Macintosh History

1988: LaserWriter II, A/UX, CD-ROM, and Mac IIx

Dan Knight - updated 2008.01.16 - Tip Jar

Popularity:

1988 was not a year of breakthroughs for Apple. It was a year of evolution.

LaserWriter II printer

January saw the introduction of the LaserWriter II family, a trio of printers sharing the same 300 dpi, 8 page per minute Canon engine but using different processor boards.

In February, Apple released its first version of Unix for the Macintosh, A/UX, which required a Mac II with a PMMU (Programmed Memory Management Unit), which is built into the 68030 CPU used in later Mac II series models, and a math coprocessor.

AppleCD SD The first Apple CD-ROM drive, the external SCSI AppleCD SC, shipped in March, making Apple one of the earliest computer makers to embrace the emerging technology. Like many early CD-ROM drives, it used a caddy.

The Mac IIx shipped in September, provided a few enhancements over the Mac II: the 68030 processor could handle virtual memory without a separate PMMU, and the high density floppy drives could handle 1.4 MB disks. In August, a revised version of the Mac SE was introduced that also supported high density floppies.

With the right software, these new floppy drives could read and write 3.5" DOS disks, a feature we took for granted during the remainder of the floppy drive era.

The Mac operating system inched forward, evolving into System 6 by the end of the year.

The Competition

NeXT Cube The Wintel world claimed 30,000,000 MS-DOS users, Microsoft released Windows 2, and the Morris Internet Worm, the first computer virus propagated over the Internet, infected 6,000 computers. For many, this was the first time they heard about the Internet.

NeXT shipped itsfirst computer, the NeXT Cube, in October. Steve Jobs, always one to push the envelope, equipped it with a magneto-optical drive instead of a floppy drive or a hard drive and made a 17" 4-shade grayscale monitor standard equipment. There wasn't even an optional floppy drive.

Next - 1989: Mac SE/30, IIcx, IIci, and Portable

Join us on Facebook!

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Mac IIfx, introduced 1990.03.19. This 'wicked fast' 40 MHz Mac trumped the 33 MHz DOS world.
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2012 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPad iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Email may be published at our discretion unless marked "not for publication"; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.

Custom Search

Follow Low End Mac on Twitter
Join Low End Mac on Facebook

Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler 11 is now in the Mac App Store!! -- Special Introductory Price of $59.95!! -- To Buy From The Mac App Store Click Here Now!! Or buy direct from Strider Software.

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker and Mac Casino applications in minutes.

Affiliates

Amazon.com
The Apple Store
The iTunes Store
PC Connection Express
GainSaver
Parallels Desktop for Mac
eBay