Hardware

Cracking Open the Apple Macintosh Classic

By // June 17, 2008, 5:32 AM PST // markwkaelin

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  • The Mac Classic awaits its fate

    The Apple Mac is one of the most famous and easily recognizable personal computers ever manufactured. In this Cracking Open Photo Gallery, TechRepublic examines just what went into a Mac Classic -- and what technology was like in 1991.

  • Deception

    Cracking Open the Mac Classic is deceptively simple. Just loosen the four screws circled.

    However, the screws have Torx heads.

  • Deep dark recesses

    And to make matters worse, the two Torx screws on top, under the handle, are down deep, tapered holes. It to took two days and four trips to various stores to find the right screwdriver.

    Apple really didn't want you to open the Mac Classic up yourself.

  • The correct tool

    After much searching and a small fortune in gasoline, I was able to find the right Torx head screwdriver with the proper length at Sears. In retrospect I should have gone to Sears first -- it is the tool place.

  • First look at the inside

    The Apple Mac Classic is laid out efficiently. Of course, three are limitations when much of your computer is really a black and white television.

  • Cardboard protection

    I found it odd that the power systems for the CRT were for the most part unshielded. That is, unless you want to count the cardboard warning system.

  • Jumpers

    The warning is to the point. Jumpers are used to indicate voltage input -- interesting.

  • Goop!

    In the Dinosaur Sighting Gallery, I wondered about the yellow sticky stuff leaking out the back. You can see a pool of it on the case. The unit must have been sitting on its backside for a long time.

  • The CRT

    Approaching from the back we can get a good look at the Cathode Ray Tube.

  • Guns a blazing

    Even though the Apple Macintosh Classic display was black and white, it is still basically a television attached to a computer.

  • Taiwan

    Asia continues to play a big role in Apple's products. The CRT was manufactured in Taiwan.

  • Careful

    The power management systems for any CRT are not to be taken lightly.

  • Upside down

    The hard drive sits in the Mac Classic upside down. Notice the standard ribbon cable and Molex power connector.

  • RAM

    The RAM for the Apple Mac Classic sits on a daughter board. It just slides right out of its socket.

  • On board plus two

    Looks like we have one row of RAM and two expansion slots.

  • Do the math

    The math says that each set of RAM chips is one megabyte -- so we are looking at 3MB of RAM. There should be another 1MB of RAM on the motherboard.

  • Samsung

    Our expansion sticks of RAM came from Samsung.

  • Yuck

    Our mystery goop looks to have flowed down the SCSI cable toward our hard drive.

  • Nasty

    The substance is sticky, and felt slightly acidic when I accidentally touched it.

  • Motherboard

    A first look at what constitutes the mother board for the Apple Macintosh Classic.

  • CPU

    The highlighted chip in this image is the Motorola 68000 CPU. The 68000 operated at 8MHz and was found in several personal computers in this time period, including the Amiga.

  • What makes it an Apple

    The highlighted chip was Apple's proprietary ROM chip. The chip that makes an Apple Computer an Apple Computer.

  • VLSI

    The highlighted chips are from VLSI and we have seen them in previous cracking opens. This are basic logic chips, handling Input/Output, video, etc.

  • A tour of the motherboard

    Here is a close up shot of the bottom half of the motherboard. Notice the battery -- no watch battery here.

  • More motherboard

    The upper half of the motherboard.

    Perhaps someone could help us out -- what function did each of the VLSI chips perform in our Mac?

  • Motorola 68000

    Where the brains are.

  • Apple

    A closer look at the Apple ROM chip.

  • More RAM

    Looks like we found our other 1MB of RAM. That makes 4MB.

  • Unexpected

    Something unexpected can be seen in this image. I can understand VSLI, Motorola, and NCR, but AMD? I didn't realize they'd been around that long.

  • Hard drive

    There are almost as many chips on the hard drive as there are on the motherboard. It is sort of mind boggling to think about how many of these separate chips are not located on a single chip.

  • Adaptec

    Adaptec -- now that is a familiar name.

  • Conner

    The name Conner brings back some memories -- they were the ubiquitous hard drive manufacturer in this time period.

  • Cirrus Logic

    Cirrus Logic is another name you don't see much anymore.

  • Amazingly complicated

    This Conner hard drive looks to be very complex with dozens of chips and lots of connections.

  • Move in

    A closer look at the numerous chips found on our hard drive.

  • More chips

    Anyone want to tell us what all of these little chips do?

  • Even more

    Recognize these chips? It took a lot of work to be on the cutting edge.

  • 40MB

    Here is the other side of the the Conner 40MB SCSI hard drive.

  • Conner

    A close up of the Conner sticker reveals the drive model is CP 3040A.

  • Dissipate heat

    The Apple Macintosh Classic does have a fan and ventilation system to dissipate heat. This makes since because CRTs do get rather warm during operation.

  • High voltage

    A CRT display requires more power than you might think. We are looking at capacitors with ratings of 250 and 220 Volts. Discharging either one of those would hurt.

  • More capacitors

    Underneath the previous capacitors we find a few more.

  • Heatsink

    The Mac Classic uses a heat sink to dissipate some of the heat generated but the CRT power system.

  • Power management

    Even flow of power is also a major part of the system.

  • All cracked open

    Here is a shot of the Apple Macintosh Classic all disassembled.

  • A fine machine

    You can see how the Mac Classic benefited from previous versions of the Mac. The Classic is built to last. However, it is not built to be opened by the user. In the early 1990s, if your Mac had a problem you were supposed to seek professional help.

The Mac Classic awaits its fate

The Apple Mac is one of the most famous and easily recognizable personal computers ever manufactured. In this Cracking Open Photo Gallery, TechRepublic examines just what went into a Mac Classic -- and what technology was like in 1991.

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By Mark Kaelin

Mark W. Kaelin has been writing and editing stories about the IT industry, gadgets, finance, accounting, and tech-life for more than 25 years. Most recently, he has been a regular contributor to BreakingModern.com, aNewDomain.net, and TechRepublic.