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The Sander-Wozniak Integrated Machine (SWIM), also known as the Super Wozniak Integrated Machine is a floppy disk controller that was developed by Wendell Sander to supersede the Integrated Woz Machine, which had been used in early Macintosh models.

Description

The SWIM chip was first introduced with the Macintosh IIx on September 19, 1988. This version added the capability of reading and writing FM and MFM-formatted (PC) floppy disks when paired with a FDHD mechanism, also marketed as "SuperDrive".[1] The chip had also been made available as part of an Apple FDHD Macintosh II Upgrade Kit (part number M0244) for the original Macintosh II.[2] However, reading MS-DOS or ProDOS disks initially required the use of Apple File Exchange, until PC Exchange became available in 1992.[1][3]

Discontinuation

The SWIM controller was used through most of the "beige" era of 68K and PowerPC Macs until it was phased out with the introduction of the iMac in 1998.[4] The very first iMac G3 revision still had a SWIM and floppy drive connector on the motherboard, allowing a floppy drive to be retrofitted by knowledgeable enthusiasts.[5]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 SuperDrives Stumble, TidBITS no.2. 1990-04-23.
  2. ↑ Apple Macintosh II M0244 FDHD ROM/SWIM Upgrade Kit (M0244 part only) new sealed, WorthPoint. 2017-10-18.
  3. ↑ Round Up the Usual Suspects by Doug and Denise Green, InfoWorld Target Edition, p.S13. 1989-08-07.
  4. ↑ #1 Temporal Loop - Birth of the iMac by Thomas Hormby, The Mac Observer. 2007-05-25.
  5. ↑ iMac Floppy Kit. Corporate Systems Center (2001-04-14). Archived from the original on 14 April 2001. Retrieved on 24 January 2020.

External links