![]() Though there were no memory slots, its RAM was expandable to 512 kB by means of soldering sixteen IC sockets to accept 256 kb RAM chips in place of the factory-installed chips. The final Mac design was self-contained and had the complete QuickDraw picture language and interpreter in 64 kB of ROM – far more than most other computers it had 128 kB of RAM, in the form of sixteen 64 kilobit (kb) RAM chips soldered to the logicboard. Smith's design used fewer RAM chips than the Lisa, which made production of the board significantly more cost-efficient. By December 1980, Smith had succeeded in designing a board that not only used the 68000, but increased its speed from 5 MHz to 8 MHz this board also had the capacity to support a 384×256 pixel display. Bud Tribble, a Macintosh programmer, was interested in running the Lisa's graphical programs on the Macintosh, and asked Smith whether he could incorporate the Lisa's Motorola 68000 microprocessor into the Mac while still keeping the production cost down. Smith's first Macintosh board was built to Raskin's design specifications: it had 64 kilobytes (kB) of RAM, used the Motorola 6809E microprocessor, and was capable of supporting a 256×256 pixel black-and-white bitmap display. Over the years, Raskin assembled a large development team that designed and built the original Macintosh hardware and software besides Raskin, Atkinson and Smith, the team included George Crow, Chris Espinosa, Joanna Hoffman, Bruce Horn, Susan Kare, Andy Hertzfeld, Guy Kawasaki, Daniel Kottke, and Jerry Manock. ![]() Bill Atkinson, a member of Apple's Lisa team (which was developing a similar but higher-end computer), introduced him to Burrell Smith, a service technician who had been hired earlier that year. Raskin was authorized to start hiring for the project in September 1979, and he began to look for an engineer who could put together a prototype. ![]() Steve Jobs requested a release of the name so that Apple could use it, but was denied, forcing Apple to eventually buy the rights to use the name. He wanted to name the computer after his favorite type of apple, the McIntosh, but the name had to be changed for legal reasons as it was too close, phonetically, to that of the McIntosh audio equipment manufacturer. The Macintosh project started in the late 1970s with Jef Raskin, an Apple employee, who envisioned an easy-to-use, low-cost computer for the average consumer. See also: History of Apple 1979 to 1984: Development However, Apple does not license Mac OS X for use on non-Apple computers. The modern Mac, like other personal computers, is capable of running alternative operating systems such as Linux, FreeBSD, and, in the case of Intel-based Macs, Microsoft Windows. Apple also develops the operating system for the Mac, currently Mac OS X version 10.7 "Lion". Current Mac CPUs use Intel's X86-64 architecture the earliest models (1984–1994) used Motorola's 68k and models from 1994–2006 used the AIM alliance's PowerPC. Apple does use third party components, however, such as graphics subsystems from nVidia and ATi. Apple exclusively produces Mac hardware, choosing internal systems, designs, and prices. This is in contrast to most IBM PC compatibles, where multiple sellers create and integrate hardware intended to run another company's operating software. Production of the Mac is based on a vertical integration model in that Apple facilitates all aspects of its hardware and creates its own operating system that is pre-installed on all Mac computers. The Xserve server was discontinued January 31, 2011. These include the descendants of the original iMac and the entry-level Mac mini desktop models, the Mac Pro tower graphics workstation, the MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops. Current Mac systems are mainly targeted at the home, education, and creative professional markets. This proved to be a sales success and saw the Macintosh brand revitalized. Years later, Apple consolidated its multiple consumer-level desktop models into the 1998 iMac all-in-one. The company continued to have success through the second half of the 1980s, first primarily because of the sales of the Apple II series remained strong even after the introduction of the Macintosh, only to see it dissipate in the 1990s as the personal computer market shifted toward the " Wintel" platform: IBM PC compatible machines running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on Januit was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a graphical user interface rather than a command-line interface. The Macintosh (pronounced /ˈmækɨntɒʃ/ mak-in-tosh), or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. ![]() An iMac computer from August 2007, a modern all-in-one Macintosh.
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