The Invention of The Mac
By Ethan C. Glasgow
The Mac was an invention of a smaller, better, faster computer than any other. I personally find it interesting because I love computers. If you read Inventors and Inventions a couple weeks ago, you would realize that I am intrigued by Steve Jobs, an inventor and one of my personal heroes but unfortunately, he died in 2011.
Luckily, Steve Wozniak is still alive. On many websites and in many documents written by Jobs in the ‘80s I can tell you how, why and where The Mac was created and even tell you about some modern Macs they are in retail right now. Let us begin.
The Mac, also called Apple Macintosh was a series of computers designed by Steve Jobs, a futuristic businessman and entrepreneur. This computer introduced GUI (Gradual user interface) and the mouse (a concept earlier made by Douglas Englebart). The GUI made this computer the first one of many to be commercially successful. The GUI Idea, just like the mouse, was not an idea by Apple Inc.
The GUI idea was first introduced at Xerox but it was not commercialize it quickly. Apple took this idea and went along with it for the Macintosh computer of 1984 and proved a wonderful success thanks to the Super Bowl advertisement they used. Thanks to this, Apple created their own system hardware which can click ‘icons’ or pictures that they wanted to use instead of putting them on a command line.
The Macintosh 512 KB contained a Motorola 68000 microprocessor which ran at 8 MHz. It contained 512 KB of RAM and 64 KB of ROM and initially had a 400 KB Floppy disk drive. Applications included MacWrite, a word processor, and MacPaint, a drawing program that turned the mouse into a paintbrush. Shortly after the 512 KB appeared, Apple also introduced a LaserWriter printer, which enabled desktop publishing for individuals and small businesses. Over time, Apple computers would appeal most strongly to artists and designers, while the IBM/DOS line of computers sold better in business markets.
Now, I know that this may seem confusing to you and you can search the word microprocessor the next time that you are allowed to use Google to search something. People have invented more and More Macs over the years and they no longer have 512KB of data. They have up to 13 TB (Terabytes) of data! That is incredible. Apple Inc.’s latest edition to the Mac family (The Macbook Pro) came out on 9th July 2019 with hopefully more on the way for 2020.
Ethan Carlton Glasgow is a student at St. Mary’s College in Form I. He enjoys Science, History, cricket and golf.