• 1990

Hardware Description

The Macintosh Classic was a personal computer manufactured by Apple Computer. Introduced on October 15, 1990, it was the first Apple Macintosh to sell for less than US$1,000.Production of the Classic was prompted by the success of the Macintosh Plus and the SE. The system specifications of the Classic were very similar to its predecessors, with the same 9-inch (23 cm) monochrome CRT display, 512×342 pixel resolution, and 4 megabyte (MB) memory limit of the older Macintosh computers.Apple's decision to not update the Classic with newer technology such as a 68010 CPU, higher RAM capacity or color display ensured compatibility with the Mac's by-then healthy software base as well as enabled it to fit the lower price-point Apple intended for it. Nevertheless, the Classic featured several improvements over the aging Macintosh Plus, which it replaced as Apple's low-end Mac computer. It was up to 25 percent faster than the Plus and included an Apple SuperDrive 3.5-inch (9 cm) floppy disk drive as standard.