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| Manufacturer | Apple Computer |
|---|---|
| Product family | Compact Macintosh |
| Type | All-in-one |
| Release date | January 19, 1989; 36 years ago (1989-01-19) |
| Introductory price | US$4,369 (equivalent to $11,080 in 2024) |
| Discontinued | October 21, 1991; 34 years ago (1991-10-21) |
| Operating system | System 6.0.3 –System 7.5.5 With a 32-bit cleanROM upgrade,Mac OS 7.6 -Mac OS 8.1,A/UX |
| CPU | Motorola 68030 @ 15.667 MHz Motorola 68882FPU |
| Memory | 1MB RAM, expandable to 32 MB (120 ns 30-pinSIMM) |
| Display | 9 in (23 cm) monochrome, 512 × 342 |
| Dimensions | Height: 13.6 in (35 cm) Width: 9.6 in (24 cm) Depth: 10.9 in (28 cm) |
| Weight | 19.5 lb (8.8 kg) |
| Predecessor | Macintosh SE |
| Successor | Macintosh Classic Macintosh Classic II |
| Related | Macintosh IIx Macintosh IIfx Macintosh II Macintosh IIcx Macintosh IIci Macintosh Portable |
TheMacintosh SE/30 is apersonal computer designed, manufactured and sold byApple Computer from January 1989 to October 1991. It is the fastest of the original black-and-whitecompact Macintosh series.
The SE/30 has a black-and-white monitor and a singleProcessor Direct Slot (rather than theNuBus slots of the IIx, with which the SE/30 shares a common architecture) which supported third-party accelerators, network cards, or a display adapter. The SE/30 could expand up to 32 MB ofRAM (a significant amount of RAM at the time), and included a 40 or 80 MBhard drive. It was also the first compact Mac to include a 1.44 MB high densityfloppy disk drive as standard (late versions of the SE had one, but earlier versions did not). The power of the SE/30 was demonstrated by its use to produce theThis Week newspaper, the first colour tabloid newspaper in the UK to use new, digital pre-press technology on a personal,desktop computer.
In keeping with Apple's practice, from theApple II+ until thePower Macintosh G3 was announced, a logic board upgrade was available for US$1,699 to convert a regularSE to an SE/30. The SE would then have exactly the same specs as an SE/30, with the difference only in the floppy drive if the SE had an 800 KB drive. The set included a new front bezel to replace the original SE bezel with that of an SE/30.
Although this machine was succeeded in Q4 of 1990 by theMacintosh Classic, the SE/30 wasn't discontinued until 1991 by theMacintosh Classic II, which despite featuring the same processor and clock speed, was only 60% as fast as the SE/30 due to its 16-bit data path,[1] supported no more than 10 MB of memory, lacked an internal expansion slot, and made theMotorola 68882 FPU an optional upgrade.
Although theMotorola 68030 in the SE/30 supports 32-bit addressing, the SE/30ROM, like theIIx ROM, includes some code using 24-bit addressing, rendering the ROM "32-bit dirty". This limits the actual amount of RAM that can be accessed to 8 MB under System 6.0.8.[2] Asystem extension calledMODE32 enables access to installed extra memory under System 6.0.8. Under System 7.0 up to System 7.5.5 the SE/30 can use up to 128 MB of RAM. Alternatively, replacing the ROM SIMM with one from a Mac IIsi or Mac IIfx makes the SE/30 "32-bit clean" and thereby enables use of up to 128 MB RAM and System 7.5 through OS 7.6.1.
A standard SE/30 can run up to System 7.5.5,[3] since Mac OS 7.6 requires a "32-bit clean" ROM.[4]
Additionally, the SE/30 can runA/UX, Apple's older version ofUnix that was able to run Macintosh programs.[5]
Though there was no official upgrade path for the SE/30, several third-party processor upgrades were available. A 68040 upgrade made it possible to runMac OS 8.1, which extended the SE/30's productive life for many more years. Also extending the useful life of the SE30 wereMicron Technology video cards. Three cards were available, which fit into the SE/30'sProcessor Direct Slot: the 8-bit Gray-Scale 30, the SE/306-48, 640x480 resolution 8-bit color, and SE/3010-78 1024x768 resolution 8-bit color. With the first, the internal display was 8-bitgreyscale; the latter two were used with 13" and 14", respectively, external color monitors, while retaining 1-bit (black and white) on the internal monitor.[6]
Nick Baran ofBYTE in February 1989 approved of the SE/30's performance improvements over the SE and II, stating that the only reasons to instead buy a IIx were the latter's NuBus slots and official support for A/UX.[9]Bruce F. Webster wrote inMacworld in March 1989 that the SE/30 did not "break new ground. It does, however, establish Apple's commitment to the classic Mac product line, and it provides users with an Apple-supported alternative to either a small, slow Mac or a large, powerful one. More important, it fills a gap in the Macintosh family ... a new level of power and portability for the Macintosh community".[10]
In a January 2009Macworld feature commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Macintosh, three industry commentators –Adam C. Engst ofTidBITS,John Gruber ofDaring Fireball, and John Siracusa ofArs Technica – chose the SE/30 as their favorite Mac model of all time. "Like any great Mac," wrote Gruber, "the SE/30 wasn't just a terrific system just when it debuted; it remained eminently usable for years to come. When I think of the original Mac era, the machine in my mind is the SE/30."
The SE/30 remains popular with hobbyists, and has been described as “the best computer Apple will ever make,”[11] with used models selling for a significant premium relative to other machines of the era. Contemporary PDS upgrades allowed an SE/30's internal monitor to be upgraded to support 256 shades of gray[12] (the only original-design Macintosh to support such an upgrade) or a 68040 processor, and the SE/30's standard RAM limit of 128 MB greatly exceeded even that of much later models such as the Color Classic and Macintosh LC II. In 2018, add-ons and software became available to add WiFi[11] and even make the SE/30 work as a remote control forSpotify.[13]
In the NBC TV seriesSeinfeld, Jerry has an SE/30 sitting on the desk of his apartment during the first few seasons. This would be the first of many Macs to occupy the desk, including aPowerBook Duo and aTwentieth Anniversary Macintosh.[14]
In the FX seriesIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the Waitress is seen with a Macintosh SE/30 on her bedroom desk in the episode "The Gang Gives Back".
In the filmWatchmen, Ozymandias has an all-blackTEMPEST-shielded SE/30 on his desk.[15]
| Timeline ofCompact Macintosh models |
|---|
 See also:List of Mac models andCompact Macintosh |
Minimum requirements for Mac OS 7.6 included a 68030 CPU, "32-bit clean" ROMs, 8 MB of RAM (12-16 MB recommended), and 70 MB of hard drive space. It no longer supported 24-bit addressing or classic Mac networking (it used OpenTransport exclusively).
A/UX 3.0 works on the Mac II (with PMMU or 68030 upgrade with FDHD ROM's installed), IIx, IIcx, IIci, IIfx, SE/30, IIsi (with 68882 chip) and the Quadra 700/900/950 computers.