Apple Macintosh SE/30

The Macintosh SE/30 uses a Motorola 68030 processor running at 16 MHz, paired with a Motorola 68882 FPU (floating point unit) on the processor direct slot. This was a significant upgrade from the original Macintosh SE, which used the older Motorola 68000 at 8 MHz. The SE/30 was one of the most powerful compact Macs of its era.

Despite officially supporting 8 MB, the Macintosh SE/30 can actually address up to 128 MB of RAM through its single SIMM slot using 4 MB or 16 MB 30-pin SIMM modules. This unofficial capacity is possible because the 68030's 32-bit memory bus was not artificially limited by the hardware design. This made the SE/30 remarkably capable for its time.

The Macintosh SE/30 was introduced by Apple in January 1989 at a starting price of approximately $4,369 for the base configuration. It was released as the successor to the Macintosh SE and was sold alongside the Macintosh IIx and IIcx. Production was discontinued in October 1991, making it a relatively short-lived but iconic model.

Yes, the SE/30 can connect to the internet using a period-appropriate Ethernet card (such as the Farallon EtherWave or Asante MacCon) installed in its processor direct slot or NuBus adapter, or via a serial-based SLIP/PPP connection with an external modem. Retro computing enthusiasts run early browsers like MacWeb or NCSA Mosaic on the SE/30. Modern broadband speeds are not practical, but basic text-based browsing is achievable.