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Release date October 19, 1992 (1992-10-19) Introductory price US$2,950 (equivalent to $5,035 in 2016) Discontinued October 21, 1993 (1993-10-21) Operating system CPU Motorola 68030 @ 32 MHz Memory 4 MB, expandable to 68 MB (80 ns 30-pin SIMM) | ||
The Macintosh IIvx (code name Brazil) is the last of the Macintosh II series of Macintosh computers from Apple Computer. The IIvx included either a 40, 80, 160 or 400 MB hard drive, three NuBus slots, and a Processor Direct Slot. It was the first Macintosh to have a metal case and the first case design of any personal computer to provide for an internal CD-ROM drive. An internal double-speed CD-ROM drive which used a disc caddy was available as an option from Apple.
Contents
History
The Mac IIvx began its life in development as a proof-of-concept to see how an internal CD-ROM drive could be added to a Mac. But after Apple CEO John Sculley gave a speech at MacWorld Tokyo which promised a Mac with a CD-ROM drive, the IIvx was rushed into production. Several shortcuts were taken in its design; most notably, its 32 MHz processor was crippled by a 16 MHz bus, making it slightly slower than the popular but aging Macintosh IIci. Its serial port was limited to 57.6 kbit/s, which could cause problems with serial connections and MIDI hardware. The Macintosh IIvi (a slower version of the IIvx with a 16MHz processor) was introduced at the same time but discontinued only four months later. The high-end member of the original Performa family, the Performa 600 was also based on the same architecture. The IIvx was the only model in the series with a 32K L2 cache.
Industrial design
The Macintosh IIvx has the same chassis as the Centris 650 (later known as the Quadra 650). It can be upgraded to this machine by a simple logic board swap.
Legacy
The much-more-powerful Macintosh Centris 650 was released four months after the IIvx for $250 less, immediately rendering the IIvx obsolete. The IIvx's base price was slashed by over a third and it would remain on sale for another eight months. For a while afterwards, people who bought an expensive Mac that quickly became outdated were said to have been "IIvx-ed".