Opening up the 30yr old Mac - Computerphile

Opening up the impenetrable Mac - Just what is inside this 30 year old Macintosh? Dr Steve Bagley opens it up in order to upgrade it and show us how it works.

This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley.

[mattj]

The teddy bear toss to Professor Brailsford is epic.

[KrzysztofBob]

My first PC had 4 MB of RAM ... but that was almost 9 years after the Mac was released. At the time it must have been ginormous amount of memory.

[Barnacules]

Be careful taking those little bastards apart. The flyback transformer in those will hold a jolt that will stop your heart for many years after being unplugged.

[Doc_Fartens]

This is EXACTLY the sort of video I've been waiting for. 

[silmarian]

Oh, man, flashback city. I worked on these a lot back in the day. Worked the iMacs, too, when those came out (and everything between, but must those didn't integrated crts). I learned how to 'safely' drain the capacitors on the crt using a pair of screwdrivers, but every time I did was with my heart my mouth.

I knew a guy who forgot to drain the crt once. He survived but had nerve damage in his hands from the discharge and a concussion from whacking his head on the wall behind him.

[amigachris]

my 1985 amiga 1000 also has the case signatures. interestingly noted a team member worked on both machines! same sig..

[unlokia]

Engineer's tip: You don't screw something back together *UNTIL* you've tested it as fully working, or you'll waste A LOT of time unscrewing and screwing it back together.

[pcfreak]

I am not surprised he already lost some screws, the way he treated them when he opened the thing :D

[damienharrison]

2.5 MB of ram was a lot in those days, my pc back then had 1 kB upgraded to 16 kB. I was 9 years old.

[SirCutRy]

Did you know that we will run out of YouTube URL's in 15 billion years. That is alarming.

[Mulletsrokkify]

The CRT can contain a high voltage charge for a while, but its easily discharged with a screwdriver under the anode cap and a wire to earth. I've had quite a few shocks working on CRT's in the past and I can confirm that it will not throw you across the room and it will not kill you.

[Deejavu]

"To make things harder - just as Apples still do today..." made me smile.

[okaro]

It also had 16 bit ALU. I personally view it 32 bit as later pure 32 bit CPUs ran exactly same code. While it could use "only" 16 MB memory, in principle it could have used full 4 GB if it had had enough address lines so same code could use full 4 GB on later models. Intel 8086/88 on the other hand was hard fixed to 1 MB. To use more on later CPUs one needed different code, first 16 bit protected and then 32 bit.

Original Mac had 128 kB memory.

[davesmith]

Besides being extremely interesting, all your accents are so goddamn pleasant to listen to.

[Sb]

There's something special about updating ancient hardware/software you used to use

[Brycereigle]

This was a true treat to see the inside of such a vintage pc. Thanks

[troyadams]

Adding "Unless you're willing to die" to the end of the "Don't try this at home" warning definitely made it more effective.

[ergcentric]

2:39 knowing about the signatures got me my first job, thanks Byte Magazine!

[rdoetjes]

I love the 68000 it was so well made and far better than any Intel at the time.

[xmame]

Lol I love it when he says.... "Please don't try this at home unless you are willing to die"