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What was the Outbound?
The Outbound was produced in the early 1990s by a direct-sales firm which also produced accessories and peripherals for the PowerBook. The Outbound employed an innovative method of getting the Mac OS to run on its computers. As Apple had refused to licence the Mac OS in 1985, duplication or reverse engineering was impossible without breaching international patency laws.
As a result, Outbound began purchasing large volumes of old Mac Plusses. Removing the ROMs from the machines, Outbound sourced 68000 and 68030 processors from Motorola. Putting these together with a Sony SuperDrive meant you effectively had a Mac OS computer.
Although Apple and Sony had made an ergonomic and technological breakthrough
with the design of the PowerBook 100, the 100 did not sell particularly
well until its price dropped to about $US1,000 in the wake of the release
of the PowerBooks 145, 160 and 180. The 100, while notionally twice as
fast as the SE and Classic, ran only a 16MHz 68000 processor. While Outbound
offered a 68000 in its entry-level model, it ran at 20MHz. Unlike the PB100,
the Outbound 2000 offered a standard internal floppy and a 120MB hard drive
option. All Outbounds offered something no Mac PowerBook until the PowerBook
500 series: an upgradeable CPU. While it was possible to upgrade the
Outbound, few probably did as the firm went into liquidation after a couple
of years with their inventory being bought by another company. They provided
technical support for Outbounds for a while afterwards.
| Model | CPU | MHz | FPU | Maximum RAM | Hard drive* | Upgradeable CPU |
| 2000 | 68000 | 20 | No | 4MB | 120MB | Yes |
| 2030 | 68030 | 20 | Opt | 4MB | 120MB | Yes |
| 2030E | 68030 | 25 | Opt | 14MB | 120MB | Yes |
| 2030S | 68030 | 33 | Opt | 14MB | 120MB | Yes |
| 2030V | 68030 | 40 | Opt | 16MB | 120MB | No |
* Largest optional hard drive available.
AS you can see from the table, the Outbound offered quite a few options unavailable to PB owners - and ones which did not become available until the 2nd generation 160 and 180 series emerged. The Outbound 2030S proved faster than the 170 or 160 PBs and was only finally matched by the 180. Moreover, an FPU was optional on all but the low-end model. Only the 170 and, later, the 180 offered this option - and even then it was not a delete option. The Outbound 2000 and 2030 offered only a 4MB RAM limit which was a major shortcoming against the PB1100 and 140's 8MB, but this shortcoming was later overcome thanks to RAMDoubler. Moreover, Outbound high-end models had 14 and 16MB ceilings which comfortably exceeded that of the 170 and Apple did not have competitors for the 2030E and 2030S models until they introduced the PB160 and 180. In 1991, BYTE magazine declared, "For me, the Outbound is the better choice."
The top-of-the-line Outbound 2030V offered a 40MHz 68030, the same as the the 'wicked-fast' Mac IIfx, although it was limited by 150ns RAM. Using faster RAM in the standard SIMM slots might not work. Other downsides included the lead-acid batteries (like the PB100). The screen was a 10" B&W like the PBs, but it fell behind the 160 and 180 screens by the time Outbound folded in December 1992.
Outbound also offered a handy external monitor solution for owners of Outbounds and 1st generation PowerBooks. Known as the Outbound Outrigger Monitor, it connected to the Mac/Outbound SCSI port (remembering the 100/140/170 had no video output) using a normal HDI-30 SCSI cable (other external monitor solutions required special cables). It was a full page portrait monitor and had its own CPU and an additional SCSI port so your SCSI wasn't tied up just to a monitor. Clever, hey?
If you spot one of these things, it might be worth a small investment. It's as usable as any 100-180 series PB, although unfortunately it looks like a Toshiba. All 68000 and 68030 compatible softwar should work with it.
Might even be worth something one day...
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