Apple Macintosh IIfx

Trivia

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 where the term "wicked" was commonly used to define anything extreme, the system ran at a clock rate of a then impressive 40 megahertz, had 32 KiB of Level 2 cache, six NuBus slots and included a number of proprietary ASICs 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 CPU, and the computer's Motorola 68882 FPU. The machine had eight RAM slots, for a maximum of 128 MiB RAM, an enormous amount at the time.

The IIfx featured specialized high-speed (80 ns) RAM using 64-pin SIMMs, 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 that used parity 30-pin SIMMs.) The IIfx also included two special dedicated processors for sound and serial communications. These I/O chips featured a pair of embedded 6502 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 interface, as had all previous Macintosh models since the Macintosh Plus. 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 series.