The Macintosh SE/30 is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from January 1989 to October 1991. It is the fastest of the original black-and-white compact Macintosh series.

The SE/30 has a black-and-white monitor and a single Processor Direct Slot (rather than the NuBus slots of the IIx, with which the SE/30 shares a common architecture) which supported third-party accelerators, network cards, or a display adapter. The SE/30 could expand up to 128 MB of RAM (a significant amount of RAM at the time), and included a 40 or 80 MB hard drive. It was also the first compact Mac to include a 1.44 MB high density floppy disk drive as standard (late versions of the SE had one, but earlier versions did not). The power of the SE/30 was demonstrated by its use to produce the This Week newspaper, the first colour tabloid newspaper in the UK to use new, digital pre-press technology on a personal, desktop computer.

In keeping with Apple's practice, from the Apple II+ until the Power Macintosh G3 was announced, a logic board upgrade was available for US$1,699 to convert a regular SE to an SE/30. The SE would then have exactly the same specs as an SE/30, with the difference only in the floppy drive if the SE had an 800 KB drive. The set included a new front bezel to replace the original SE bezel with that of an SE/30.

Although this machine was succeeded in Q4 of 1990 by the Macintosh Classic, the SE/30 wasn't discontinued until 1991 by the Macintosh Classic II, which despite featuring the same processor and clock speed, was only 60% as fast as the SE/30 due to its 16-bit data path, supported no more than 10 MB of memory, lacked an internal expansion slot, and made the Motorola 68882 FPU an optional upgrade.

Hardware

thumb|right|Mainboard of the SE/30

SE/30's exterior has few differences from SE. The rear ports are identical but SE/30's audio port is stereo. An internal 40MB or 80MB hard drive was available; SE/30 is incompatible with Hard Disk 20. The floppy drive is a SuperDrive, similar to Macintosh IIx; there is no room for a second. Another IIx similarity is the 16 MHz Motorola 68030 CPU and 16 MHz 68882 FPU, about five times faster for general computing than SE's 8 MHz Motorola 68000 CPU and no FPU.

SE/30 has 64K of dedicated video RAM unlike SE, improving display performance by avoiding memory interleaving. The Processor Direct Slot has 32-bit lines and is not compatible with SE's internal slot. SE/30 has eight SIMM slots, up from SE's four. Apple designed the computer for compatibility with higher-density memory modules, stating at its debut that SE/30 would be able to use 4MB modules when available to up to 32MB of total RAM; at least half the slots must match. The 256K ROM is almost identical to IIx's, including grayscale and Color QuickDraw support, and installs into its own SIMM slot for easy upgradability.

Although the SE/30's 68030 supports 32-bit addressing, the computer's ROM, as with the IIx, includes some code using 24-bit addressing, rendering the ROM "32-bit dirty". This limits the actual amount of RAM that can be accessed to 8 MB under System 6.0.8. A system extension called MODE32 enables access to installed extra memory under System 6.0.8. Under System 7.0 up to System 7.5.5, SE/30 can use up to 128 MB of RAM. Alternatively, replacing the ROM SIMM with one from a Mac IIsi or Mac IIfx makes SE/30 "32-bit clean" and thereby enables use of up to 128 MB RAM and System 7.5 through OS 7.6.1.

The computer shipped with System 6.0.3. A standard SE/30 can run up to System 7.5.5, since Mac OS 7.6 requires a "32-bit clean" ROM.

Although Apple did not support doing so at SE/30's launch, with 68030's PMMU, SE/30 can run A/UX, Apple's older version of Unix with Mac OS compatibility.

From March 1989 Apple offered an upgrade for SE owners to SE/30 by replacing the logic board and chassis, although they cannot reuse SE's 150ns RAM. Though there was no official upgrade path for SE/30, several third-party processor upgrades were available. A 68040 upgrade makes it possible to run Mac OS 8.1, which extended SE/30's productive life for many more years.

Also extending the useful life of SE30 were Micron Technology video cards. Three cards were available, which fit into the SE/30's Processor Direct Slot: the 8-bit Gray-Scale 30; the SE/306-48, 640x480 resolution 8-bit color; and SE/3010-78, 1024x768 resolution 8-bit color. With the first, the internal display was 8-bit greyscale; the latter two were used with 13" and 14", respectively, external color monitors, while retaining 1-bit (black and white) on the internal monitor.

Models

  • Macintosh SE/30: Available in multiple configurations.
  • : 1 MB RAM, No hard disk
  • : 1 MB RAM, 40 MB hard disk
  • : 4 MB RAM, 80 MB hard disk

Reception

Nick Baran of BYTE in February 1989 approved of SE/30's performance improvements over SE and Mac II, stating that the only reasons to instead buy a IIx were the latter's NuBus slots and official support for A/UX. Bruce F. Webster thought in Macworld in March 1989 that SE/30 would compete well with NeXT Computer in the education market, albeit lacking Unix. He questioned the computer's high non-education price—suggesting Macintosh II, or SE with accelerator card, to those without a computer—but predicted that SE/30's 68030 would remain viable longer than II's Motorola 68020. Webster concluded that SE/30 did not "break new ground. It does, however, establish Apple's commitment to the classic Mac product line, and it provides users with an Apple-supported alternative to either a small, slow Mac or a large, powerful one. More important, it fills a gap in the Macintosh family ... a new level of power and portability for the Macintosh community". Henry Bortman of MacUser was surprised that Apple announced the SE/30 instead of a laptop or smaller Mac II, but approved of the company retaining the same compact form factor. He noted that at $5069, the 40MB model cost the same as the similarly configured SE's former price.<!-- In the title, "030" is correct, referring to the 68030 processor of the SE/30 --> Doug and Denise Green found in InfoWorld that SE/30 was about 1.5 times as fast as the Mac II, equal in speed to IIx, and 5.5 times as fast as IBM PC AT. Noting that it was $1300 less expensive than a comparable IIx without monitor, they advised those not needing IIx's slots to choose SE/30 and perhaps use the saved money for an external display. Conversely, the Greens advised those considering a 1MB SE without hard drive to consider spending $1600 more for SE/30's superior hardware.

In a January 2009 Macworld feature commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Macintosh, three industry commentators – Adam C. Engst of TidBITS, John Gruber of Daring Fireball, and John Siracusa of Ars Technica – chose the SE/30 as their favorite Mac model of all time. "Like any great Mac," wrote Gruber, "the SE/30 wasn't just a terrific system just when it debuted; it remained eminently usable for years to come. When I think of the original Mac era, the machine in my mind is the SE/30."

The SE/30 remains popular with hobbyists, and has been described as “the best computer Apple will ever make,” with used models selling for a significant premium relative to other machines of the era. Contemporary PDS upgrades allowed an SE/30's internal monitor to be upgraded to support 256 shades of gray (the only original-design Macintosh to support such an upgrade) or a 68040 processor, and the SE/30's standard RAM limit of 128 MB greatly exceeded even that of much later models such as the Color Classic and Macintosh LC II. In 2018, add-ons and software became available to add WiFi

In the NBC TV series Seinfeld, Jerry has an SE/30 sitting on the desk of his apartment during the first few seasons. This would be the first of many Macs to occupy the desk, including a PowerBook Duo and a Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh.

In the FX series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the Waitress is seen with a Macintosh SE/30 on her bedroom desk in the episode "The Gang Gives Back".

In the film Watchmen, Ozymandias has an all-black TEMPEST-shielded SE/30 on his desk.

In Season 15 Episode 4 of Death in Paradise, a Macintosh SE/30 can be seen on the desk in the victim’s office.

Timeline

References

sv:Macintosh SE#SE/30