Macintosh XL

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Macintosh XL

The Macintosh XL was a technically improved successor to the Apple Lisa . It was launched in 1985 . He was upgraded by

  • Replacement of the two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives with 871 kB each by a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive with 400 kB,
  • a 10 MB hard drive built into the Macintosh XL (compared to an external Apple Lisa hard drive),
  • one, compared to the Apple Lisa, expandable RAM up to 2 MB,
  • a modified housing design because of the new 3.5-inch floppy disk drive.

hardware

The resolution of the screen was initially 720 × 364 pixels . So there were no square pixels. An optional hardware upgrade allowed the Macintosh XL to use square pixels for a better display of Mac software, whereby the compatibility with the Lisa software was lost. After the upgrade, the screen resolution was 608 × 431 pixels.

Operating systems

The Macintosh XL was delivered with the MacWorks XL software and an emulation program in order to be able to use the Lisa OS operating system .

MacWorks XL is a port of the Macintosh Plus ROM on the Macintosh XL and thus enables the use of the Macintosh system software from System 1.1. However, versions later than System 3.2 are not compatible with it. A newer version called MacWorks Plus enables the use of System 6 up to version 6.0.3. Finally, MacWorks Plus II Basic is compatible up to System 6.0.8. MacWorks Plus II Pro can even run System 7 up to version 7.5.5 on the Macintosh XL .

Further course

The production of the Macintosh XL was stopped in 1986. See also the article on the story of the Apple Lisa .

The extension XL of the Macintosh XL often leads to errors with regard to the chronological classification of this computer. The Macintosh XL is not a technically improved or expanded Macintosh as the successor to the Mac, but rather, renamed the successor to the Apple Lisa 2, actually to be regarded as the forefather of all computers with the Macintosh name.

literature

  • Owen W. Linzmayer: Apple - strictly confidential. The tops and flops of Macintosh history. Midas, Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-907100-12-3 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Macintosh XL  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files