The MacCharlie was a hardware add-on for the original Apple Macintosh (Macintosh 128K) that was made by Dayna Communications. It allowed users to run DOS software for the

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

PC by clipping a unit onto the chassis of the Macintosh 128K, and included a keyboard extender to provide the function keys and numeric keypad that are absent from Apple's original keyboard. The name refers to an

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the List of IBM Personal Computer models, IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible ''de facto'' standard. Released on ...

advertising campaign of the time featuring

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...

's " Little Tramp" character. The clip-on unit sits to the side of the Mac and, like the contemporary Amiga Sidecar, contains essentially a complete IBM PC compatible with an 8088 processor, 256 KB of RAM (expandable to 640 KB) and a single 5.25"

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...

drive that stores 360 KB. A second floppy drive could be added. While running DOS software using MacCharlie, users could still access the Macintosh menu bar and desk accessories. However, the DOS environment, which ran in a window, was text-only and did not permit Macintosh applications to run concurrently while in use. MacCharlie used the Mac as a terminal, performing all DOS processing itself, and sent video data over a relatively slow serial link to the Mac for display. This slowness, coupled with the declining prices of real IBM PC compatibles, contributed to the short market life of the MacCharlie.

References

External links

1985 Advertisement hosted by The Mac Mothership
1985 review article at the New York Times IBM PC compatibles Macintosh peripherals Macintosh platform Products introduced in 1985 Compatibility cards {{mac-stub

See also

References

External links