Macintosh Color Classic

Mac_specs|
February 10 1993
October 01 1993 (CC II)|MSRP=1400|CPU=Motorola 68030
CPUspeed=16 MHz
33 MHz (CC II)|OS=System 7.1-Mac OS 7.6.1|RAM=4 MB, expandable to 10 MB/36 MB (CC II)|RAMtype=80 ns 72-pin SIMM
Discontinued=May 16, 1994
May 16, 1995 [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E02E0D61631F937A1575BC0A9669C8B63 A Long-Discontinued Macintosh Still Thrills Collectors to the Core - New York Times ] ] (CC II)The Macintosh Color Classic was the first color compact Apple Macintosh computer. It was essentially a Macintosh LC II with an integrated 10" Sony Trinitron color display with same 512×384 pixel resolution as an LC II with the Macintosh 12” RGB monitor. This integrated unit resembled the original Mac series, albeit slightly expanded, (see Macintosh Plus for an example), hence "Classic." In Japan and some other markets - but not the US - Apple later released the Color Classic II which was essentially the same case but with the LC 550 logicboard that doubled both RAM and speed. The Color Classic was also sold to consumers in the United States as the Performa 250, and the Color Classic II as Performa 275. The Color Classic was the final model of the original "compact" Macintosh family of computers.

Features

Like the Macintosh SE and SE/30 before it, the Color Classic did come with a single expansion slot: an LC-type Processor Direct Slot (PDS), otherwise incompatible with the SE slots. This was primarily intended for the Apple IIe Card (the primary reason for the Color Classic's switchable 560x384 display, essentially double the IIe's 280x192 High-Resolution graphics), which was offered with education models of the LCs. The card allowed the LCs to emulate an Apple IIe. The combination of the low-cost color Macintosh and Apple IIe compatibility was intended to encourage the education market's transition from Apple II models to Macintoshes. Other cards, such as CPU accelerators, ethernet and video cards were also made available for the Color Classic's PDS slot.

Legacy

The Color Classic has a certain cult following, and some enthusiasts have upgraded them with motherboards from Performa 575 units ("Mystic" upgrade), while others have put entire Power Macintosh innards into them ("Takky" upgrade). A common modification to this unit was to change the display to allow 640 × 480 resolution, which was a common requirement for many programs (especially games) to run.

The Color Classic series was eventually replaced by the larger-display LC 5x0 & 5xx0 series and ultimately paved the way for the iMac, which embodied much of the same passion and enthusiasm the original Macintosh and Color Classic generate among their fans.

ee also

* Macintosh Classic II
* Macintosh LC 520

References

External links

* [http://good.no-ip.info/~Sing/index Slice-2 in Hong Kong (broken link) ]
* [http://www.stuartbell.dsl.pipex.com/PowerCC/ Power Colour Classic site] , World of Power Colour Classic
* [http://www.colourclassicfaq.com/ Colour Classic FAQ]
* [http://www.mac512.com/macwebpages/cclassic.htm Color Classic Information pages] at Mac512.com
* [http://www.lowendmac.com/compact/macintosh-color-classic.html Color Classic profile] at Low End Mac
* [http://www.lowendmac.com/compact/macintosh-color-classic-ii.html Colour Classic II profile] at Low End Mac
* [http://homepage.mac.com/patrickng/macquarium/ Color Classic Forever]
* [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=112200 Macintosh Color Classic technical specifications] at apple.com
* [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=112236 Macintosh Color Classic II technical specifications] at apple.comNavbox with columns
name = Navbox with columns/doc
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title = Apple Model Navigation

colstyle = text-align:center;background:silver;
colwidth = 25%

col1header = Replaced
col2header = Current Model
col3header = Successor

col1 = Macintosh Classic II
col2 = Macintosh Color Classic
col3 = Macintosh LC 520

col1footer = Preceding Family Model
col2footer = February 10, 1993
col3footer = Following Family Model