The Macintosh 512K ''enhanced'' (512Ke) was introduced in April 1986 as a cheaper alternative to the top-of-the-line Macintosh Plus, which had debuted three months previously. It is the same as the

Macintosh 512K The Macintosh 512K is a personal computer that was designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from September 1984 to April 1986. It is the first update to the original Macintosh 128K. It was virtually identical to the previous Macintos ...

but with the 800K disk drive and 128K of

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

used in the Macintosh Plus. Like its predecessors, it has little room for expansion. Some companies did create memory upgrades that brought the machine up to 2 MB or more.

Model differences

Originally, the case was identical to its predecessor, except for the model number listed on the rear bucket's agency approval label. It used the same beige-like color as well. Later in its lifespan, the 512Ke was discounted and offered to the educational market, badged as the ''Macintosh ED'' (M0001D & later M0001ED). The 512Ke shipped with the original short Macintosh Keyboard, but the extended Macintosh Plus Keyboard with built-in numeric keypad could be purchased optionally. A version of the 512Ke only sold outside of North America included the full keyboard and was marketed as the ''Macintosh 512K/800''. Later, the larger keyboard would be included as standard in North America as well. Although the 512Ke includes the same 128K ROMs and 800K disk drive as the Mac Plus, the 512Ke retains the same port connectors as the original Mac. For this reason, 512Ke users' only hard disk option is the slower, floppy-port-based Hard Disk 20, or similar products for the serial port, even though the 512Ke ROMs contain the "SCSI Manager" software that enables the use of faster

SCSI Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices, best known for its use with storage devices such as hard disk drives. SCSI was introduced ...

hard disks (because the ROMs are the same as the ones used in the Mac Plus, which does have a SCSI port). Apple did point users to certain third-party products which could be added to the 512Ke to provide a SCSI port.

Official upgrades

could be upgraded to a 512Ke by purchasing and installing Apple's $299 '' Macintosh Plus Disk Drive Kit''. This included the following: * 800 KB double-sided floppy disk drive to replace the original 400 KB single-sided drive * 128 KB ROM chips to replace original 64 KB ROM * Macintosh Plus System Tools disk with updated system software * Installation guide One further upgrade made by Apple replaced the

logic board A motherboard, also called a mainboard, a system board, a logic board, and informally a mobo (see "Nomenclature" section), is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expandable systems. It holds and allow ...

and the rear case (to accommodate the different port configuration) with those of the Macintosh Plus, providing built-in

functionality and up to 4 MB

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

. Because Apple's official upgrades were costly, many third-party manufacturers offered add-on SCSI cards, as well as RAM upgrades, to achieve the same functionality. The new ROM allowed the computer to run much newer system and application software; though it loaded more data into RAM, it only slightly decreased the amount of available memory – by 1.5 KB – leaving well over 370 KB available for applications.

System software

After June 1986, the 512Ke shipped with System 3.2. After it was discontinued, Apple changed the recommended OS for the 512Ke to System 4.1. System 6.0.8 is the maximum OS for the 512Ke.Macintosh 512Ke: Technical Specifications
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Timeline

References

External links