March 10, 1987: Let’s Expand!

During the creation of the original Mac, there was a struggle over whether to provide a single slot so users could expand the Mac's capabilities. Steve Jobs was strongly opposed to the idea, preferring that users buy a new machine instead of upgrading their old ones. Burrel Smith, electronic genius behind the original Mac, did not feel the same way and tried to sneak an expansion port onto the original Mac in the form of a diagnostic port. Unfortunately for purchasers of the original Mac, Mr. Smith’s plans were discovered and expansion options for the original Mac were severely limited.

Users badly wanted some sort of expansion for their compact Macs and Apple finally caved. The Mac SE was introduced and while it kept the classic Mac form factor, it did include a single expansion slot. Users used the slot to install everything from a DOS card to accelerators.

Those who wanted to expand their compact Macs got the chance to spend a minimum of $2,900 for a model with an expansion slot, this month in 1987.