Macintosh IIfx

The Macintosh IIfx was a model of Apple Macintosh computer, introduced in 1990 as the fastest Mac, and discontinued in 1992. At introduction it cost from US$9,000 to US$12,000, depending on configuration.

It had many code-names, including Stealth, BlackBird, F-16, F-19, Four Square, IIxi, Zone 5, and Weed-Whacker.

Dubbed "Wicked Fast," by Macworld magazine, as it ran at a clock rate of an astounding 40 megahertz, had 32 KB of Level 2 cache, and included a number of proprietary ASICs designed to speed up the machine further. These required software written specifically for the IIfx, to take advantage of them. Interesting to note is that when Apple said 40 MHz, they really meant it. That speed referred to both the main logic board clock (the bus), as well as the speed of both processors (a Motorola 68030 CPU and a Motorola 68882 FPU). The machine had 8 RAM slots, for a maximum of 128 MB RAM, a tremendous amount at the time.

The IIfx featured specialized high-speed (80 ns) RAM using 64-pin SIMMs, at a time when all other Macintosh models used 30-pin SIMMs. The extra pins were a separate path to allow latched read and write operations. The IIfx also included two special dedicated processors for sound and serial communications. These I/O chips featured a pair of embedded 6502 CPUs, meaning that this Mac also had the core of two Apple II machines inside it (albeit at 10MHz rather than the 1MHz of the Apple II). However the machine's architecture did not expose these CPUs to developers.

The IIfx used SCSI as its hard disk interface, as had all previous Macintosh models since the Macintosh Plus. The IIfx required a special black-colored SCSI terminator for external drives, however.

The IIfx was the apex of Apple's 68030 machines, and was replaced at the top of Apple's lineup by the Macintosh Quadra series.