Macintosh SE

The Macintosh SE is a personal computer made by Apple Computer from March 1987 to October 1990. It was the fourth model in the Macintosh line and improved the design of the earlier Macintosh Plus. It came out at the same time as the Macintosh II.

The SE looked like older compact Macs, but it was faster and had more features. Apple also released a better version in 1989 called the Macintosh SE/30. Later that year, they added a special floppy drive called the "SuperDrive" that could read high-density disks. That version was called the "Macintosh SE FDHD" and later "Macintosh SE SuperDrive".

The SE was replaced by the Macintosh Classic, which had a similar look but was cheaper.

 Overview 
Apple introduced the Macintosh SE at an event in Los Angeles on March 2, 1987. "SE" means "System Expansion".

New features compared to the Macintosh Plus:
 First compact Mac with space for a hard drive or a second floppy drive.
 First with a slot for upgrade cards.
 First Mac to support the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) for keyboard and mouse.
 Faster connection for external devices using SCSI.
 Built-in cooling fan for better reliability.
 10–20% faster performance due to improved RAM access.
 Extra fonts and text spacing tools in the system ROM.
 Included the Disk First Aid tool.

Unlike earlier Macs, the SE didn’t come with a keyboard. Buyers could choose from the regular Apple Keyboard or the bigger Apple Extended Keyboard.

Apple also made ten clear (see-through) SEs as prototypes for photos and employees. These are very rare and valuable.

 Operating system 
The SE came with System 4.0 and Finder 5.4. These versions were made just for this computer. Later, they were named "System Software 2.0.1".

References

Other websites
 1987 Apple promo video "Own-a-Mac - The Movie"
 The Mac SE Support Pages (Archived)
 Mac SE at Low End Mac

Category:Apple hardware