website/content/museum/unitron-brazil-mac-512.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Unitron (Brazil) Mac 512	Computers	Professional Computer	Brazil	1985	Motorola 68000	name image company company_name specs tabs photos links comments oc_id source Mac 512 /media/museum/photos/unitron_mac512_system_s1.jpg /companies/unitron-brazil Unitron (Brazil) label value NAME Mac 512 label value MANUFACTURER Unitron (Brazil) label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN Brazil label value YEAR 1985 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE None label value KEYBOARD Full stroke qwerty 58 keys label value CPU Motorola 68000 label value SPEED Unknown label value RAM 512 KB label value ROM 64 KB label value TEXT MODES 40 chars x 32 lines bit-mapped label value GRAPHIC MODES 512 x 342 dots label value COLORS Monochrome label value SOUND Unknown label value SIZE / WEIGHT Probably same as the original Mac 512 label value BUILT IN MEDIA 3.5'' floppy disk drive label value OS A thing called ''System'' (actually it was a MacOS version translated and adpted by Unitron). label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit label value PRICE Unknown photos links title subtitle text image UNITRON MAC 512 Thanks to **www.cobit.cjb.net** /media/museum/photos/unitron_mac512_system_s3.jpg title subtitle text image BLACK KEYBOARD #1 With auto-eject drive Thanks to **www.cobit.cjb.net** /media/museum/photos/unitron_mac512_system_s4.jpg title subtitle text image BLACK KEYBOARD #2 Thanks to **www.cobit.cjb.net** /media/museum/photos/unitron_mac512_system_s2.jpg title subtitle text image APPLE & UNITRON Side by side, the original Apple Macintosh, and the Unitron copy.\ The original Apple keyboard is here replaced with a large PC-AT-like keyboard from DataDesk International, compatible with the original (128K to Plus) Mac Thanks to **Jecel Assumpcao Jr** /media/museum/photos/unitron_mac512_withapplemac.jpg title subtitle text image DUAL FDD VERSION There could have been a small Unitron production of this dual FDD version.\ The patch was really ugly (see 'Unitron label' picture) /media/museum/photos/unitron_mac512_dualfdd_s1.jpg title subtitle text image UNITRON LABEL Notice also the ugly patch of this dual FDD version. A cable is attached to the regular external floppy connector and then doubles back going in through a crack in the case to the floppy near the front. Thanks to **Jecel Assumpcao Jr** for information and picture. /media/museum/photos/unitron_mac512_label_s2.jpg title subtitle text image INSIDE Thanks to **Jecel Assumpcao Jr** /media/museum/photos/unitron_mac512_inside_s1.jpg title subtitle text image INSIDE #2 One can see the solder side of the video and power supply card. Thanks to **Jecel Assumpcao Jr** /media/museum/photos/unitron_mac512_opened_s1.jpg title subtitle text image MAINBOARD The missing chip, close to the 68000 processor, was for the SCSI interface. So, this version wasn't a pure Mac512 clone. The small board sitting on center holds the real time clock chip made for Unitron by National. This ended up having a few bugs so the designers needed to add some TTL chips to work around them. This was done by creating a small board with the chip and fixes that would fit into the socket for the chip. It is interesting to note how *everything* is socketed in contrast to production Macs where practically nothing was.\ Another interesting detail are several small light grey boards - these fit into board positions designed for resistor networks. These probably proved hard to buy for the initial production run and were replaced with these boards built using descrete resistors. Thanks to **Jecel Assumpcao Jr** /media/museum/photos/unitron_mac512_mainboard_s2.jpg title subtitle text image USER'S MANUAL Thanks to **Jecel Assumpcao Jr** /media/museum/photos/unitron_mac512_manual_s1.jpg title url text Detailed information about the Unitron Mac story. (.pdf file) http://imv.au.dk/sts/arbejdspapirer/WP1_web.pdf .pdf file title url text Very interesting Unitron 'Turbo' Mac page http://www.lsi.usp.br/~jecel/mac512.html By Jecel Assumpção Jr, designer of the Turbo version. author date text Gilberto Martins (Brazil) Saturday 25th January 2020 Just a little correction to Ricardo Tolomelli, the so called protection to brazilian industry and technology has been imposed after the brazilian military government, by the president José Sarney. MSX could only be bought on the black market, mainly (but not uniquely) from Paraguay. author date text Edward W. Jackson (Missouri, USA) Saturday 14th September 2013 When I was a college student, in 1984. These little Macintosh computers were so expensive, nobody could buy them. I would had loved to had the Brazilian copycat computer. I was so mad at Macintosh for the expensive computer, which I had to use at the University to type my homework on. I resolved never to buy an Apple product. Years later, delivering air freight, Apple still "pimps" their products to kids, and the poor parents have to pay out of their pocket for overpriced computers! author date text Ricardo Tolomelli (Brazil) Wednesday 27th June 2012 During the military dictatorship in Brazil, which lasted till 1986, the government applied rules to "protect" brazilian industry and technology development by forbidding any kind of import for products that we "could produce" here. The cloning industry was then : supported" by the government when they showed they could produce similar computer with "local technology", in fact they were just cloning and manufacturing them here, the development involved was just on how to produce the same components here and not import anything. I used to have and Apple I and Apple II clones, both from Microdigital, and an MSX from Gradiente (which I''m not sure if it was cloned or licensed, but it was fully produced in Brazil). Those were the only options we could find on the (white) market during those days. Anything apart from it has to be illegally imported, and was very hard to find (not to mention their programs). Those "protection" laws were on until beginning of 90''s, when Fernando Collor, the president, $ped them, and the cloning industry died. Actually, that was the only good thing he did to our country... but that''s another story. author date text Pomme (Europe) Tuesday 26th July 2005 This is one of the reasons i love Apple, if you make a think whit effort and love on it and somebody simply steal your ideas Make them PAY (or blast their country) Mac power! The first thing is the dignity, after the market. Tolerate the system pirates is like tolerate the spam with a smile on face. 997 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230607233623/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=997 2023-06-07

This machine was the first Macintosh clone in the whole world.

In Brazil it is almost unknown and there are people who doubt its existence, but it really did exist!
This computer almost started a commercial war between Brazil and the United States. Apple persuaded the U.S. government to use everything it could against the Brazilian clone makers (increases in import taxes for brazilian products such as orange juice, shoes, etc.) until this machine was no longer made.

Brazil had a tradition since the beginning of the 80's of cloning computers without permission from the original brand owners (see the lawsuit moved by Sinclair against Microdigital). Apple had so far tolerated brazilian clones of the Apple II, but not this time...

There were differences between this machine and genuine Macs: Some of Unitron's macs had keyboards with black keys, some others had grey keys. Some versions had a disc drive with a button to eject the disc, others were like the original Mac and had no button in its disc drive.

The end of making Brazilian Mac clones may have been not good for Apple in the long run since it opened the doors of Brazilian market to PC clones that didn't have such restrictions.

Thanks to Ernesto Hublard from Brazil for information.

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Jonas Pachciarek Roter adds:
I would say that Apple's decision to sue Unitron was a huge mistake. Not that they shouldn't do something but how it was done.
This decision made them stay out of our market for more than ten years. Currently Apple's local market share is still very small.
IBM's decision to tolerate clones made them stronger and is most probably the reason why 99% of the market uses IBM XT descendents.

We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.