The Mac startup sound has been part of the Mac experience since the 1980s, changing into the familiar sustained chord in the 1990s. This T2 version is linked to Intel Macs built around Apple’s T2 security chip, released from 2017 onward in models like the iMac Pro, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. As Apple later removed the chime from newer machines, recordings of it spread online as a nostalgic shorthand for booting up, fixing a computer, or starting a tech video, and it remains widely reused in edits and memes.