In the course of the Nineteen Eighties, Apple discovered itself with a number of choices concerning the way forward for its computing platforms. The Apple II was the corporate’s bread and butter. The Apple III was pitched as an evolution of that platform, however was clearly doomed as a result of {hardware} and software program points. The Lisa was costly and never promoting nicely, and whereas the Macintosh aimed to carry Lisa expertise to the lots, sales were slow after its initial release.
These 4 machines are well-known, however there was a fifth risk within the combine, named the Jonathan. In his book Inventing the Future, John Buck writes concerning the idea, which was led by Apple engineer Jonathan Fitch beginning within the fall of 1984. Buck quotes George Cossey, speaking concerning the thought:
I’d identified Jonathan (Fitch) from my diagnostic days on the Lisa. He was one of many principal board designers and I believe that after Lisa was sidelined for the Mac, Fitch was searching for what to do, what was the “subsequent technology” Apple laptop however not a Mac. Loads of the individuals engaged on the Mac wished to keep it up, simply go onto the following iteration of the Mac, as a result of they noticed it as “rising,” and so they didn’t wish to go do one thing that may by no means see the sunshine of day.
This idea envisioned a pc that might develop with the wants of the person, via using modular parts:
Buck additionally writes:
It was a client mannequin laptop that got here with pre-installed operations in addition to a base-level I/O, and it could possibly be upgraded throughout/or after buy to business-centric specs utilizing a novel set of plug- and-play modules. Clients would be capable of add a collection of book-sized modules (for software program and {hardware} choices) that clicked right into a slender docking station sitting underneath the monitor, that itself regarded like a bookshelf. The person software program modules, for the prototype, contained the O/Ss for Apple II, Mac, UNIX, or DOS, whereas the {hardware} choices had been DSP, Ethernet, GenLock (for video), further RAM, mass storage, or an influence provide (for various areas). There have been no cables.
Fitch believed that the machine’s literal spine design might turn out to be the spine of Apple’s future gross sales technique. An ever-expandable laptop that would cowl a number of markets with out Apple needing to make a number of gadgets.
A small group labored on the idea for about eight months earlier than participating Frog Design — yes, that Frog Design — to work on a prototype design to indicate the concept to Apple brass. Buck additionally writes about this in his e book:
When Fitch finally took Jonathan earlier than the manager group it appeared as a smooth slate-grey laptop, that regarded like nothing Apple had performed earlier than. It had a reverse-hinged 13″ CRT monitor that squatted over a line of changeable modules, with a modern-style keyboard and mouse tethered to the facet. The group had added extra choices to the bookshelf for the demonstration together with the modules labeled “Floppy disk” and “third Social gathering.”
The {hardware} additionally pops up in Paul Kunkel’s e book AppleDesign, which you’ll nonetheless get on Amazon. In it, Kunkel describes the {hardware}:
Fitch wished to design a pc round a brand new microprocessor, the Motorola 68030, which might be highly effective sufficient for enterprise and high-end purposes, however is also packaged in a type that might work within the house. With the Macintosh division growing its personal high-end ideas — Large Mac and a modular CPU that might finally turn out to be the Mac II — Fitch’s idea would wish a very totally different structure to differentiate it from the Mac. As an Apple II product, it will have an “open” structure. However slightly than design one other circuitboard-and-slots system, Fitch proposed a extra radical strategy.
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Fitch’s design referred to as for the backplane and observe to help book-shaped modules, every containing circuitboards and chips for operating the Mac OS, Apple II software program, DOS, Home windows, or Unix working techniques, plus different modules for connecting disk drives, modems and networking {hardware}, all plugged into the identical observe. For the reason that backplane was horizontal, and the modules had been small and slender, Fitch imagined the system as a e book on a shelf. “A primary system would have a brief shelf with one or two books. A enterprise setup would have three or 4 books. And an influence system would have seven or eight books on a wider shelf.”
Happy along with his idea, Fitch named it Jonathan (after himself)…
There are very few photographs of this factor on the Web. This set of pictures is from Nicola D’Agostino’s excellent blog post on the subject:
The Kunkel e book accommodates a number of photographs (taken by Rick English) of the mockup as nicely, together with one with a CRT that appears loads like a CRT NeXT would finally ship:
In newer years, Dana Sibera has created a number of wonderful renders of the Jonathan, and was sort sufficient to share them with me for this put up. In the event you don’t observe Dana on Mastodon or Bluesky, it’s best to repair that as we speak.
I notably love the Platinum model she created, which has some grounding in actuality, as at least one mockup was built utilizing the lighter shade.
Listed below are a number of of her renders within the slate shade:
The final thought was easy, however in follow, this machine would have been a nightmare.
The spine of the system would wish to simply accept modules from Apple and different corporations, letting customers construct what they wanted by way of performance, as D’Agostino writes:
(Fitch) designed a easy {hardware} “spine” carrying primary operations and I/O on which the person might add a collection of “e book” modules, carrying {hardware} for operating Apple II, Mac, UNIX and DOS software program, plus different modules with disk drives or networking capabilities.
This meant that each person might have their very own distinctive Jonathan setup, pulling collectively varied software program platforms, storage gadgets, and {hardware} capabilities into their very own personalised system. Imagining what would have been required for all this to work collectively provides me a headache. Along with the shared spine interface, there would have to be software program written to make an almost-endless variety of configurations work easily for essentially the most demanding of customers. It was all very ambitions, however maybe just a little too far-fetched.
Buck’s e book reviews on how Apple executives responded to the idea:
Whereas the design and performance of the prototype drew reward, the general idea raised bigger issues. Fitch anticipated IBM customers to purchase a Jonathan with particular person DOS and Apple software program modules, then develop uninterested in Microsoft’s UI, and finally go for Apple’s OS full-time.
Kunkel expands on these issues:
Jean-Louis Gassée delivered the primary hit by observing that Apple must promote two or three Jonathans to equal the revenue of a single Mac II. Others complained that Jonathan would compete with the Mac II. Then Sculley delivered the coup de grâce — voicing the concern that when the Mac and DOS had been supplied on the identical platform, extra Mac customers may transfer to DOS then DOS customers would transfer to the Mac. “That reasoning floored us,” says Fitch. “Apparently, Sculley had much less religion within the Mac than we did.”
Sculley was in all probability proper to be involved, and paired with the sheer complexity of such a undertaking, the Jonathan was scrapped in the summertime of 1985.
Satirically, Apple would supply DOS help by way of add-on cards years later. The group’s plans for utilizing the 68030 would additionally turn out to be useful when that CPU landed within the Mac IIx and IIfx.
The phrase “forward of its time” is commonly thrown round when speaking about computer systems from the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties, and within the case of the Jonathan, I believe it completely matches. Trendy Macs can run software program from the command line, all the best way up via apps written for the Mac, iPad, iPhone, and the online. Home windows and Linux apps may also be run if the person is keen to leap via the best hoops.
In fact, all of that is performed in software program, not {hardware}. The Jonathan tried fixing a software program drawback with {hardware} expandability, which made sense within the Nineteen Eighties. Simply ask TI-99 followers. Even right here in 2024, there are of us trying to make this sort of thing work.
My understanding is that the undertaking by no means made it previous the “conversations and mockups” stage. I get why the Jonathan by no means made it past the idea part, however a part of me needs I might spherical up a bunch of modules meant for this platform. At the least we’ve some enjoyable pictures and renders to get pleasure from.