Macintosh 128K

This one takes you back in time in the 1980s. Macintosh 128K or "Apple Macintosh" is the original Apple Macintosh personal computer.

Its beige case contained a 9 in (23 cm) monitor and came with a keyboard and mouse. A handle in the top of the case made it easier for the computer to be lifted and carried.

The machine was powered by a Motorola 68000 microprocessor connected to a 128 kB DRAM by a 16-bit data bus. Lack of RAM proved to be a fatal constraint to much multimedia software, and it could not be upgraded. A 64 kB ROM chip boosted the effective memory to 192 kB, but this is offset by the display's 22 kB framebuffer, which is shared with the DMA video controller.

The 68000 and video controller take turns accessing DRAM every four CPU cycles during display of the frame buffer, while the 68000 has unrestricted access to DRAM during vertical and horizontal blanking intervals. Such an arrangement reduces the overall performance of the CPU as much as 35% for most codes as the display logic often blocks the CPU's access to RAM. This made the machine appear to run more slowly than several of its competitors, despite the nominally high clock rate.