🚀 go-pugleaf

Well, Apple finally announced the introduction of the new Mac SE/30 on Thursday
at MacWorld.  Since people on the net don't like ful press releases, here are
the major points:
 
Up to 4 times the speed of the Macintosh SE
Includes the FDHD drive that will read almost anything
Uses the Motorola 68030 (16MHz, not 8 as rumored on the net) microprocessor
  and 68882 math coprocessor (CPU is up to 4 times faster than SE; FP processor
  could add up to 100 times improvement over SE)
Has expansion capability up to 8MB of SIMM memory.
An upgrade kit will be available (in the spring) to current
  Macintosh SE users who want Macintosh SE/30 functionality.
CPU has separate 256-byte data and instruction caches.
 
The Macintosh SE/30 expansion slot architecture supports new types of
advanced expansion options not previously available on a compact Macintosh,
such as video, memory parity, high-speed communications and sound.
 
Several well-known hardware developers have already endorsed the 030
Direct Slot and are introducing products at MacWorld.  These cards expand
Macintosh SE/30 customers' options in networking and communications, allow the
addition of external color and gray-scale monitors, and let users work with
digital signal processing (DSP) based sound.  These companies include:  Avatar
Corporation, Creative Solutions, Digital Communications Associates, DigiDesign
Inc., Dove Computer Corporation, Epic Technology, Kinetics, MacPEAK Systems,
Micron Technology, and SuperMac Technology.  (See attachment for details.)
 
In addition to other advances, the Macintosh SE/30 includes an Apple
custom sound chip on the motherboard that provides four-voice stereo sound
capability and compatibility with sound applications.
 
 
Configurations:

1MB of RAM and a single 1.4MB FDHD floppy disk drive ($4369 retail)
1MB (does not agree with product sheet) of RAM and an internal 40MB hard disk
  ($4,869 retail)
4MB of RAM and an 80MB internal hard disk ($6,569)
Both hard disk configurations include the FDHD.  Keyboard options and other
peripheral devices are packaged and sold separately.
 
The upgrade kit for Macintosh SE users includes a Macintosh SE/30 logic
board and chassis.  Customers who upgrade to Macintosh SE/30 functionality, can
also elect to upgrade their internal floppy disk drive to 1.4MB capacity using
the optional FDHD Upgrade Kit.


Well, that about covers it.  If you haven't heard, Apple also announced A/UX
1.1, with the availability of an X windows package, price reductions on
memory upgrades, hard disks, Mac IIs, Mac IIx, and the 2MB Mac SE, new
developer services, new versions of MacWorkstation, MPW, System/Finder,
Apple File Exchange, etc.

Sounds like it is going to be a good year...

Michael Niehaus
Ball State University