Macintosh 512Ke
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| Macintosh 512Ke | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Apple Computer |
| Introduced | April 14, 1986 |
| Discontinued | September 1, 1987 |
| Price | US$2000 |
| CPU | Motorola 68000, 8 MHz |
| RAM | 512 kB, built-in |
| OS | 3.0, later 3.2 |
The Macintosh 512Ke was introduced as a cheaper version of the top-of-the-line Macintosh Plus. It was the same as the Plus but with no SCSI port, and with only 512 KB of RAM. This RAM was not in the form of SIMMs, as in the Plus, but just RAM chips plugged into the motherboard with no way to expand the memory. Some companies did create memory upgrades that would bring the machine up to 2 MB.
A Macintosh 512K could be upgraded to a 512Ke by purchasing and installing Apple's $299 Macintosh Plus Disk Drive Kit. This included the following:
- 800 KB double-sided floppy disk drive to replace the original 400 kB single-sided drive
- 128 KB ROM chips to replace original 64 KB ROM
- Macintosh Plus System Tools disk with updated system software
- Installation guide
Although the ROM allowed the computer to run much newer system and application software, it loaded more data into RAM and slightly decreased the amount of available memory.
After June 1986, the 512Ke shipped with System 3.2. After it was discontinued, Apple changed the recommended OS for the 512Ke to System 4.1. The maximum OS for the 512Ke is System 6.0.8.
