Macintosh Workstations Available to Purchase

RENOVATING APPLE: THE MACINTOSH IIFX AS EVIDENCE. Last month Apple released a new high‐end Macintosh, dubbed the IIfx, aimed squarely at the technical workstation market. Utilizing a 68030 processor speeding along at 40 MHz, the IIfx is competitive with products such as Sun Microsystems' Sparcstation. Are there clues to Apple's future plans with the Macintosh product line imbedded in the novelty of the IIfx, or is it an evolutionary extension of IIci, IIcx, and IIx into the realm of veritable workstations? More important, does the IIfx represent a new direction for Apple, in light of its turbulent history over the past six months? Let's examine some of these events and place the IIfx in context.