Apple Machintosh SE
I have three main units (two with double disk and one with disk + hd),
two keyboards, two mise, AppleWriter II and external 3.5″ disk.
type computer
country USA
year 1987
os Mac os 5.0
cpu Motorola mc 68000
speed 8 MHz
ram 1MB
rom 256 KB
disk 3,5″ 400/800 KB
hd 20 MB
graphic512 x 384
colors mono
sound tone generator
ports rs 232/422 (2), keyboard, mouse, SCSI DB-25, floppy DB-19
The Apple Macintosh SE — The Mac Gets an Expansion Slot
Released in March 1987, the Macintosh SE was the first compact Macintosh to include an internal expansion slot — the Processor Direct Slot (PDS) — allowing hardware upgrades that the earlier compact Macs could not accommodate. It also introduced a fan (the first in the compact Mac line), improved the internal floppy drive mechanism, and offered the option of an internal hard drive — a significant convenience over the external SCSI drives required by earlier models.
The Expansion Slot
The PDS expansion slot opened the Mac SE to a range of hardware upgrades including accelerator cards (replacing the 8 MHz 68000 with faster processors), Ethernet cards for network connectivity, and additional graphics capabilities. For professional users who needed more than the standard SE offered, the PDS made the machine significantly more versatile than its predecessors and extended its useful life considerably.
The Fan and Reliability
The addition of a cooling fan was controversial among Mac users — the original Macintosh’s fanless operation had been a point of pride for Apple, contributing to the machine’s whisper-quiet operation. The SE’s fan was a compromise between the original Mac’s silence and the thermal requirements of a machine that was increasingly being asked to run for extended periods with hard drives and expansion cards. In practice, the fan was quiet enough to be unobtrusive and significantly improved long-term reliability.
The Computer Museum Ata Collection
The collection holds three Macintosh SE units — two with double floppy drives and one with floppy plus hard drive — along with two keyboards (M0116), two mice (M0100), AppleWriter II software, and an external 3.5-inch disk drive. This represents a comprehensive set of SE configurations as they would have been used in professional environments of the late 1980s.