. The SE was discontinued in October 1990, with the introduction of the
Macintosh Classic to succeed it.
- Apple produced a few SEs with clear cases. Around 10 of them were made for promotional shots and a few employees. They are extremely rare and command a premium price for collectors.
