The 1977 Apple II, shown here with twin floppy disk drives and a monitor. The Apple II featured an integrated keyboard, color graphics, sound, a plastic case, and eight internal expansion slots.

The Apple II (often written as Apple ][ or Apple //) was the first mass produced microcomputer product manufactured by Apple. microcomputer is a Computer with a Microprocessor as its Central processing unit. Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics It was the earliest and most successful home computers. In terms of ease of use, features and expandability the Apple II was a major technological advancement over its predecessor, the Apple I, a limited production bare circuit board computer for electronics hobbyists which pioneered many features that made the Apple II a commercial success. The Apple I, also known as the Apple-1, was an early Personal computer. A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect Electronic components using conductive pathways or traces Introduced at the West Coast Computer Faire in 1977, the Apple II was among the first successful personal computers and responsible for launching the Apple company into a successful business. The West Coast Computer Faire was an annual computer industry conference and exposition most often associated with San Francisco, its first and most frequent venue A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated Throughout the years a number of different models were introduced and sold, with the most popular model manufactured having relatively minor changes even into the 1990s. By the end of its production in 1993, somewhere between five and six million Apple II series computers (including approximately 1. 25 million Apple IIGS models) had been produced.

Throughout the 1980s and much of the 1990s, the Apple II was the de facto standard computer in American education; some of them are still operational in classrooms today. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Apple II was popular with business users as well as with families and schools, particularly after the release of the popular spreadsheet, VisiCalc, which initially ran only on the Apple II. A spreadsheet is a Computer application that simulates a paper worksheet VisiCalc was the first Spreadsheet program available for personal computers

The original Apple II operating system was only the built-in BASIC interpreter contained in ROM. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination In Computer programming, BASIC (an Acronym for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of High-level programming languages Apple DOS was added to support the diskette drive; the last version was "Apple DOS 3. Apple DOS refers to Operating systems for the Apple II series of microcomputers from 1979 through early 1983 3". Apple DOS was superseded by ProDOS to support a hierarchical filesystem and larger storage devices. ProDOS (the Professional Disk Operating System) became the most popular Operating system for the Apple II series of With an optional Z80 based expansion card the Apple II could even run the popular Wordstar and dBase software under the CP/M operating system. The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit Microprocessor designed and sold by Zilog from July 1976 onwards An expansion card (also expansion board, adapter card or accessory card) in Computing is a Printed circuit board that can be inserted WordStar was a Word processor application published by MicroPro, originally written for the CP/M operating system but later ported to DOS, that dBase was the first widely used Database management system (DBMS for Microcomputers published by Ashton-Tate for CP/M, and later on the CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers is an Operating system originally created for Intel 8080 / 85 based Microcomputers by Gary Kildall At the height of its evolution, towards the late 1980s, the platform had the graphical look of a hybrid of the Apple II and Macintosh with the introduction of the Apple IIGS. By 1992, the platform featured 16-bit processing capabilities, a mouse driven Graphical User Interface and graphic and sound capabilities far beyond the original.

After years of focus on Apple's Macintosh product line, it finally eclipsed the Apple II series in the early 1990s. Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc Even after the introduction of the Macintosh, the Apple II had remained Apple's primary revenue source for years: the Apple II and its associated community of third-party developers and retailers were once a billion-dollar-a-year industry. The Apple IIGS model was sold through to the end of 1992. The Apple IIe model was removed from the product line on October 15, 1993, ending an era. Events 533 - Byzantine General Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar)

Design

The Apple II was designed to look more like a home appliance than a piece of electronic equipment. Small appliance refers to a class of Home appliances that are portable or semi-portable or which are used on tabletops countertops or other platforms This was a computer that would not seem out of place in the home, on a manager's desk or in a classroom. The lid popped easily off the beige plastic case, however, allowing access to the computer's internals, including the motherboard with eight expansion slots, and an array of random access memory (RAM) sockets which could hold up to 48 Kilobytes worth of memory chips. A motherboard is the central or primary Printed circuit board (PCB making up a complex electronic system such as a modern Computer or Laptop An expansion card (also expansion board, adapter card or accessory card) in Computing is a Printed circuit board that can be inserted A kilobyte (derived from the SI prefix Kilo -, meaning 1000 is a unit of Information or Computer storage equal to either 1024

The Apple II had color and high-resolution graphics modes, sound capabilities and one of two built-in BASIC programming languages (initially Integer, later Applesoft). The Apple II graphics were comprised of idiosyncratic modes and settings that could be exploited In Computer programming, BASIC (an Acronym for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of High-level programming languages Integer BASIC, written by Steve Wozniak, was the BASIC interpreter of the Apple I and original Apple II computers Applesoft BASIC was a dialect of BASIC supplied on the Apple II computer superseding Integer BASIC. Compared with earlier microcomputers, these features were well-documented and easy to learn. The Apple II sparked the beginning of the personal computer revolution, as it was targeted for the masses rather than just hobbyists and engineers; its introduction and subsequent popularity also greatly influenced most of the microcomputers that followed it. The history of computing hardware starting at 1960 is marked by the conversion from Vacuum tube to solid state devices such as the Transistor and later "VanLOVEs Apple Handbook" and "The Apple Educators Guide" by Gerald VanDiver and Rolland Love reviewed more than 1,500 software programs that the Apple II series could use. The Apple dealer network used this book to emphasize the growing software developer base in education and personal use. The books became part of the Apple program and became the first book on database.

Models

See also the Timeline of computing article. This article presents a detailed timeline of events in the history of Computing.

Apple II

The first Apple II computers went on sale on June 6, 1977 with a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor running at 1 MHz, 4 kB of RAM, an audio cassette interface for loading programs and storing data, and the Integer BASIC programming language built into the ROMs. Events 1508 - Maximilian I Holy Roman Emperor, is defeated in Friulia by Venetian forces; he is forced to sign a three-year Also 1977 (album by Ash. Year 1977 ( MCMLXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays MOS Technology Inc, also known as CSG (Commodore Semiconductor Group, was a semiconductor design and fabrication company based in Norristown Pennsylvania The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit Microprocessor that was designed by Chuck Peddle for MOS Technology in 1975 The hertz (symbol Hz) is a measure of Frequency, informally defined as the number of events occurring per Second. The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a Magnetic tape sound Integer BASIC, written by Steve Wozniak, was the BASIC interpreter of the Apple I and original Apple II computers The video controller displayed 24 lines by 40 columns of monochrome, upper-case-only text on the screen, with NTSC composite video output suitable for display on a monitor, or on a TV set by way of an RF modulator. NTSC ( National Television System Committee) is the Analog television system used in the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico Composite video is the format of an Analog television (picture only signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF An RF modulator (for Radio frequency Modulator) is a device that takes a Baseband input signal and outputs a Radio frequency -modulated signal The original retail price of the computer was US$1298 (with 4 KB of RAM) and US$2638 (with the maximum 48 KB of RAM). The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been To reflect the computer's color graphics capability, the Apple logo on the casing was represented using rainbow stripes,^[1] which remained a part of Apple's corporate logo until early 1998. The Apple II graphics were comprised of idiosyncratic modes and settings that could be exploited The earliest Apple IIs were assembled in Silicon Valley, and later in Texas;^[2] printed circuit boards were manufactured in Ireland and Singapore. For the valley nicknamed "Silicone Valley" see San Fernando Valley. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect Electronic components using conductive pathways or traces Ireland ( Irish: Éire, ˈeːrʲə is a country in north-western Europe. Singapore

In 1978, an external 5¼-inch floppy disk drive, the Disk II, attached via a controller card that plugged into one of the computer's expansion slots (usually slot 6), was used for data storage and retrieval to replace cassettes. A floppy disk is an increasingly Obsolete data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin flexible ("floppy" Magnetic storage medium encased The Disk II was a 5¼-inch floppy disk drive designed by Steve Wozniak and manufactured by Apple Computer. The Disk II interface, created by Steve Wozniak, was regarded as an engineering masterpiece at the time for its economy of components. ^[3][4] While other controllers had dozens of chips for synchronizing data I/O with disk rotation, seeking the head to the appropriate track, and encoding the data into magnetic pulses, Wozniak's controller card had few chips; instead, the Apple DOS used software to perform these functions. Apple DOS refers to Operating systems for the Apple II series of microcomputers from 1979 through early 1983 The Group Code Recording used by the controller was simpler and easier to implement in software than the more common MFM. In Computer science, group code recording (GCR refers to several distinct but related encoding methods for magnetic media This article is about Modified Frequency Modulation For other uses of MFM see the MFM (disambiguation In the end, the low chip count of the controller contributed to making Apple's Disk II the first affordable floppy drive system for personal computers. As a side effect, Wozniak's scheme made it easy for proprietary software developers to copy-protect the media on which their software shipped by changing the low-level sector format or stepping the drive's head between the tracks; inevitably, other companies eventually sold software to foil this protection. Proprietary software is Computer software on which the producer has set restrictions on use private modification copying, or republishing. Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention, or copy restriction, is a technology for preventing the unauthorised reproduction Another Wozniak optimization allowed him to omit Shugart's Track-0 sensor. When the Operating System wants to go to track 0, the controller simply moves forty times toward the next-lower-numbered track, relying on the mechanical stop to prevent it going any further down than track 0. This process, called "recalibration", made a loud buzzing (rapid mechanical chattering) sound that often frightened Apple novices.

The approach taken in the Disk II controller was typical of Wozniak's design sensibility. The Apple II was full of clever engineering tricks to save hardware and reduce costs. For example, taking advantage of the way that 6502 instructions only access memory every other clock cycle, the video generation circuitry's memory access on the otherwise unused cycles avoided memory contention issues and also eliminated the need for a separate refresh circuit for the DRAM chips.

Rather than using a complex analog-to-digital circuit to read the outputs of the game controller, Wozniak used a simple timer circuit whose period was proportional to the resistance of the game controller, and used a software loop to measure the timer.

The text and graphics screens had a somewhat outdated arrangement (the scanlines were not stored in sequential areas of memory) which was reputedly due to Wozniak's realization that doing it that way would save a chip; it was less expensive to have software calculate or look up the address of the required scanline than to include the extra hardware. The Apple II graphics were comprised of idiosyncratic modes and settings that could be exploited Similarly, in the high-resolution graphics mode, color was determined by pixel position and could thus be implemented in software, saving Wozniak the chips needed to convert bit patterns to colors. This also allowed for sub-pixel font rendering since orange and blue pixels appeared half a pixel-width further to the right on the screen than green and purple pixels. In typography a font (also fount) is traditionally defined as a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular Typeface. ^[5]

Color on the Apple II series took advantage of a quirk of the NTSC television signal standard, which made color display really easy (and cheap) to implement. NTSC ( National Television System Committee) is the Analog television system used in the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico The original NTSC television signal specification was black-and-white. Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic Color was tacked on later by adding a 3. 58 MHz subcarrier signal that was ignored by B&W TV sets. Color is encoded based on the phase of this signal in relation to a reference color burst signal. In Composite video, colorburst is a signal used to keep the Chrominance subcarrier synchronized in a Color television signal The result is that the position, size, and intensity of a series of pulses define color information. These pulses can translate into pixels on the computer screen. In Digital imaging, a pixel ( pict ure el ement is the smallest piece of information in an image

The Apple II display provided two pixels per subcarrier cycle. When the color burst reference signal was turned on and the computer attached to a color display, it could display green by showing one alternating pattern of pixels, magenta with an opposite pattern of alternating pixels, and white by placing two pixels next to each other. Later, blue and orange became available by tweaking the offset of the pixels by half a pixel-width in relation to the colorburst signal. The high-resolution enhanced display offered more colors simply by compressing more, narrower pixels into each subcarrier cycle. The coarse, low-resolution graphics display mode worked differently, as it could output a short burst of high-frequency signal per pixel to offer more color options.

The epitome of the Apple II design philosophy was the Apple II sound circuitry. Rather than having a dedicated sound-synthesis chip, the Apple II had a toggle circuit that could only emit a click through a built-in speaker or a line out jack; all other sounds (including two, three and, eventually, four-voice music and playback of audio samples and speech synthesis) were generated entirely by clever software that clicked the speaker at just the right times. Not for nearly a decade would an Apple II be released with a dedicated sound chip. Similar techniques were used for cassette storage: the cassette output worked the same as the speaker, and the input was a simple zero-crossing detector that served as a relatively crude (1-bit) audio digitizer. A zero crossing threshold detector is an electronic circuit that consists of an Operational amplifier with an input voltage at its positive input (see circuit Routines in the ROM were used to encode and decode data in frequency shift keying for the cassette. Frequency-shift keying (FSK is a Frequency modulation scheme in which digital information is transmitted through discrete frequency changes of a Carrier wave

Wozniak's open design and the Apple II's multiple expansion slots permitted a wide variety of third-party devices to expand the capabilities of the machine. Apple II peripheral cards such as Serial controllers, improved display controllers, memory boards, hard disks, and networking components were available for this system in its day. One of the early strengths of the Apple II line and one of the most important factors contributing to its success was its open architecture epitomized by its generous number of internal There were emulator cards, such as the Z80 card that permitted the Apple to switch to the Z80 processor and run a multitude of programs developed under the CP/M operating system, including the dBase II database and the WordStar word processor. The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit Microprocessor designed and sold by Zilog from July 1976 onwards CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers is an Operating system originally created for Intel 8080 / 85 based Microcomputers by Gary Kildall dBase was the first widely used Database management system (DBMS for Microcomputers published by Ashton-Tate for CP/M, and later on the WordStar was a Word processor application published by MicroPro, originally written for the CP/M operating system but later ported to DOS, that (At one point in the mid-1980s, more than half the machines running CP/M were Apple II's with Z80 cards. )There was also a third-party 6809 card that would allow OS-9 Level One to be run. The Motorola 6809 is an 8-bit (arguably an 8/ 16-bit) Microprocessor CPU from Motorola, introduced circa 1979 OS-9 is a family of real-time, process-based, multitasking, Multi-user, Unix-like Operating systems developed in the 1980s The Mockingboard sound card greatly improved the audio capabilities of the Apple, with simple music synthesis and text-to-speech functions. The Mockingboard is a Sound card for the Apple II family of Microcomputers built by Sweet Micro Systems. Eventually, Apple II accelerator cards were created to double or quadruple the computer's speed. This article is a sub-page of Apple II peripheral cards. Apple II accelerators are Computer hardware devices which enable an

Apple II Plus

Main article: Apple II Plus

The Apple II Plus, introduced in June 1979,^[6][7][8][9] included the Applesoft BASIC programming language in ROM. The Apple II Plus was the second model of the Apple II series of Personal computers produced by Apple Computer Inc Applesoft BASIC was a dialect of BASIC supplied on the Apple II computer superseding Integer BASIC. This Microsoft-authored dialect of BASIC, which was previously available as an upgrade, supported floating-point arithmetic (though it ran at a noticeably slower speed than Steve Wozniak's Integer BASIC) and became the standard BASIC dialect on the Apple II series. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer

The Apple II Plus was otherwise identical to the original Apple II. The smaller memory sizes were no longer available, so the II Plus always had a total of 48 KB of RAM, expandable to 64 KB by means of the "language card", a 16 KB RAM expansion card that could be installed in the computer's slot 0. The Apple's 6502 microprocessor could support a maximum of 64 KB of memory, and a machine with 48 KB RAM reached this limit because of the additional 12 KB of read-only memory and 4 KB of I/O addresses. For this reason, the extra RAM in the language card was bank-switched over the machine's built-in ROM, allowing code loaded into the additional memory to be used as if it actually were ROM. Users could thus load Integer BASIC into the language card from disk and switch between the Integer and Applesoft dialects of BASIC with DOS 3. 3's INT and FP commands just as if they had the BASIC ROM expansion card. The language card was also required to use the UCSD Pascal and FORTRAN 77 compilers, which were released by Apple at about the same time. UCSD Pascal or UCSD p-System was a portable highly machine independent Operating system. Fortran (previously FORTRAN) is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative Programming language that is especially suited to These ran under a non-DOS operating system called the UCSD P-System, which had its own disk format and included a "virtual machine" that allowed it to run on many different types of hardware. The UCSD P-system had a curious approach to memory management, which became even more curious on the Apple III. Memory management is the act of managing Computer memory. In its simpler forms this involves providing ways to allocate portions of memory to programs at their request The Apple III (often rendered as Apple ///) was a Personal computer aimed at business users manufactured and sold by Apple from May 1980 until its discontinuation

Apple II Europlus and J-Plus

After the success of the first Apple II in the United States, Apple expanded its market to include Europe and the Far East in 1978, with the Apple II Europlus (Europe) and the Apple II J-Plus (Japan). The Far East is a term often used by people in the Western world to refer to the countries of East Asia. In these models, Apple made the necessary hardware, software and firmware changes in order to comply to standards outside of the US. In Computing, firmware is a computer program that is Embedded in a hardware device for example a Microcontroller. The power supply was modified to accept the local voltage, and in the European model the video output signal was changed from color NTSC to monochrome PAL — an extra video card was needed for color PAL graphics, since the simple tricks Wozniak had used to generate a pseudo-NTSC signal with minimal hardware didn't carry over to the more complex PAL system. Power supply is a reference to a source of Electrical power. A device or system that supplies Electrical or other types of Energy to an output load NTSC ( National Television System Committee) is the Analog television system used in the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is a colour -encoding system used in Broadcast television systems in large parts of the world PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is a colour -encoding system used in Broadcast television systems in large parts of the world In the Japanese version of the international Apple, the keyboard layout was changed to allow for Katakana writing (full Kanji support was clearly beyond the capabilities of the machine), but in most other countries the international Apple was sold with an unmodified American keyboard; thus the German model still lacked the umlauts, for example. is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with Hiragana, Kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana Diaeresis or trema See also Diaeresis History Historically the diaeresis mark or trema is far older than the umlaut mark For the most part, the Apple II Europlus and J-Plus were identical to the Apple II Plus. Production of the Europlus ended in 1983.

Apple IIe

Main article: Apple IIe

An Apple IIe with DuoDisk and Monitor //. The Apple IIe is the third model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer.

The Apple II Plus was followed in 1983 by the Apple IIe, a cost-reduced yet more powerful machine that used newer chips to reduce the component count and add new features, such as the display of upper and lowercase letters and a standard 64 KB of RAM. The Apple IIe is the third model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. The IIe RAM was configured as if it were a 48 KB Apple II Plus with a language card; the machine had no slot 0, but instead had an auxiliary slot that for all practical purposes took the place of slot 3, the most commonly used slot for 80 column cards in the II Plus. The auxiliary slot could accept a 1 KB memory card to enable the 80-column display. This card contained only RAM; the hardware and firmware for the 80-column display was built into the Apple IIe, remaining fairly compatible with the older Videx-style cards, even though the low-level details were very different. An "extended 80-column card" with more memory expanded the machine's RAM to 128 KB. As with the language card, the memory in the 80-column card was bank-switched over the machine's main RAM; this made the memory better suited to data storage than to running software, and in fact the ProDOS operating system, which was introduced with the Apple IIe, would automatically configure this memory as a RAM disk upon booting. ProDOS (the Professional Disk Operating System) became the most popular Operating system for the Apple II series of A RAM disk is a software layer that enables applications to transparently use RAM, often a segment of Main memory, as if it was a Hard disk Third-party aux-slot memory cards later allowed expansion up to 1 MB. A megabyte is a unit of Information or Computer storage equal to either 106 (1000000 Bytes or 220 (1048576 bytes depending on The 1 K 80-column card also enabled one new graphics mode, Double Lo-Res (80×48 pixels); the extended 80-column card enabled two, Double Lo-Res and Double Hi-Res (560×192 pixels). Both modes doubled the horizontal resolution in comparison to the standard Lo-Res (40×48) and Hi-Res (280×192) Modes; in the case of Double Hi-Res, the number of available colors was increased as well, from 6 to 15. Apple IIe's from the very first production run cannot use Double Hi-Res. Neither of these modes was directly supported by the built-in BASIC, however, so the user had to resort to the use of lots of POKE and CALL commands, or assembly language programming, or one of a number of software Toolkits to exploit these modes.

Introduced with the IIe was the DuoDisk, essentially two Disk II 5¼-inch drives in a single enclosure designed to stack between the computer and the monitor, and a new controller card to run it. This controller was (by design) functionally identical to the original Disk II controller but used a different connector, allowing a single cable to control both drives in the DuoDisk. The DuoDisk was plagued by reliability problems, however, and did not catch on as well as the Apple IIe itself.

The Apple IIe was the most popular Apple II ever built and was widely considered the "workhorse" of the line. It also has the distinction of being the longest-lived Apple computer of all time — it was manufactured and sold with only minor changes for nearly eleven years. In that time, following the original, two important variations came to pass known as the Enhanced IIe (four new replacement chips to give it some of the features as the later model Apple IIc, including an upgraded processor called the 65C02) and Platinum IIe (a modernized new look for the case color to match other Apple products of the era, along with the addition of a built-in numeric keypad). The Apple IIe is the third model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. The Apple IIc, the fourth model in the Apple II series of personal computers was Apple Computer ’s first endeavor to produce a Portable computer. The Apple IIe is the third model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. An Enhanced IIe with 128 KB of RAM can be considered the minimum requirement for running most Apple II software released after about 1988.

Two and a half years before the Apple IIe, Apple had produced and marketed a computer called the Apple III for business users. The Apple III (often rendered as Apple ///) was a Personal computer aimed at business users manufactured and sold by Apple from May 1980 until its discontinuation This product was not a success, and Steve Wozniak has been quoted as saying that the Apple III had a 100% failure rate — every single machine manufactured had some kind of fault. Many of its features were carried over in the design of the Apple IIe, though, including the ProDOS operating system, which was based on Apple III's Sophisticated Operating System (SOS).

Apple IIc

Main article: Apple IIc

The Apple IIc was Apple's first compact and portable computer. The Apple IIc, the fourth model in the Apple II series of personal computers was Apple Computer ’s first endeavor to produce a Portable computer.

Apple released the Apple IIc in April 1984, billing it as a portable Apple II, because it could be easily carried; however, it lacked battery power and a built-in display. The Apple IIc, the fourth model in the Apple II series of personal computers was Apple Computer ’s first endeavor to produce a Portable computer. The IIc even sported a carrying handle that folded down to prop the machine up into a typing position. It was the first of three Apple II models to be made in the Snow White design language, and the only one that used its unique creamy off-white color. Snow White design language was an industrial design language developed by frog design founded by Hartmut Esslinger. ^[10] (The other Snow White computers from the Apple II series, the IIGS and the IIc Plus, were light gray, called "Platinum" by Apple. )

The Apple IIc was the first Apple II to use the updated 65C02 processor, and featured a built-in 5. The Western Design Center WDC 65C02 Microprocessor is an upgraded CMOS version of the popular NMOS -based MOS Technology 6502 25-inch floppy drive and 128 KB RAM, with a built-in disk controller that could control external drives, composite video (NTSC or PAL), serial interfaces for modem and printer, and a port usable by either a joystick or mouse. Unlike previous Apple II models, the IIc had no internal expansion slots at all, this being the means by which its compact size was attained. Third parties did eventually figure out how to wedge up to 1 MB of additional memory and a real-time clock into the machine, and a later revision of the motherboard provided an expansion slot that could accept an Apple memory card bearing up to 1 MB of RAM. The disk port, originally intended for a second 5¼-inch floppy drive, eventually was able to interface to 3½-inch disk drives and (via third parties) even hard disks.

To play up the portability, two different monochrome LCD displays were sold for use with the IIc's video expansion port, although both were short-lived due to high cost and poor legibility. (An Apple IIc with the smaller of these displays appeared briefly in the film 2010. 2010 is a Science fiction film released in 1984 directed by Peter Hyams. ) The IIc had an external power supply that converted AC power to 12 V DC, allowing third parties to offer battery packs and automobile power adapters that connected in place of the supplied AC adapter.

The Apple IIc (in its American version) was the first microcomputer to include support for the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, which was activated using a switch above the keyboard. The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard (ˈdvɔræk or) is a Keyboard layout patented in 1936 by Dr This feature was also later found in late-model American Apple IIe computers (though the switch was inside the computer) and in the Apple IIGS (accessible via the built-in control panel). The international models used the same mechanism to switch between the localized and the American keyboard layouts, but did not offer Dvorak.

Apple IIGS

Main article: Apple IIGS

The Apple IIGS, the most powerful Apple II, featuring a true 16-bit CPU, 4096 colors, Ensoniq synthesizer, a Mac-like GUI and a mouse. The Apple, the fifth model inception of the Apple II, was the most powerful member of the Apple II series of personal computers made by Apple Computer.

The Apple IIGS setup, with keyboard and mouse shown.

The next member of the line was the Apple IIGS computer, released in September 15, 1986. The Apple, the fifth model inception of the Apple II, was the most powerful member of the Apple II series of personal computers made by Apple Computer. Events 668 - Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is assassinated in his bath at Syracuse Italy. Year 1986 ( MCMLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar) A radical departure from the existing Apple II line, the IIGS featured a true 16-bit microprocessor, the 65C816, operating at 2. The WDC 65816 (also 65C816) a 16-bit Microprocessor CPU developed by the Western Design Center (WDC, is an expanded and compatible 8 MHz with 24-bit addressing, allowing expansion up to 8 MB of RAM without the bank-switching hassles of the earlier machines (RAM cards with more than 4 MB were never directly supported by Apple^[11]). It introduced two completely new graphic modes sporting higher resolutions and a palette of 4,096 colors; however, only 4 (at 640×200 resolution) or 16 (at 320×200 resolution) colors could be used on a single line at a time, although a technique known as dithering was often employed in software to increase the number of perceived colors. Dither is an intentionally applied form of Noise, used to randomize Quantization error, thereby preventing large-scale patterns such as contouring that are more objectionable ^[12]

In a departure from earlier Apple II graphics modes, the new modes laid out the scanlines sequentially in memory. However, programmers in search of a graphics challenge could always turn to 3200-color mode, which involved precisely swapping in a different 16-color palette for each of the screen's 200 scanlines as the monitor's electron beam traced the screen line by line. This exotic technique did not leave many CPU cycles available for other processing, so this "mode" was best suited to displaying static images.

The Apple IIGS stood out from any previous (or future) Apple II models, evolving and advancing the platform into the next generation of computing while still maintaining near-complete backward compatibility. The secret of the Apple IIGS's compatibility was a single chip called the Mega II, which contained the functional equivalent of an entire Apple IIe computer (sans processor), which, combined with the flawless 65C02 emulation mode of the 65C816 processor, provided full support for legacy software. The Mega II is a custom chip from Apple Computer used in some of their Apple II product line

The computer also included a 32-voice Ensoniq 5503, 'wavetable' sample-based music synthesizer chip with 64 KB dedicated RAM,^[13] 256 KB of standard RAM, built-in peripheral ports (switchable between IIe-style card slots and IIc-style onboard controllers for disk drives, mouse, RGB video, and serial devices), built-in AppleTalk networking, and a ROM toolbox that supported a graphical user interface derived from the Macintosh toolbox. Ensoniq Corp was an American Electronics manufacturer best known throughout the mid 1980s and 1990s for its Musical instruments principally Wavetable synthesis is a technique used in certain digital music Synthesizers to implement real-time Additive synthesis and Direct digital synthesis with Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be contrasted to either Subtractive synthesis or Additive synthesis. AppleTalk is a proprietary suite of protocols developed by Apple Inc for networking computers The computer could run existing 8-bit Apple II software (including software written for the very first Apple II in Integer BASIC), but also supported 16-bit software running under a new OS first called ProDOS 16 and later called GS/OS. ^[12] The new OS eventually included a Finder that could be used for managing disks and files and opening documents and applications, along with desk accessories — just like the Macintosh. The 16-bit operating system would automatically switch to the text display and downshift to 8-bit mode to run legacy software, while offering a consistent, Macintosh-like graphical interface for native 16-bit applications. Eventually the IIGS gained the ability to read and write Macintosh disks and, through third-party software, even multitasking (both cooperative and preemptive, the latter in the form of a Unix-type shell), outline TrueType font support, and in one case, even real-time 3D gaming using texture mapping.

The first 50,000 Apple IIGS computers came with Steve Wozniak's "Woz" signature silkscreened on the front and were referred to as the "Woz Limited Edition". These machines are not functionally different from machines from the same time period without the signature.

Apple IIc Plus

Main article: Apple IIc Plus

The Apple IIc Plus, an 8-bit revision of the original portable but with faster CPU, 3½-inch floppy and built-in power supply. It was the last of the Apple II line.

The final Apple II model was the Apple IIc Plus introduced in 1988. It was the same size and shape as the IIc that came before it, but the 5¼-inch floppy drive had been replaced with a 3½-inch drive, the power supply was moved inside (gone was the IIc's "brick on a leash" power supply), and the processor was a fast 4 MHz 65C02 processor that actually ran 8-bit Apple II software faster than the IIGS. (Third-party accelerators for other models could, however, go as fast as 10 MHz, and IIGS accelerators would eventually reach 16 MHz. ) The IIc Plus's accelerator was derived from a design licensed from Zip Technologies, a third-party maker of accelerators for the Apple II, though Apple used separate chips instead of combining the processor, cache, and supporting logic on a multi-chip module as did Zip. Like later models of the original Apple IIc, the IIc Plus included a memory expansion slot that would accept a daughter-card carrying up to a megabyte of RAM. A megabyte is a unit of Information or Computer storage equal to either 106 (1000000 Bytes or 220 (1048576 bytes depending on The IIc Plus also featured a new keyboard layout that matched the Platinum IIe and IIGS. Unlike the IIe, IIc and IIGS, the IIc Plus came only in one, American, version, and was not officially sold anywhere outside the USA.

Many perceived the IIc Plus as Apple's attempt to compete with the Laser 128EX/2, a popular third party Apple-compatible machine that also had an accelerated processor and a built-in 3½-inch drive. The Laser 128 was a clone of the Apple II series of Personal computers, first released by VTech in 1984. There were few other rational explanations for Apple expending resources on the continued development of a new 8-bit Apple II model rather than furthering the 16-bit Apple IIGS. However, with its 3½-inch drive and speedy processor, it was an excellent, compact machine for running the AppleWorks integrated productivity package, especially with the 1 MB memory upgrade. AppleWorks refers to two different Office suite products both of which are now discontinued

Apple IIe Card

Main article: Apple IIe Card

Although not an extension of the Apple II line, in 1990 the Apple IIe Card, an expansion card for the LC line of Macintosh computers, was released. The Apple IIe Card ( Apple Computer part #820-0444-A is in a sense the smallest Apple II " Computer " ever designed though as a hardware The Apple IIe Card ( Apple Computer part #820-0444-A is in a sense the smallest Apple II " Computer " ever designed though as a hardware The Macintosh LC (meaning low-cost color) was Apple Computer 's product family of low-end consumer Macintosh Personal computers in the early 1990s Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc Essentially a miniaturized Apple IIe computer on a card (using the Mega II chip from the Apple IIGS), it allowed the Macintosh to run 8-bit Apple IIe software through hardware emulation (although video was emulated in software and was slower at times than a IIe). Many of the LC's built-in Macintosh peripherals could be "borrowed" by the card when in Apple II mode (i. e. extra RAM, 3½-inch floppy, AppleTalk networking, hard disk). The IIe card could not, however, run software intended for the 16-bit Apple IIGS. The Macintosh LC with IIe Card was intended to replace the Apple IIGS in schools and homes and was presumably the reason a new model Apple IIGS that was confirmed by insiders to be in development at one point was cancelled and never released.

Other peripheral cards

There were many companies during the 1980s that provided the Apple II line of computers with peripheral cards that added functionality thanks to Steve Wozniak's slot design. One such company was Applied Engineering. Applied Engineering, headquartered in Carrollton TX, was a leading third-party hardware vendor for the Apple II series of computers from the early 1980s until the Two of the most popular and successful cards were the RamWorks (and its successors, the RamWorks II and RamWorks III) and the TransWarp cards. The RamWorks III card replaced the Apple IIe's auxiliary-slot memory card and with the appropriate daughter board could hold a whopping 3 MB of RAM. The TransWarp card was an Accelerator Card that could speed up the Apple II from its native 1 MHz processor to 3. This article is a sub-page of Apple II peripheral cards. Apple II accelerators are Computer hardware devices which enable an 6 MHz for the TransWarp and 8 MHz for the TransWarp II. The Transwarp card had the advantage of using Slot 3, which was directly tied to the AUX slot and normally unusable if an 80-column card or other such card was populating the AUX slot. Applied Engineering also developed and sold a 1. 44 MB 3½-inch disk drive, an improvement over Apple's own 800 kB UniDisk 3½ (for the Apple IIe and IIc) and Apple 3½ Drive (for the Apple IIGS), though Apple did eventually release its own 1. 44 MB drive (dubbed the SuperDrive) on the Apple IIe and IIGS. The SuperDrive was one of the last Apple II products released by Apple, and was canceled after a short time, together with the whole Apple II line. The Applied Engineering or AE drive came with its own controller card.

Another card available from Apple was the Apple II ProFile card. Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics This card attached to the Apple ProFile Hard Disk that was initially designed for the Apple III computer. The Apple III (often rendered as Apple ///) was a Personal computer aimed at business users manufactured and sold by Apple from May 1980 until its discontinuation The ProFile was available first in a 5 MB configuration and later in a 10 MB one.

Final years

Apple's Macintosh product line finally eclipsed the Apple II in the early 1990s. Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc Even after the Macintosh's introduction, the Apple II had remained the company's primary revenue source for years: the Apple II and its associated community of third-party developers and retailers was once a billion-dollar-a-year industry. The computer was the first to attract a loyal user community and many outspoken Apple II fans were bitter that the company had invested its Apple II profits into the Macintosh rather than using them to further the Apple II series.

Despite withholding advertising and little corporate support, Apple continued to sell the IIGS throughout 1992. Apple brought an era to a close when the IIe was removed from the product line on October 15, 1993. Events 533 - Byzantine General Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar)

Marketing, advertising, and packaging

Mike Markkula, a retired Intel salesman who provided early critical funding for Apple Computer, was keen on marketing. Armas Clifford "Mike" Markkula Jr (born 1942 is the co-founder of Apple Computer From 1977 until 1981 Apple used the Regis McKenna agency for its advertisements and marketing. Regis McKenna is best known for helping start several Silicon Valley firms during the 1970s and 1980s with his own Marketing firm Regis McKenna Inc In 1981, Chiat-Day acquired Regis McKenna's advertising operations and Apple used Chiat-Day. TBWA Worldwide is an international advertising agency headquartered in New York City. At Regis McKenna Advertising, the team assigned to launch the Apple II consisted of Rob Janoff, art director, Chip Schafer, copywriter and Bill Kelley, account executive. Rob Janoff is a Graphic designer of Corporate logos and identities printed advertisements and Television commercials. Janoff came up with the Apple logo with a bite out of it. The design was originally an olive green with matching company logotype all in lower case. Steve Jobs insisted on promoting the color capability of the Apple II by putting rainbow stripes on the Apple logo. In its letterhead and business card implementation, the rounded "a" of the logotype echoed the "bite" in the logo. This logo was developed simultaneously with an advertisement and a brochure; the latter being produced for distribution initially at the first West Coast Computer Faire. The West Coast Computer Faire was an annual computer industry conference and exposition most often associated with San Francisco, its first and most frequent venue Ever since the original Apple II, Apple has paid high attention to its quality of packaging, partly because of Steve Jobs' personal preferences and opinions on packaging and final product appearance. Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24 1955 is the Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc and former CEO of Pixar Animation ^[14] All of Apple's packaging for the Apple II series looked similar, featuring lots of clean white space and showing the Apple rainbow logo prominently. ^[15] For several years up until the 1980s, Apple used the Motter Tekkura font for packaging, until changing to the Apple Garamond font. Typography of Apple Inc refers to Apple Inc ’s use of Typefaces in Marketing, Operating systems and Industrial design. Typography of Apple Inc refers to Apple Inc ’s use of Typefaces in Marketing, Operating systems and Industrial design.

Apple ran the first advertisement for the Apple II in the July 1977 edition of Byte — a two page spread ad titled "Introducing the Apple II" and followed by a third page that was an order form. Byte magazine was an influential Microcomputer magazine in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s because of its wide-ranging editorial coverage The first brochure, was entitled "Simplicity" and the copy in both the ad and brochure pioneered "demystifying" language intended to make the new idea of a home computer more "personal. " The Apple II introduction ad was later run in the September 1977 issue of Scientific American. Scientific American is a Popular science magazine, published (first weekly and later monthly since August 28, 1845, making it ^[16]

Apple later aired eight television commercials for the Apple IIGS, emphasizing on its benefits to education and students, along with some print ads. ^[17]

Towards the end of 1982, art director Brent Thomas and Steve Hayden came up with the idea of doing an ad campaign based on the timely tagline "Why 1984 won't be like 1984". An advertising campaign is a series of Advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC Chiat-Day shopped it around to a number of clients, including Apple, where it was proposed to be used for a print ad in the Wall Street Journal promoting the Apple II. However, Apple did not go for it, and the idea was filed away until the spring of 1983, when they met with the Macintosh marketing team to start working on the launch, which was scheduled for January 1984. The idea eventually became the famous 1984 commercial which aired during the third quarter at Super Bowl XVIII. 1984 is the American Television commercial which introduced the Macintosh Personal computer for the first time Super Bowl XVIII was an American football game that was played on January 22, 1984 at Tampa Stadium in Tampa Florida to decide ^[18]

Clones

The Jiama (嘉馬) SPS-109, a Taiwanese clone of the Apple II, looks almost identical to the Apple II and II+, including an identical case, color and keyboard layout. REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES A computer case (also known as the computer chassis, cabinet, tower, box, enclosure, housing or simply case In Computing, a keyboard is an Input device partially modelled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys The only noticeable physical difference is the label above the keyboard.

The Apple II was frequently cloned, both in the United States and abroad - similar cloning of the IBM PC later occurred. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the According to some sources (see below), more than 190 different models of Apple II clones were manufactured. The following is an incomplete list of clones of Apple 's Apple II Home computer: Apco Arrow 1000 Many of these had "fruit" names (e. g. "Pineapple") to indicate to the initiated that they were Apple II clones. For many years the most widely-used microcomputers in the Soviet Bloc were the Agat, an oversized Russian Apple II clone with a Cyrillic character set, and Bulgarian Pravetz series 8, a close Apple II replica with Cyrillic support. During the Cold War, the term Communist Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) was used to refer to the Soviet Union and countries it either controlled or that were Agat is a Soviet clone of the Apple II with some modifications which made it only partially compatible with Apple The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian The Pravetz series 8 computers were Bulgarian made clones of the Apple II. The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by

A Bosnian (at the time part of communist Yugoslavia) company named IRIS Computers (subcompany of biggest electric company in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Yugoslavia ENERGOINVEST) has produced Apple II clones since the early 1980s. Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ( Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovene, Macedonian: Herzegovina ( Bosnian, Croatian: Hercegovina, Serbian: Херцеговина) is a traditionally Their official brandname was IRIS 8. They were very expensive and hard to obtain and were produced primarily for usage in early computerised digital telephone systems and for education. Their usage in offices of the state companies, R&D labs and in the Yugoslav army was also reported. IRIS 8 had looks of early IBM PCs — separate central unit with cooling system and two 5¼-inch disks, monitor and keyboard. A floppy disk is an increasingly Obsolete data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin flexible ("floppy" Magnetic storage medium encased Compatibility with original Apple II was complete. Elite high schools in Yugoslavia and especially Bosnia and Herzegovina were equipped with clusters of 8, 16 or 32 IRIS 8 computers connected in local network administrated by IRIS 16 PC clone. The number of IRIS 8's produced could be as many as a couple of tens of thousands.

An Australian-produced clone of the Apple II was the Medfly, named after the Mediterranean fruit fly that attacks apples. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Ceratitis capitata, the Mediterranean fruit fly, or medfly for short is a species of Fruit fly capable of wreaking extensive damage to The Medfly computer featured a faster processor, more memory, detached keyboard, lower and upper case characters and a built-in disk controller.

Unitron, a Brazilian company, produced another clone, named ApII. Unitron used a copy of the Apple's ROM translated to Portuguese. The operating system was Apple's DOS 3. 3 translated to Portuguese. During this period, it was illegal to import microcomputers in Brazil, and buying those (illegal) clones was the only way to have a microcomputer. Unitron stopped manufacturing the ApII a few years after the introduction of IBM PC clones in Brazil.

The Ace clones from Franklin Computer Corporation are the best known and had the most lasting impact, as Franklin copied Apple's ROMs and software and freely admitted to doing so. Franklin Electronic Publishers (formerly Franklin Computer Corporation) is an American Consumer electronics manufacturer based in Burlington, Franklin's argument: a computer's ROM was simply a pattern of switches locked into a fixed position, and one cannot copyright a pattern of switches. Apple fought Franklin in court for about five years to get its clones off the market, and was ultimately successful when a court ruled that software stored in ROM was in fact copyrightable. (See Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp.) Franklin later released non-infringing but less-compatible clones; these could run ProDOS and AppleWorks and had an Applesoft-like BASIC, but compatibility with other software was hit-or-miss. Apple Computer Inc v Franklin Computer Corp, 714 F2d 1240 ( 3d Cir

Apple also challenged VTech's Laser 128, an enhanced clone of the Apple IIc first released in 1984, in court. VTech is the common name of Video Technology Ltd (,, a Hong Kong -based manufacturer of Consumer electronics. The Laser 128 was a clone of the Apple II series of Personal computers, first released by VTech in 1984. This suit proved less fruitful for Apple, because VTech had reverse-engineered the Monitor ROM rather than copying it and had licensed Applesoft BASIC from its creator, Microsoft. Reverse engineering (RE is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device object or system through analysis of its structure function and operation Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Apple had neglected to obtain exclusive rights to the Applesoft dialect of BASIC from Microsoft; VTech was the first cloner to license it. The Laser 128 proved popular and remained on the market for many years, both in its original form and in accelerated versions that ran faster than 1 MHz. Although it wasn't 100% compatible with the Apple II, it was close, and its popularity ensured that most major developers tested their software on a Laser as well on as genuine Apple machines. Because it was frequently sold via mail order and mass-market retailers such as Sears, the Laser 128 may have cut into the sales of low-cost competitors such as Commodore Business Machines as much as it did Apple's. Sears Roebuck and Company, commonly known as Sears, is an American mid-range chain of International Department stores founded by Richard Commodore, the commonly used name for Commodore International, was a US-American Electronics company based in West Chester Pennsylvania

While the first Apple II clones were generally exact copies of their Apple counterparts that competed mainly on price, many clones had extra capabilities too. A Franklin model, the Ace 1000, sported a numeric keypad and lower-case long before these features were added to the Apple II line. The Laser 128 series is sometimes credited with spurring Apple to release the Apple IIc Plus; the built-in 3½-inch drive and accelerated processor were features Laser had pioneered. The Laser 128 also had a IIe-style expansion slot on the side that could be used to add peripheral cards.

Bell & Howell, an audiovisual equipment manufacturer whose products (particularly film projectors) were ubiquitous in American schools, offered what appeared at first glance to be an Apple II Plus clone in a distinctive black plastic case. Böwe Bell & Howell is a US -based former Manufacturer of Motion picture machinery However, these were in fact real Apple II Plus units manufactured by Apple for B&H for a brief period of time. Many schools had a few of these Black "Darth Vader" Apples in their labs.

ITT created a clone for the European market called the ITT 2020 (Europlus). This clone was built in license from Apple and was thus officially sanctioned by Apple. It has the same shape as the Apple II but a different color (matte silver).

General

Data storage

Originally the Apple II used audio cassette tapes for program and data storage. A dedicated tape recorder along the lines of the Commodore Datassette was never produced; Apple recommended using the Panasonic RQ309 in some of its early printed documentation. The Commodore 1530 ( C2N) Datassette (a Portmanteau of Data + cassette) was Commodore 's dedicated computer Tape recorder Apple and many third-party developers made software available on tape at first, but after the Disk II became available, tape-based Apple II software essentially disappeared from the market.

The Disk II floppy drive used 5¼-inch floppy disks. A floppy disk is an increasingly Obsolete data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin flexible ("floppy" Magnetic storage medium encased The first disk operating systems for the Apple II were DOS 3.1 and DOS 3. Apple DOS refers to Operating systems for the Apple II series of microcomputers from 1979 through early 1983 2, which stored 113. 75 kB on each disk, organized into thirty-five tracks of thirteen 256-byte sectors each. After about two years, DOS 3. 3 was introduced, storing 140 kB thanks to a minor firmware change on the disk controller that allowed it to store 16 sectors per track. (This upgrade was user-installable on older controllers. ) After the release of DOS 3. 3, the user community discontinued use of DOS 3. 2 except for running legacy software. Programs that required DOS 3. 2 were fairly rare; however, as DOS 3. 3 was not a major architectural change aside from the number of sectors per track, a program called MUFFIN was provided with DOS 3. 3 to allow users to copy files from DOS 3. 2 disks to DOS 3. 3 disks.

On a DOS 3. x disk, tracks 0, 1, and most of track 2 were reserved to store the operating system. (It was possible, with a special utility, to reclaim most of this space for data if a disk did not need to be bootable. ) A short ROM program on the disk controller had the ability to seek to track zero — which it did without regard for the read/write head's current position, resulting in the characteristic "chattering" sound of a Disk II boot, which was the read/write head hitting the rubber stop block at the end of the rail — and read and execute code from sector 0. The code contained in there would then pull in the rest of the operating system. DOS stored the disk's directory on track 17, smack in the middle of the 35-track disks, in order to reduce the average seek time to the frequently-used directory track. Seek time is one of the three delays associated with reading or writing Data on a Computer 's Disk drive, and somewhat similar for CD or The directory was fixed in size and could hold a maximum of 105 files. Subdirectories were not supported.

Most game publishers did not include DOS on their floppy disks, since they needed the memory it occupied more than its capabilities; instead, they often wrote their own boot loaders and read-only file systems. This also served to discourage "crackers" from snooping around in the game's copy-protection code, since the data on the disk wasn't in files that could be accessed easily.

Some third-party manufacturers produced floppy drives that could write 40 tracks to most 5¼-inch disks, yielding 160 kB of storage per disk, but the format did not catch on widely, and no known software was published on 40-track media. Most drives, even Disk IIs, could write 36 tracks; simple modifications to DOS for formatting the extra track were common.

Incidentally, although the Apple Disk II stored 140 kB on single-sided, "single-density" floppy disks, it was very common for Apple II users to extend the capacity of a floppy disk to 280 kB — by cutting out a second write-protect notch on the side of the disk using a "disk notcher" (although a simple hole puncher would do) and inserting the disk flipped over. Early on, diskette manufacturers routinely warned that this technique would damage the read/write head of the drives or wear out the disk faster, and these warnings were frequently repeated in magazines of the day. In practice, however, this method was a quite reliable way to store twice as much data for the same amount of money, and was widely used for commercially released floppies as well.

Later, Apple IIs were able to use 3½-inch disks with a total capacity of 800 kB and hard disks. DOS 3. 3 did not support these drives natively; third-party software was required, and disks larger than about 400 kB had to be split up into multiple "virtual disk volumes. " ProDOS, a 1983 descendent of the Apple ///'s SOS, became the Apple II operating system of choice for users with these larger disks thanks to its native support of volumes up to 32 MB in size and the fact that AppleWorks required it. ProDOS (the Professional Disk Operating System) became the most popular Operating system for the Apple II series of

Renditions of the "II" name

The "II" portion of the Apple II name was rendered in a variety of creative ways using stylized characters which resembled punctuation symbols on the front lids of the computers, and most printed material followed this lead. The II and the "unenhanced" IIe were labeled ][and ][e, and the IIGS and IIc Plus were rendered in small caps. In Typography, small capitals (usually abbreviated small caps) are Uppercase ( capital) characters set at the same height as surrounding The Apple ///, IIc, and later IIe models used slashes: ///, //c and //e. The Apple III (often rendered as Apple ///) was a Personal computer aimed at business users manufactured and sold by Apple from May 1980 until its discontinuation There have been some errors in the Apple II's name due to the numerous variations and forms on the "II".

Legacy

Today, emulators for various Apple II models are available to run Apple II software on Mac OS X, Linux, Microsoft Windows, homebrew enabled Nintendo DS and other operating systems. This article lists software and hardware that emulates computing platforms Mac OS X (mæk oʊ ɛs tɛn is a line of computer Operating systems developed marketed and sold by Apple Inc, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. The is a dual-screen Handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. Numerous disk images of Apple II software are available free over the Internet for use with these emulators. A disk image is a single File containing the complete contents and structure representing a data storage medium or device such as a Hard drive, CD, or The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks AppleWin and MESS are among the best emulators compatible with most Apple II images. AppleWin (also known as Apple //e Emulator for Windows) is an Open source software Emulator for running Apple II programs in Microsoft Windows MESS ( Multi Emulator Super System) is an Emulator for many game consoles and computer systems based on the MAME core The MESS emulator supports recording and playing back of Apple II emulation sessions. The Home Action Replay Page (aka HARP) allows Apple II users to archive their favorite play sessions of the Apple II system and its games. However, many emulators cannot run software on copy-protected media, or can run only software employing fairly simple protection schemes, unless it is "cracked" (copy restrictions removed). Software cracking is the modification of Software to remove protection methods Copy prevention, trial/demo version serial number hardware key CD check Cracked software was widely pirated in the Apple II's heyday (with commercial cracking software such as the popular Copy II+ program being sold in stores with the purpose of "creating legitimate back-ups" of protected software), and some of it is still available, although use of such software is of questionable legality (see DMCA). The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA is a United States Copyright Law which implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property For those who prefer to obtain their old software on the up-and-up, the Lost Classics Project has the goal of convincing copyright holders of classic Apple II software to officially allow unrestricted free distribution of their software and has "freed" a number of programs.

One unusual homage to the Apple II is an XScreenSaver "hack" named bsod. XScreenSaver is a Screensaver program for Unix-like operating systems running the X Window System and Macintosh computers running Mac A display hack is a Computer program with similar purpose to a Kaleidoscope: to make pretty pictures ( Symmetrical or otherwise The bsod screensaver duplicates the appearance of computer crash screens for various operating systems (including the Windows Blue Screen of Death, after which it is named). A screensaver is a type of computer program initially designed to prevent " Phosphor burn-in " on CRT and plasma Computer A crash in Computing is a condition where a program (either an application or part of the Operating system) stops performing its expected function and also The Blue Screen of Death (also known as a stop error, BSoD, bluescreen, or Blue Screen of Doom) is an Error screen displayed In the case of the Apple II, the screensaver actually emulates the CRT display typically used with the computer, so the screen will appear to twitch as text blocks turn on and off, a common quirk of analog NTSC displays. The cathode ray tube (CRT is a Vacuum tube containing an Electron gun (a source of electrons and a Fluorescent screen with internal or Another module called "Apple2" shows a working Apple II being used to type and run three different programs in Applesoft BASIC, also with glitch-complete CRT emulation and even typos (or "syntax errors"), though the error messages are displayed at edit time (like Integer BASIC) instead of at run time (like Applesoft BASIC). In Computer programming, BASIC (an Acronym for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of High-level programming languages

In addition, an active retrocomputing community of vintage Apple II collectors and users, continue to restore, maintain and develop hardware and software for daily use of these original computers. Retrocomputing is a term used to describe the use of early computer hardware and software today Numerous websites and support groups exist for these enthusiasts who engage in the trade and purchase for their collections, increasingly rare parts and systems. Hardly a dead platform, the Apple II has a worldwide network of kindred spirits actively engaged in preserving this otherwise outdated technology and indeed regularly attracts, new younger members who continue to keep the platform alive long after it was discontinued by Apple.

Industry impact

The Apple II series of computers had an enormous impact on the technology industry and on everyday life. The Apple II was the first computer many people ever saw, and its price was within the reach of many middle-class families. Its popularity bootstrapped the entire computer game and educational software markets and began the boom in the word processor and computer printer markets. A personal computer Game (also known as a computer game or simply PC game) is a Video game played on a Personal computer, rather See also List of educational software Educational software is Computer software, the primary purpose of which is teaching or self-learning The first microcomputer "killer app" for business was VisiCalc, the earliest spreadsheet, and it ran first on the Apple II; many businesses bought Apple IIs just to run VisiCalc, because it was the only spreadsheet available at the time. A killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) in the jargon of computer programmers and video gamers has been used to refer to any Computer program VisiCalc was the first Spreadsheet program available for personal computers A spreadsheet is a Computer application that simulates a paper worksheet Apple's success in the home market inspired competitive home computers such as the VIC-20 (1980) and Commodore 64 (1982, with estimated sales between 17 and 25 million units). A home computer was a class of Personal computer entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s The VIC-20 ( Germany: VC-20; Japan: VIC-1001) is an 8-bit Home computer which was sold by Commodore Business Machines Through their significantly lower price point, these models introduced the computer to several tens of millions more home users, acquiring most of Apple's market share in the process.

The success of the Apple II in business spurred IBM to create the IBM PC, which was then purchased by middle managers in all lines of business to run spreadsheet and word processing software, at first ported from Apple II versions; later, whole new application software dynasties would be founded on the PC. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology The popularity of these PCs and their clones then transformed business again with LAN applications such as e-mail and later Internet applications such as Usenet and the WWW. IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Electronic mail, often abbreviated to e-mail, email, or originally eMail, is a Store-and-forward method of writing sending receiving Usenet, a Portmanteau of "user" and "network" is a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet.

One valuable lesson from the Apple II was the importance of an open architecture to the success of a computer platform. The first Apple IIs shipped with an Apple II Reference Manual containing a complete schematic of the entire computer's circuitry and a complete source listing of the "Monitor" ROM firmware that served as the machine's BIOS (later this guide had to be purchased separately, and in the case of the Apple IIGS, the full technical documentation ran to several volumes). In Computing, the BIOS (ˈbaɪoʊs The Apple II's slots, allowing any peripheral card to take control of the bus and directly access memory, enabled an independent industry of card manufacturers who together created a flood of hardware products that let users build systems that were far more powerful and useful (at a lower cost) than any competing system, most of which were not nearly as expandable and were universally proprietary. Even the game port was unusually powerful and could be used for digital and analog input and output; one hacker used it to drive a LaserWriter printer. Donald E Lancaster is a prolific Author, inventor and microcomputer pioneer best known for his magazine columns The Apple LaserWriter was one of the first Laser printers available to the mass market

Apple decided not to create an open architecture with the initial Macintosh models, and this is widely seen as having hobbled its success; however, the IBM PC provides an object lesson that success for the platform does not necessarily equate to success for the company that invented it. Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc In the end, the IBM PC's off-the-shelf, open architecture allowed clones to be manufactured by startup competitors such as Compaq, Dell and Gateway, leading to a Pyrrhic victory for IBM. IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Compaq Computer Corporation was an American Personal computer company founded in 1982 and is now a brand name of Hewlett-Packard. The multinational technology company Dell Inc develops manufactures sells and supports Personal computers and other computer-related products Gateway Incorporated is a Computer hardware company based in Irvine, California, which develops manufactures supports and markets a wide range of A Pyrrhic victory (ˈpɪrɪk is a victory with devastating cost to the victor In December 2004, IBM confirmed it had sold its personal computer division including all computer models and technology to Lenovo in the People's Republic of China for US$1. Lenovo Group Limited (,) is China's largest and the world's fourth largest Personal computer manufacturer after Hewlett-Packard and Dell of the U Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES 75 billion. ^[19][20]

Timeline of Apple II Family models

See also: Timeline of Apple II Family

See also: Timeline of Apple Macintosh models

References

• Wozniak, Steve. "System Description: The Apple II", Byte, May 1977. Byte magazine was an influential Microcomputer magazine in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s because of its wide-ranging editorial coverage  

See also

• List of Apple II application software
• List of Apple II games
• List of Apple II emulators
• List of Apple IIGS games
• Apple II peripheral cards
• Apple II graphics
• Steve Wozniak
• Jerry Manock
• Apple Industrial Design Group
• Juiced.GS – The last remaining Apple II publication
• ReactiveMicro.com – The last remaining Apple II hardware production company (cloned items)
• Publications/Periodicals devoted to the Apple II
• Hayes Microcomputer Products
• List of BBS software – For the Apple II and other machines

External links

• Dmoz.org - Apple II
• Steven Weyhrich's Apple II History
• Apple II Timeline Genealogy table from Steven Weyhrich's Apple II History

• The Apple II Documentation Project Documentation on the Apple II line and its peripherals
• www.VirtualApple.org Library of old Apple 2 disks playable online

• A2Central.com – Apple II news and downloads
• Old computer museum - Apple II+
• Apple2.org – The Apple II in Pictures and the Marinetti Open Source Project (TCP/IP Stack)

• ReactiveMicro.com - The last remaining Apple II hardware production company (cloned items)
• GSoft BASIC GSoft BASIC is Applesoft BASIC replacement for Apple IIGS computer

• Software written by Apple-II pioneer, Bob Bishop – (Including the very first four Hi-Res graphics games ever written for the Apple)

• Gamasutra on the Apple II A History of Gaming Platforms: The Apple II by Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton
• PCB pictures of the Apple II
• Apple II clones Information on Apple2clones
• Virtual GS Apple IIGS programming site, for PC and Mac users running Apple IIGS emulation
• WEB page of an Apple IIe user Some cards detailed and programs to download. Following is a List of Apple II applications. A ADTPro - Telecom Apple Works - Integrated Following is a List of Apple II games. The Apple II had a huge user base and was a popular game development platform This article lists software and hardware that emulates computing platforms Following is a List of Apple II GS' games'. While backwards compatible for running most Apple II games, the Apple IIGS had One of the early strengths of the Apple II line and one of the most important factors contributing to its success was its open architecture epitomized by its generous number of internal The Apple II graphics were comprised of idiosyncratic modes and settings that could be exploited Jerry Manock is an industrial designer, known for creating the Enclosures of the Apple II and The Apple Industrial Design Group (IDg is the Industrial design arm of Apple Inc JuicedGS is a print magazine/newsletter for Apple II computer users ReactiveMicrocom is mainly a legacy Apple II hardware developer and manufacturer There was a thriving industry devoted to the Apple II at one time including 8/16 A+ - Published by IDG A2-Central On Disk Hayes Microcomputer Products was a US -based manufacturer of Modems They are particularly well known for their Smartmodem, which introduced the ability Bulletin board system. --> This is a list of notable dial-up Bulletin board system (BBS software packages
• ITT 2020 licensed clone of Apple II
• Old footage filmed in 1992 by Alfred DiBlasi of an Apple II visualizing music fed in through the cassette port