MacEnhancer

Microsoft began producing hardware for Apple with the Z-80 SoftCard, an Apple II processor card, in 1980. The SoftCard also served as Microsoft's first ever hardware product.{{cite web | last=Edwards | first=Benj | date=July 15, 2012 | url=https://www.pcmag.com/news/the-secret-history-of-microsoft-hardware | title=The Secret History of Microsoft Hardware | work=PC Magazine | publisher=Ziff-Davis | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023215745/https://www.pcmag.com/news/the-secret-history-of-microsoft-hardware | archivedate=October 23, 2020}}

When Apple introduced the first Macintosh in 1984, the only printer it supported was Apple's own ImageWriter, which connects to the Macintosh through a serial interface—the only type of connection this Macintosh offers. This dearth in choices for printers led the Macintosh to flounder in the business world, where the IBM PC, and the Apple II before it, achieved widespread adoption owing to their parallel ports, which support a wide variety of printers and other peripherals.{{cite web | last=Tuttle | first=Alan | date=December 27, 2002 | url=https://www.macgeek.org/museum/macenhancer/ | title=Microsoft MacEnhancer | work=MacGeek | publisher=Pearl City Networks | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20030328191015/https://www.macgeek.org/museum/macenhancer/ | archivedate=March 28, 2003}} To rectify this, in January 1985, Microsoft announced the MacEnhancer, an expansion box for the original Macintosh (retronymically dubbed the Macintosh 128K) and the recently released Macintosh 512K. Microsoft's announcement came on the heels of Apple announcing their Macintosh Office initiative to develop more hardware to make the Macintosh attractive to corporate buyers,{{cite journal | last=Staff writer | date=January 23, 1985 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/397892568/ | title=Microsoft Unveils Device to Widen Macintosh Link | journal=The Wall Street Journal | publisher=Dow Jones & Company | page=1 | via=ProQuest | access-date=September 12, 2022 | archive-date=September 26, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926124400/https://www.proquest.com/docview/397892568 | url-status=live }} which bore the LaserWriter printer.{{cite journal | last=Watt | first=Peggy | date=February 18, 1985 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7y4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA19 | title=Mac Hooks to More Printers | journal=InfoWorld | publisher=IDG Publications | volume=7 | issue=7 | page=19 | via=Google Books | access-date=September 12, 2022 | archive-date=September 12, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220912063515/https://books.google.com/books?id=7y4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA19 | url-status=live }}

File:Microsoft MacEnhancer back ports.JPG parallel port, two DB-25 serial ports, one DE-9 RS-422 port, an 8-pin mini-DIN (for connecting to the Macintosh), and the DC power jack]]

The MacEnhancer is an expansion box less than {{convert|12|in|cm}} wide, {{convert|4|in|cm}} deep, and {{convert|1|in|cm}} high.{{cite book | last=Harriman | first=Cynthia | author2=Jack Hodgson | date=1988 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-7pEAAAAIAAJ | title=The MS-DOS–Mac Connection | publisher=Brady | page=191 | isbn=9780134494487 | via=Google Books | access-date=September 12, 2022 | archive-date=September 26, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926124358/https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_MS_DOS_Mac_Connection/-7pEAAAAIAAJ | url-status=live }} It connects to the Macintosh via a cable with an 8-pin mini-DIN connector to the MacEnhancer side and a DE-9 connector on the Macintosh side, to either the Macintosh's RS-422 printer or modem connectors. The MacEnhancer has four ports—one Macintosh-standard DE-9 connector (as a passthrough for the occupied modem or printer connector), two IBM-standard DB-25 RS-232 serial ports, and one IBM-standard DB-25 parallel port.{{cite journal | last=The | first=L. | author2=M. Cadloni | date=March 1985 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A592087/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=Macintosh Port Expander | journal=Personal Computing | publisher=Ziff-Davis | volume=9 | issue=3 | page=188 | via=Gale | access-date=September 12, 2022 | archive-date=September 26, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926124412/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&u=nm_p_oweb&id=GALE%7CA592087&v=2.1&it=r&sid=wikipedia | url-status=live }} Accompanying floppy disks with the MacEnhancer provide the user with a utility used to control the MacEnhancer, device drivers for numerous contemporary printers, and MacTerminal—a terminal emulator.{{cite journal | last=Rosenthal | first=Steve | date=March 1985 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A591479/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=The MacEnhancer: Microsoft's Port Expander for the Mac | journal=A+ | publisher=Ziff-Davis | volume=3 | number=3 | pages=82–85 | via=Gale | access-date=September 12, 2022 | archive-date=September 26, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926124412/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&u=nm_p_oweb&id=GALE%7CA591479&v=2.1&it=r&sid=wikipedia | url-status=live }} While the MacEnhancer allows multiple devices to be connected to it, it does not support output to more than one port at a time.{{cite journal | last=Doherty | first=R. | date=February 25, 1985 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A598746/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=Hardware Accessories Become Lucrative Microsoft Market | journal=Electronic Engineering Times | publisher=UBM LLC | issue=318 | page=84 | via=Gale | access-date=September 12, 2022 | archive-date=September 26, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926124412/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&u=nm_p_oweb&id=GALE%7CA598746&v=2.1&it=r&sid=wikipedia | url-status=live }} The included MacEnhancer software utility allows the user to switch the active port.{{cite book | last=Lu | first=Cary | date=1985 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b-AtAAAAMAAJ | title=Mac: The Apple Macintosh Book | publisher=Microsoft Press | page=111 | isbn=9780914845669 | via=Google Books | access-date=September 12, 2022 | archive-date=September 26, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926124403/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mac/b-AtAAAAMAAJ | url-status=live }}

The MacEnhancer retailed for US$245 ({{inflation|US|245|1985|fmt=eq}}). Microsoft sold out of its initial production run of 4,000 units in April 1985, contracting the manufacture of another 2,000 units that month.{{cite journal | last=Aumack | first=C. | date=April 15, 1985 | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A653910/GPS?sid=wikipedia | title=Microsoft Sells Out Initial Production Runs of 'MacEnhancer' | journal=Computer Retail News | publisher=UBM LLC | issue=97 | page=93 | via=Gale}} On the release of the Macintosh Plus in 1986, the company had to revise the MacEnhancer slightly to account for a missing power rail on one of its rear serial connectors.{{cite journal | last=Moran | first=Tom | date=December 15, 1986 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bDwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA10 | title=SoftStyle Announces Version of Microsoft's MacEnhancer | journal=InfoWorld | publisher=IDG Publications | volume=8 | issue=50 | page=10 | via=Google Books | access-date=September 12, 2022 | archive-date=September 12, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220912063516/https://books.google.com/books?id=bDwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA10 | url-status=live }}

David Ushijima of Macworld gave the MacEnhancer a positive review, calling the included software easy to use and the hardware reliable and broadly supportive as advertised. While he recognized the benefit of having support for different types of printers for different applications (e.g. lower-fidelity dot-matrix printers for graphical work and letter-quality printers for business correspondence), he ultimately dubbed the MacEnhancer an "expensive alternative to plugging and unplugging cables" and only saw real value in the added IBM-standard parallel printer port.{{cite journal | last=Ushijima | first=David | date=November 1985 | url=https://archive.org/details/MacWorld_8511_November_1985/page/n153/ | title=Many Ports in a Storm | journal=Macworld | publisher=IDG Publications | volume=2 | issue=11 | pages=154–158 | via=the Internet Archive}}

Microsoft left the Macintosh hardware market in 1986, selling the hardware and software rights for the MacEnhancer to SoftStyle, a software development company based in Hawaii Kai, Hawaii, that specialized in device drivers. SoftStyle issued another version of the MacEnhancer in late 1986. The box largely remained the same but changed the 9-pin DB passthrough connector to an 8-pin mini-DIN connector—a style of connector that had become standard for Macintosh peripherals with the release of the Plus.{{efn|A 9-pin-DB-cable-to-8-pin mini-DIN adapter cable was included for connecting older Macintosh printers.}} The software also added support for controlling two MacEnhancers plugged into the same Macintosh, effectively giving the Macintosh eight peripheral ports. SoftStyle's MacEnhancer dropped support for the Macintosh 128K because of its requirement for versions of Finder that support HFS (version 5.3 onward).

SoftStyle was acquired by Phoenix Technologies in 1988; the latter terminated all of SoftStyle's Macintosh hardware products after the acquisition. Several ex-programmers for SoftStyle formed Momentum, Inc., in Honolulu, Hawaii. This company marketed the Momentum Port Juggler, which like the MacEnhancer offered several serial ports for Macintosh products. The company fizzled in the late 1990s, after Apple announced that they had ditched mini-DIN serial cables with the Power Macintosh G3 in 1997. Looking retrospectively, Benj Edwards of PC Magazine called the MacEnhancer a "very useful expansion peripheral" and a "lost" hardware product of Microsoft.

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Category:Computer-related introductions in 1985

Category:Macintosh peripherals

Category:Microsoft peripherals