Macintosh II

The Macintosh II

The Mac II series was comprised of eight different computers.

The Macintosh II was first built around a 68020 processor and sold for $6500. It was built under the code name of “Johnathan” and then “Milwaukee”. Ir was expandable with 6 Nubus slots so that it could hold 68 MB RAM, but there was still no video which meant that you needed to install a video card in order to connect a monitor. The Macintosh II was sold from March of 1987 until January of 1990.

Next came the Macintosh IIx. It was faster than the Mac II with a 68030 processor, “spock” memory that could to 128MB. This Mac sold from September 1988 until October of 1990 and sold for $9700 in the beginning.

Then came the Macintosh IIcx. This was a computer that could be set vertically or horizontally. It was easy to assemble, proven by Vice President Jean-Louis Gassee at MacWorld 1989 when he assembled it in one minute. This model sold from March of ’89 to October of ’90. It was codenamed “Aurora”.

The Macintosh IIci (codenamed “Aurora II” and “Pacific”) was the fastest Macintosh ever, up to 50% faster. A video card was no longer needed as circuits were built in. This model was sold from September ’89 to February of 1993.

The Macintosh IIfx was around from March of 1990 to October of 1991. This machine was codenamed “stealth”, “blackbird” and F16″ because of the top speed 40MHZ processor that it contained. It also boasted 32k of static RAM.

Next came the Macintosh IIsi with a grey case, this machine was the one and only time that a grey case was used on an Apple computer. The “Ericson” or “Raffica” computer contained 1MB or RAM soldered right into the Motherboard. You could even record your own voice! The computer was getting much more sophisticated and yet the price was down to $3800.

From October 1992 to October 1993 it was the Macintosh IIvx that was being sold for $2950. This machine had the option of a built in disk drive.

During the same time frame, the Macintosh IIvi was also built but was never sold in the United States. It was the vx model but with 1/2 the speed.