Apple and Mac 68k Forum

[MacOS]

"Group of Seven" Macintosh Logic Boards - Bare Boards from 1981-1983

The following link directing you to a page at http://www.digibarn.com/, presenting pictures and informations about the "Group of Seven" Macintosh logic boards from First PCB and First Build in 1982 through the transition from byte-wide to word-wide and thence to the final 512K logic board in 1983. The "Mister Macintosh" logo makes its appearance toward the end of the series.

These "bare boards" reside in the private collection of Daniel Kottke who loaned them to the DigiBarn for the DigiBarn Mac at 20 anniversary online exhibit. Multiple sets of these bare boards were distributed to the Macintosh Division team. This is the only known complete set.

Burrell Smith was the lead engineer on this class of Mac hardware. You can read more about the different renditions of Burrell's Macintosh here at www.folklore.org. More on this very historical artifact below. It doesn't get more rare and more core to the history of the Mac than this folks!

Boards ( the names see a high quality scan):

First PCB (1981) + reverse side

First Build (1981) + reverse side

First 512K Board (1982) + reverse side

First 512K Board (1982) + reverse side

512K 200-Build (1983) including Mister Macintosh Logo (look at the right side of the board)
+ reverse side

Final Board (1983) + reverse side

Hosted at http://www.digibarn.com/collections/parts/mac-7boards/index.html

The following is a very early Macintosh prototype logic board, one of a half a dozen wire wrapped between 1980 (?) and finishing in 1983 prior to the first Macintosh production logic boards. This board resides in the private collection of Daniel Kottke who loaned it to the DigiBarn for our Mac at 20 anniversary online exhibit.

Burrell Smith was the lead engineer on this class of Mac hardware. You can read more about the different renditions of Burrell's Macintosh here. More on this very historical artifact below.

Macintosh Wire Wrap Logic Board #5
1980-1983 + reverse side

This board was the first to be set up for the operation of external devices with keyboard, display, mouse and disk drives. This board was wire wrapped by a number of people on the Macintosh team and illustrates a number of wrapping styles. Probably the last element added was the Macintosh logo, whose design was not settled on until some time in mid 1983. Other printed circuit boards, which were derived from testing with this wire-wrapped board, carried the "Macintosh man" logo.

A number of chips are labelled with hand written labels. Other wire wrap boards in this seried may still exist and more information about these rare artifacts may be available in the future.

[size=24]Pre-production Macintosh prototype logic boards
1981-1983[size]

The following are images of pre-production Macintosh logic boards, produced in 1981-1983 prior to the first production logic boards. These boards reside in the private collection of Daniel Kottke who loaned it to the DigiBarn for DigiBarn¥s Mac at 20 anniversary online exhibit.

1982 logic board + reverse side

1983 logic board + reverse side
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MacOS aka Oliver