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Macintosh IIfx
 
 
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The Macintosh IIfx was a model of Apple Macintosh computer, introduced in 1990 as the fastest Mac, and discontinued in 1992. At introduction it cost from US $9,000 to US $12,000, depending on configuration.

It had many code-names, including Stealth, BlackBird, F-19, IIxi and Zone 5.

Dubbed "Wicked Fast" by the Product Manager, Frank Casanova who came to Apple from Boston-based Apollo Computer
Apollo Computer

Apollo Computer, Inc., founded 1980 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts by William Poduska , developed and produced Apollo/Domain workstations in the 1980s....
 where the term "wicked
Boston accent

The Boston accent is found not only in the city of Boston, Massachusetts itself but also much of eastern Massachusetts. The Boston Accent and closely related accents can be heard commonly in an area stretching into much of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine....
" was commonly used to define anything extreme, the system ran at a clock rate
Clock rate

The clock rate is the fundamental rate in cycles per second for the frequency of the clock in any synchronous circuit. For example, a crystal oscillator frequency reference typically is synonymous with a fixed sinusoidal waveform, a clock rate is that frequency reference translated by electronic circuitry into a corresponding square wav...
 of a then impressive 40 megahertz, had 32 KB
Kilobyte

Kilobyte is a unit of Computer data storage equal to either 1,024 bytes or 1,000 bytes , depending on context.It is abbreviated in a number of ways: KB, kB, K and Kbyte....
 of Level 2 cache
CPU cache

A CPU cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to reduce the average time to access computer storage. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the most frequently used main memory locations....
, six NuBus
NuBus

NuBus is a 32-bit series and parallel circuits#Parallel circuits computer bus, originally developed at MIT as a part of the NuMachine workstation project....
 slots and included a number of proprietary ASICs
ASICS

is a Japanese athletic equipment company that started in 1949. Its founder, Kihachiro Onitsuka, began manufacturing basketball shoes in his home town in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan....
 and coprocessors designed to speed up the machine further.






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The Macintosh IIfx was a model of Apple Macintosh computer, introduced in 1990 as the fastest Mac, and discontinued in 1992. At introduction it cost from US $9,000 to US $12,000, depending on configuration.

It had many code-names, including Stealth, BlackBird, F-19, IIxi and Zone 5.

Dubbed "Wicked Fast" by the Product Manager, Frank Casanova who came to Apple from Boston-based Apollo Computer
Apollo Computer

Apollo Computer, Inc., founded 1980 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts by William Poduska , developed and produced Apollo/Domain workstations in the 1980s....
 where the term "wicked
Boston accent

The Boston accent is found not only in the city of Boston, Massachusetts itself but also much of eastern Massachusetts. The Boston Accent and closely related accents can be heard commonly in an area stretching into much of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine....
" was commonly used to define anything extreme, the system ran at a clock rate
Clock rate

The clock rate is the fundamental rate in cycles per second for the frequency of the clock in any synchronous circuit. For example, a crystal oscillator frequency reference typically is synonymous with a fixed sinusoidal waveform, a clock rate is that frequency reference translated by electronic circuitry into a corresponding square wav...
 of a then impressive 40 megahertz, had 32 KB
Kilobyte

Kilobyte is a unit of Computer data storage equal to either 1,024 bytes or 1,000 bytes , depending on context.It is abbreviated in a number of ways: KB, kB, K and Kbyte....
 of Level 2 cache
CPU cache

A CPU cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to reduce the average time to access computer storage. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the most frequently used main memory locations....
, six NuBus
NuBus

NuBus is a 32-bit series and parallel circuits#Parallel circuits computer bus, originally developed at MIT as a part of the NuMachine workstation project....
 slots and included a number of proprietary ASICs
ASICS

is a Japanese athletic equipment company that started in 1949. Its founder, Kihachiro Onitsuka, began manufacturing basketball shoes in his home town in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan....
 and coprocessors designed to speed up the machine further. These required software written specifically for the IIfx to take advantage of them. The 40 MHz speed referred to the main logic board clock (the bus), the Motorola 68030
Motorola 68030

The Motorola 68030 is a 32-bit microprocessor in Motorola's Motorola 68000 family. Released in 1987, the 68030 was the successor to the Motorola 68020, and was followed by the Motorola 68040....
 CPU
Central processing unit

A central processing unit is an electronic circuit that can execute computer programs. This broad definition can easily be applied to many early computers that existed long before the term "CPU" ever came into widespread usage....
, and the computer's Motorola 68882 FPU
Floating point unit

A floating-point unit is a part of a computer system specially designed to carry out operations on floating point numbers. Typical operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division , and square root....
. The machine had eight RAM slots, for a maximum of 128 MB
Megabyte

Megabyte is a SI prefix-multiple of the unit byte for digital information computer storage or transmission and is equal to 106 bytes....
 RAM, an enormous amount at the time.

The IIfx featured specialized high-speed (80 ns) RAM using 64-pin SIMM
SIMM

A SIMM, or single in-line memory module, is a type of memory module containing random access memory used in computers from the early 1980s to the late 1990s....
s, at a time when all other Macintosh models used 30-pin SIMMs. The extra pins were a separate path to allow latched read and write operations. It was also possible to use parity memory modules, being the only stock 68K Macintosh to support them. (There were special versions of the Macintosh IIci
Macintosh IIci

The Apple Macintosh IIci was an improvement on the Macintosh IIcx. Sharing the same compact case design with three expansion slots, the IIci improved upon the IIcx's 16 Megahertz Motorola 68030 Central processing unit and Motorola 68882 floating-point unit, replacing them with 25 MHz versions of these chips....
 that used parity 30-pin SIMMs.) The IIfx also included two special dedicated processors for sound and serial communications
Serial communications

In telecommunication and computer science, serial communication is the process of sending data one bit at one time, sequentially, over a communication channel or computer bus....
. These I/O chips featured a pair of embedded
Embedded system

An embedded system is a special-purpose computer system designed to perform one or a few dedicated functions, often with real-time computing constraints....
 6502
MOS Technology 6502

The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by Chuck Peddle and Bill Mensch for MOS Technology in 1975. When it was introduced, it was the least expensive full-featured central processing unit on the market by a considerable margin, costing less than one-sixth the price of competing designs from larger companies such...
 CPUs, meaning that this Mac also had the core of two Apple II machines inside it (albeit at 10 MHz rather than the 1 MHz of the Apple II). However the machine's architecture did not expose these CPUs to developers.

The IIfx used SCSI as its hard disk
Hard disk

A hard disk drive , commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk, or fixed disk drive, is a non-volatile storage device which stores digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating hard disk platters with magnetic surfaces....
 interface, as had all previous Macintosh models since the Macintosh Plus
Macintosh Plus

The Macintosh Plus computer was the third model in the Macintosh line, introduced on January 16, 1986, two years after the Macintosh 128K and a little more than a year after the Macintosh 512K, with a price tag of $2,599 ....
. The IIfx required a special black-colored SCSI terminator for external drives, however.

The IIfx was the apex of Apple's 68030-based models and was replaced at the top of Apple's lineup by the Macintosh Quadra
Macintosh Quadra

The Macintosh Quadra series was Apple Computer's product family of professional high-end Apple Macintosh personal computers built using the Motorola 68040 central processing unit....
 series in 1991.

External links

  • on Low End Mac
  • at apple.com