Apple Macintosh Macintosh, now known simply as Mac in all official capacities, is a family of personal computers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, California, USA. Named after the McIntosh, a type of apple favoured by Jef Raskin, the Macintosh was launched in January 1984 with a famous Super Bowl commercial. It was the first computer to popularize the graphical user interface (GUI), at that time a revolutionary development in desktop computing. Architecture The operating system, originally called the System Software or System, officially became known as the Mac OS as of version 7.6 (although strictly speaking, version 7.5.1, being the first to display the Mac OS logo, is the first version of the Mac OS under that name). In March 2001, Apple introduced a modern and more secure Unix-based successor, Mac OS X (the X is pronounced "ten", being a roman numeral). From its inception, the Macintosh has introduced or popularized a number of innovations adopted later by other PCs and operating systems. Innovations introduced or popularized with the original Macintosh: A graphical user interface, icons, a desktop, etc. The use of a mouse or other pointing device in personal computing (later, the standardization of an optical mouse on all desktop machines) The "double click" and "click-and-drag" behaviors to perform actions with a pointing device WYSIWYG text and graphics editing ("what you see is what you get") Long file names, with whitespace and no file extension (up to 31 characters before Mac OS X, and expanded to 255 characters under Mac OS X) The 3.5" floppy disk as a standard feature Audio as a standard feature, including a built-in audio-quality speaker Aesthetic and ergonomical industrial design (improved with later models, particularly the original iMac in 1998) Innovations introduced or popularized with later Macintosh models or software: The PostScript laser printer Desktop publishing User programmability through HyperCard and AppleScript The SCSI interface (Mac Plus, 1986) Audio input as a standard feature (Mac IIsi & Mac LC, 1990) A CD-ROM drive as a standard feature (Quadra 900, 1991) A single desktop environment that may span multiple monitors Ethernet support as standard feature (Quadra 700 & 900, 1991) FireWire, also known as IEEE 1394, an Apple-developed standard also promoted by Sony under the name iLink (Blue and White G3, 1998) IEEE 802.11b and IEEE 802.11g wireless networking, branded AirPort, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Express by Apple (original iBook, 1999) The abandonment of the floppy disk (original iMac, 1998) The first commercially available computer to rely primarily on USB for peripheral connection (original iMac, 1998) A modern RISC-based architecture in the form of the PowerPC processor, developed jointly by Apple, IBM and Motorola (Power Macintosh 6100, 1994) The first affordable DVD-R drive ("SuperDrive", Power Mac G4, 2000) Flat-panel displays as a standard feature (iMac G4, 2002) First notebook computers with built-in pointing devices and rear-mounted keyboards (PowerBook 100 series, 1991) First notebook computer with dock/port replicator (PowerBook Duo, 1992) First notebook computer with widescreen display (PowerBook G4, 2000) First 64-bit personal computer (PowerMac G5, 2003) History The Macintosh project started in early 1979 with Jef Raskin, who envisioned an easy-to-use, low-cost computer for the average consumer. His ideas were collected into The Book of Macintosh. Notable is Raskin's insistence on using meta-keys, rather than a mouse, to act as a pointing device. Raskin, in September 1979, was given permission to start hiring for the project and was, in particular, looking for an engineer that could put together a prototype. Bill Atkinson, a member of the Lisa team, introduced him to Burrell Smith, a service technician who had been hired earlier that year. Smith had already impressed Atkinson with his ingenious solution to a memory overflow problem. Reportedly, Atkinson told Raskin, "Jef, this is Burrell. He's the guy who's going to design your Macintosh for you." http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Well_See_About_That.txt Smith's first Macintosh board design was to Raskin's specifications; it had a 64K memory, used the slow Motorola 6809E microprocessor, and had a 256 by 256 black and white bitmap display. Bud Tribble, a Macintosh programmer, was interested in running the Lisa's graphical programs on the Macintosh and asked Smith if he could incorporate the Lisa's Motorola 68000 microprocessor into the Macintosh while still keeping the cost down. By December 1980 Smith had succeeded in inventing a board design that not only utilized the 68000, but speeded it up from 5 MHz to 8 MHz; it also had a 384 by 256 bitmap display. Smith's design used fewer RAM chips than the Lisa and consequently was much cheaper. http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Five_Different_Macs.txt The innovative design caught the attention of Steve Jobs. Realizing that the Macintosh was more marketable than the Lisa, he began focusing his attentions on the project and its members. In January 1981 he completely took over the project, forcing Raskin to take a leave of absence. Jobs and a number of Apple engineers visited Xerox PARC in December 1979, three months after the Lisa and Macintosh projects had begun. After hearing about the pioneering GUI technology being developed at Xerox PARC from former Xerox employees such as Jef Raskin, Steve Jobs negotiated a visit to see the Xerox Alto computer and Smalltalk development tools in exchange for Apple stock options. There is debate over the degree of impact that this visit had on Apple's products -- Apple's GUIs ended up working and looking differently from the PARC GUIs, and GUIs had been an active area of computing research since the late 1960s -- but it is clear that the Xerox visits were extremely influential on the development of the Lisa and Macintosh. See History of the GUI. The Macintosh's predecessor, the Lisa computer, was introduced in January 1983 for a price of $9,995.00 with many of the GUI-related innovations later seen on the Macintosh. It was aimed at business customers but was too much of a hard sell at the time; it was not a success for Apple, and the line was discontinued in 1986. The Macintosh was introduced on January 22, 1984, with a famous Super Bowl commercial featuring a female athlete throwing a hammer through a giant TV screen image of a dictator ("Big Brother", alluding to the tyrant character of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, and to the dominant computer maker at that time: IBM, colloquially known in the industry as "Big Blue"). The Mac went on sale two days later for a price of $2,495.00. Although the Mac garnered an immediate enthusiastic following, it was too radical for some. Because the machine was entirely designed around the GUI, existing text-mode and command-driven programs had to be redesigned and rewritten, a challenging undertaking that many software developers shied away from, which initially led to a lack of software for the new system. In 1985, the combination of the Mac and its GUI with Aldus Pagemaker and Apple's LaserWriter printer enabled a low-cost solution for designing and previewing printed material, an activity that came to be known as desktop publishing. Interest in the Mac exploded, and it has continued to be the standard platform for publishing and printing houses. By the early 1990s, it was thought by some that RISC-architecture CPUs would soon dramatically outpace the speed increases occurring over the same time in CISC CPUs such as the Macintosh's Motorola 68000 series and Intel's x86 series. The AIM alliance of Apple Computer, IBM, and Motorola was announced to create a series of RISC CPUs called the PowerPC. Existing Macintosh software that had been written for the 68000 series CPUs -- including some large sections of the Mac OS -- were made to run with a software emulator. The PowerPC remains the Macintosh CPU to date, although the architectural benefits and speed differences of RISC versus CISC remain controversial. In 1995, Apple started the Macintosh clone program in order to regain lost market share in the desktop computer market. This program has since been cancelled. In 2000, the Macintosh made a second fundamental change, this time in its operating system, by switching to the Mach and BSD Unix-based Mac OS X. Models (in no particular order) (See also List of Macintosh models grouped by CPU) eMac iBook iMac Macintosh 128K (the original) Macintosh 512K (aka the "fat Mac") Macintosh XL Macintosh II Macintosh Plus Macintosh LC series Macintosh SE Macintosh SE/30 Macintosh IIx Macintosh IIcx Macintosh IIci Macintosh IIsi Macintosh IIfx Macintosh Performa Macintosh TV Macintosh Quadra Macintosh Centris Macintosh Classic Macintosh Color Classic Macintosh Portable PowerBook PowerBook Duo PowerBook G3 PowerBook G4 Power Macintosh Power Macintosh G3 Power Mac G4 Power Mac G4 Cube Power Mac G5 Xserve See also AirPort networking AppleScript HyperCard Apple v. Microsoft Carbon programming Cocoa programming Firewire Andy Hertzfeld List of Macintosh software .Mac Macworld Conference & Expo WYSIWYG External links Articles from Jef Raskin about the history of the Macintosh Anecdotes about the history of the Macintosh (folklore.org) The Macintosh Clones All Mac models, with specs All Mac models, with specs 2 All Mac models, with specs, offline, is a program Making the Macintosh: Technology and Culture in Silicon Valley MyMac.ws Discussion Forum Barefeats real world speed tests simple:Macintosh FAVORITE ARTICLES: History of the World    History of the United States    History of Europe    Ancient History    History    Military History    World War I    Bombing of Dresden    California    US Constitution    Frank Sinatra    Boston    Marbury v. 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