Macintosh LC 500 Series - LC 550

LC 550

Macintosh LC 550
Release date October 18, 1993 (MP550)
February 2, 1994 (MLC550)
Introductory price 1200 - 2500
Discontinued March 23, 1995
Operating system System 7.1-System 7.5, Mac OS 7.5.1-Mac OS 7.6.1
CPU Motorola 68030 @ 33 MHz
Memory 5 MB, expandable to 36 MB (80 ns 72-pin SIMM)

The Macintosh LC 550 (codename: "Hook 33") replaced the LC 520 in February 1994, and was discontinued in favor of either the LC 580 on the lower end or the PowerPC-based Power Macintosh 5200 LC models at the higher end. The Performa variants were in fact introduced earlier, the 550 in October 1993 and the 560 in January 1994, and remained available for more than a year longer, until April 1996.

The main difference between the 550 and the 520 is the faster 68030 CPU, clocked at 33 MHz instead of 25 MHz, with the bus speed also increasing from 25 to 33 MHz. The Performa variants differ only in the software bundle that was included, with the 550 including only consumer applications and the 560 including additional business applications. Like the 520, the optical drive did not use a loading tray, but instead utilized a caddy in which the disk was first inserted, and then the caddy was loaded into the drive.

This motherboard is essentially the same one used in the Macintosh Color Classic II, an upgrade to the original Color Classic not available in the United States. Apple also offered the same upgrade package for the 520 to the LC 575 logic board.

Read more about this topic:  Macintosh LC 500 Series