Macintosh LC II "Foster Farms"

Running a 32-bit CPU on a 16-bit data bus and limited by design to no more than 10 MB of RAM, the LC II offered virtual memory and works with RAM Doubler. One improvement over the LC was 4 MB of onboard memory instead of the 2 MB of the earlier model. The LC II sold for $1240, making it one of the more affordable Macs ever. It was discontinued in March 1993, when it was replaced by the LC III.

In September 1993, it was bundled with several different hard drives and software, with a built-in modem, preinstalled sofware and monitor, it was called the Performa 405, 410, or 430, depending on the hard-drive size. Download the User Guide and the Setup guide for the Macintosh LC here. The Macintosh LC II is an affordable modular Macintosh. It is a versatile system that is nice for education and business uses, from color presentations to spreadsheets.

The Macintosh LC (meaning low-cost color) was Apple Computer's product family of low-end consumer Macintosh personal computers in the early 1990s. The original Macintosh LC was released in 1990 and was the first affordable color-capable Macintosh. Due to its affordability and Apple II compatibility the LC was adopted primarily in the education and home markets. Together with the Mac IIsi, it introduced built-in audio input on the Mac. The "LC" name was subsequently used for a line of low-end Macintosh computers for several years and spanned the 68k to PowerPC transition.

The original LC was an attempt at an affordable, modular, color-capable Macintosh. As such, when compared with earlier Macs Apple cut some corners on performance and features in order to keep the price down. The LC's system specifications nearly duplicated those of the 3 year old Macintosh II. Nevertheless, the machine hit a sweet spot and, with the pent-up demand for a low-cost Macintosh, it was a strong seller. In 1991 was succeeded by the LC II, which replaced the LC's 68020 processor with a 68030. It retained the original LC's 16-bit system bus however, making its performance roughly the same as the earlier model. The main benefit of the 030 processor in the LC II was the ability to use System 7's virtual memory feature. In spite of this, the new model sold even better than the LC.

The success of the LC II spawned a whole series of LC models, most of which later were sold both with the LC name to the education world and to consumers via traditional Apple dealers, and as Performa to the consumer market via electronics stores, and department stores such as Sears. (For example, the LC 475 was also known as the Performa 475.) The last official "LC" was the Power Macintosh 5200/75 LC, which was released in 1995 and discontinued in 1996. The LC 580 was notable for being the last desktop 680x0-based Macintosh of any kind. All subsequent Macintoshes used PowerPC processors and, later, Intel processors.

Related Links : wikipedia.org - lowendmac.com - www.everymac.com