Macintosh SE/30

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 32 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,^[1] supported no more than 10 MB of memory, lacked an internal expansion slot, and made the Motorola 68882 FPU an optional upgrade.

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.^[2][3]

SE/30 has 64K of dedicated video RAM unlike SE, improving display performance by avoiding memory interleaving.^[4] 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.^[2][5]

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.^[6] 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.^[2] A standard SE/30 can run up to System 7.5.5,^[7] since Mac OS 7.6 requires a "32-bit clean" ROM.^[8]

Although Apple did not support doing so at SE/30's launch, with 68030's PMMU,^[2][4] SE/30 can run A/UX, Apple's older version of Unix with Mac OS compatibility.^[9]

From March 1989 Apple offered an upgrade for SE owners to SE/30 by replacing the logic board and chassis,^[2] although they cannot reuse SE's 150ns RAM.^[4] 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.^[10]

• Macintosh SE/30:^[11] Available in multiple configurations.
  • US$4,369 (equivalent to $11,350 in 2025): 1 MB RAM, No hard disk
  • US$4,869 (equivalent to $12,650 in 2025): 1 MB RAM, 40 MB hard disk
  • US$6,569 (equivalent to $17,060 in 2025): 4 MB RAM, 80 MB hard disk^[3]

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.^[4] 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".^[2] 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.^[5] 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.^[3]

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,”^[12] 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^[13] (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^[12] and even make the SE/30 work as a remote control for Spotify.^[14]

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.^[15]

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.^[16]

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