 This is another
computer in the rather abundant LC 5xx series. This model I actually
used for quite a while since it was the "Multimedia Station"
at my school library. Sadly, it has since been confined to a
lonely office with the floppy drive locked with the arrival of
new PowerMacs last year. Anyway, the LC 580 was released in April
of 1995, and has yet to be discontinued. It's pretty similar
to the rest of the computers in the 5xx series except for a few
different configurations. The LC 580 came with System 7.5 preinstalled,
and was also released as in two Performa versions with the standard
home-based software and modem. The memory was doubled to 8MB
(expandable to 52MB), and the SCSI hard disk drive was replaced
with the cheaper IDE drive, holding 500MB. The 580 also included
TV input/output jacks that could operate in "mirror mode"
like PowerBooks do for presentations. Besides that, it came with
the same processor as the LC 575, a 68LC040 running at 33 MHz,
the same built-in 14" Trinitron display, and the same single
PDS slot and comm slot, for graphics acceleration or DOS compatiblity,
etc. But, overall Apple designed it with a multimedia slant the
multimedia slant that made preceding models very popular among
homes and schools. They were smart to stick with this formula,
since it proved successful for Apple. The 580 and its counterparts
are a great machine for educational as well as home use. |