Macintosh LC 500 series

Personal computer series released by Apple Computer

The Macintosh LC 500 series is a series of personal computers that were a part of Apple Computer's Macintosh LC family of Macintosh computers, designed as a successor to the compact Macintosh family of computers for the mid 1990s mainstream education market. The all in one desktop case is similar to the then recently introduced Macintosh Color Classic, but the LC 500 series is considerably larger and heavier due to its larger screen and a bulging midsection to house the larger electronics, including a 14" CRT display, CD ROM drive, and stereo speakers. The LC 500 series included four main models, the 520, 550, 575, and 580, with the 520 and 550 both using different speeds of the Motorola 68030, and the 575 and 580 sharing the 33 MHz Motorola 68LC040 processor but differing on the rest of the hardware. All of these computers were also sold to the consumer market through department stores under the Macintosh Performa brand, with similar model numbers. The LC models, in particular, became very popular in schools for their small footprint, lack of cable clutter, and durability. The Macintosh TV, while not branded as an LC, uses the LC 520's case (in black instead of beige) and a logic board similar to the LC 550. The compact Color Classic series shares many components, and is able to swap logic boards with the early 500 series machines.

The Macintosh LC 520 was introduced in June 1993. The case design was larger than the compact Macintosh models that precede it, due in large part to the significantly larger screen and CD ROM drive. The LC 520 got its start as a design project codenamed "Mongo". Following the success of the Color Classic, The Apple Industrial Design Group (IDg) began exploring the adaptation of the Color Classic's design language, dubbed Espresso, for a larger display version that would also include a CD ROM drive. However, IDg hated the design so much that they permanently shelved the final concept. In 1992, Apple CEO John Sculley demanded a large screen all in one design to fill out his market strategy in less than 6 months. Over IDg's objections, Apple's engineering team retrieved the shelved design and promptly put it into production. Because IDg universally detested the design, they immediately began the re design project that would become the Power Macintosh 5200 LC series less than two years later. The LC 520 has been described as if you "take an LC III and graft on a 14 Trinitron monitor along with stereo speakers". The logic board of the 520 is broadly the same as the Macintosh LC III, with a Motorola 68030 CPU and an optional Motorola 68882 FPU. A New York Times review of the LC 520 was generally positive, with columnist Peter Lewis noting that its $1,599 price point is "perhaps the best value in the entire Macintosh product line it would be very difficult to put together a Windows based PC with the same features for that price, and Windows computers are usually much less expensive than Macs." Lewis also noted that the unit's 40 pound weight would make it difficult to carry home at night an attribute that Apple had previously marketed as a feature of compact Macintosh models in the 1980s. MacWEEK wrote that the timing of the LC 520's release coincided with purchasing timelines for schools, and that the decision to market the computer exclusively to the education market was part of a strategic shift to move the LC brand away from the retail market. 5 MB RAM, 80 MB HDD. U. S. educational institutions only. $1,599 USD. Macintosh Performa 520: Consumer version of the LC 520. Not sold in the U. S

The Macintosh LC 550 replaced the LC 520 in February 1994. The Performa variants were introduced earlier, the 550 in October 1993 and the 560 in January 1994, and remained available for more than a year longer, until April 1996. The main difference between the 550 and the 520 is the faster 68030 CPU, clocked at 33 MHz instead of 25 MHz, with the bus speed also increasing from 25 to 33 MHz. Unlike the 520, the optical drive was a bare CD tray loading type which did not require a caddy. The logic board in the 550 is essentially the same one used in the Macintosh Color Classic II, an upgrade to the original Color Classic not available in the United States. Apple also offered the same upgrade package for the 520 to the LC 575 logic board. Two Performa variants were introduced, varying only in the software bundle that was included. The 550 included only consumer applications. The Performa 560 was called the "Money Edition" owing to a partnership between Apple and Money magazine. In addition to some consumer and education software, it also included more than a dozen business software applications.

Model Family LC 520 LC 550 LC 575 LC 580 Model Macintosh LC 520 Macintosh Performa 520 Macintosh Performa 550 Macintosh Performa 560 Macintosh LC 550 Macintosh Performa 575 Macintosh Performa 577 Macintosh Performa 578 Macintosh LC 575 Macintosh LC 580 Macintosh Performa 588CD Macintosh Performa 580CD Timetable Released June 28, 1993 October 18, 1993 January 15, 1994 February 2, 1994 February 1, 1994 November 3, 1994 April 3, 1995 April 13, 1995 May 1, 1995 Discontinued February 2, 1994 April 1, 1996 March 23, 1995 April 1, 1996 April 3, 1995 August 1, 1995 May 1, 1996 February 1, 1996 Model Model number M1640 M3872 Order number M1778 (5/80)M1626 (8/80)M1627 (8/160) M2147 M3327 M3119 M3201 M3202 M2618/B (4/160), M2461/B (5/160), M1797/B (8/160) M4059J M3872 Performance Processor 68030 with optional 68882 Floating point unit 68LC040 Clock speed and bus 25 MHz 33 MHz Cache 0.5 kB L1 8 kB L1 Memory 5 MB 8 MB 5 MB or 8 MB 8 MB 5 MB or 8 MB 72 pin 80 ns SIMM Graphics 512 kB VRAM SIMM 1 MB VRAM SIMM Storage Floppy drive Floppy drive Hard drive 80 MB, 160 MB SCSI 160 MB SCSI 80 MB or 160 MB SCSI 250 MB SCSI 320 MB SCSI 160 MB or 320 MB SCSI 500 MB IDE 250 MB or 500 MB IDE Optical drive 2x CD ROM Connectivity 1 LC PDS slot 1 LC PDS slot14.4k modem 1 LC PDS slot14.4k modemComm slot 1 LC PDS slotComm slotVideo I/O slot Video 14" Sony Trinitron RGB (supports resolutions up to 640x480) 14" generic CRT RGB (supports resolutions up to 640x480) Dimensions Weight Volume × × Operating system Minimum System 7.1 System 7.5 Latest release System 7.6.1 Mac OS 8.1