The Apple II, one of the very first personal computers, is widely seen as the founding pioneer and literal grandfather of the personal computer industry of today. As the direct descendant of the Apple I, it evolved from a meager hand-built computer kit intended for hobbyist, to a fully factory assembled machine ready-to-use out of the box most anyone could use. With its elegant case styling and simplicity (requiring just a television set as a display) it represented a computer that for the first time c ...

Including:

• Apple II family - History
• Apple II family - The original Apple II
• Apple II family - The family grows
• Apple II family - Apple II Plus
• Apple II family - Apple IIe
• Apple II family - Apple IIc
• Apple II family - Apple IIGS
• Apple II family - Apple IIc Plus
• Apple II family - Apple IIe Card
• Apple II family - The Final Years
• Apple II family - Clones
• Apple II family - General
• Apple II family - Apple II media
• Apple II family - Different style renditions of the II name
• Apple II family - Life after death
• Apple II family - Industry impact

Read more here: » Apple II family: Encyclopedia - Apple II family

See also:

Apple II family, Apple II family - History, Apple II family - The original Apple II, Apple II family - The family grows, Apple II family - Apple II Plus, Apple II family - Apple IIe, Apple II family - Apple IIc, Apple II family - Apple IIGS, Apple II family - Apple IIc Plus, Apple II family - Apple IIe Card, Apple II family - The Final Years, Apple II family - Clones, Apple II family - General, Apple II family - Apple II media, Apple II family - Different style renditions of the II name, Apple II family - Life after death, Apple II family - Industry impact

Read more here: » Apple II family: Encyclopedia II - Apple II family - General

Apple II family - The original Apple II. The first Apple II computers went on sale on June 5, 1977 with a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor running at 1 MHz, 4 KB of RAM, an audio cassette interface, and the Integer BASIC programming language built into the ROMs. The video controller displayed 24 lines by 40 columns of upper-case-only text on the screen, with NTSC composite video output for display on a monitor, or on a TV set by way of an RF modulator. Third-party slot cards and add-ins were available for 80-co ...

See also:

Apple II family, Apple II family - History, Apple II family - The original Apple II, Apple II family - The family grows, Apple II family - Apple II Plus, Apple II family - Apple IIe, Apple II family - Apple IIc, Apple II family - Apple IIGS, Apple II family - Apple IIc Plus, Apple II family - Apple IIe Card, Apple II family - The Final Years, Apple II family - Clones, Apple II family - General, Apple II family - Apple II media, Apple II family - Different style renditions of the II name, Apple II family - Life after death, Apple II family - Industry impact

Read more here: » Apple II family: Encyclopedia II - Apple II family - History

Like the IBM PC, the Apple II was frequently cloned, both in the United States and abroad. According to some sources (see below), more than 190 different models of Apple II clones were manufactured. 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 microcomputer in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe was the Agat, a Russian App ...

See also:

Apple II family, Apple II family - History, Apple II family - The original Apple II, Apple II family - The family grows, Apple II family - Apple II Plus, Apple II family - Apple IIe, Apple II family - Apple IIc, Apple II family - Apple IIGS, Apple II family - Apple IIc Plus, Apple II family - Apple IIe Card, Apple II family - The Final Years, Apple II family - Clones, Apple II family - General, Apple II family - Apple II media, Apple II family - Different style renditions of the II name, Apple II family - Life after death, Apple II family - Industry impact

Read more here: » Apple II family: Encyclopedia II - Apple II family - Clones

Like the IBM PC, the Apple II was frequently cloned, both in the United States and abroad. According to some sources (see below), there were more than 190 different models of Apple II clones were manufactured. 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 microcomputer in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe was the Agat, a Russian App ...

See also:

Apple II family, Apple II family - History, Apple II family - The original Apple II, Apple II family - The family grows, Apple II family - Apple II Plus, Apple II family - Apple IIe, Apple II family - Apple IIc, Apple II family - Apple IIGS, Apple II family - Apple IIc Plus, Apple II family - Apple IIe Card, Apple II family - The Final Years, Apple II family - Clones, Apple II family - General, Apple II family - Apple II media, Apple II family - Different style renditions of the II name, Apple II family - Life after death, Apple II family - Industry impact

Read more here: » Apple II family: Encyclopedia II - Apple II family - Clones

Apple IIe - The beginning. Apple had planned to retire the Apple II series after the introduction of the Apple III in 1980, however, after that machine turned out to be a disastrous failure, management decided the further continuation of the Apple II was in the company's best interest. So, after three and a half years at a stand-still, came the introduction of a new Apple II model--the Apple IIe (codenamed: Diana and Super II). The Apple IIe was released in January 1983, the sucessor to the Apple II Plus that came before it. Of interest is some of the hardware and software features of the Apple III were bor ...

See also:

Apple IIe, Apple IIe - History, Apple IIe - The beginning, Apple IIe - Overview of new features, Apple IIe - Technical specifications, Apple IIe - Revisions, Apple IIe - The Revision B motherboard, Apple IIe - New case and keyboard, Apple IIe - The Enhanced IIe, Apple IIe - The Platinum IIe, Apple IIe - The Apple IIe Card for Macintosh, Apple IIe - International versions, Apple IIe - Upgrades, Apple IIe - The Apple IIGS Upgrade

Read more here: » Apple IIe: Encyclopedia II - Apple IIe - History

Apple II family - Apple II Plus. The Apple II was eventually superseded by the Apple II Plus, which included the Applesoft BASIC programming language in ROM. This Microsoft-authored dialect of BASIC, which was previously available as an upgrade, supported floating-point arithmetic (albeit at a slower speed than Steve Wozniak's Integer BASIC) and became the standard BASIC dialect on the Apple. The Apple II Plus had a total of 48 kilobytes of RAM, expandable to 64 KB by means of the language card,< ...

See also:

Apple II family, Apple II family - History, Apple II family - The original Apple II, Apple II family - The family grows, Apple II family - Apple II Plus, Apple II family - Apple IIe, Apple II family - Apple IIc, Apple II family - Apple IIGS, Apple II family - Apple IIc Plus, Apple II family - Apple IIe Card, Apple II family - The Final Years, Apple II family - Clones, Apple II family - General, Apple II family - Apple II media, Apple II family - Different style renditions of the II name, Apple II family - Life after death, Apple II family - Industry impact

Read more here: » Apple II family: Encyclopedia II - Apple II family - The family grows

The Apple IIc was released in April 1984, during an Apple held event called "Apple II Forever". The new machine was proclaimed as proof of Apple's long term commitment to the Apple II series and its users, an assurance the company's older technology would not be foresaken or dropped with the recent introduction of the Macintosh. While essentially an Apple IIe computer in a smaller case, it was not a successor, but rather a portable version to complement it. One Apple II machine would be sold for users who required the expandability of slots, and another for those wanting the simplicity of a plug and p ...

See also:

Apple IIc, Apple IIc - History, Apple IIc - Overview of features, Apple IIc - Technical specifications, Apple IIc - Revisions, Apple IIc - Serial port timing fix, Apple IIc - UniDisk 3.5 support ROM revision '0', Apple IIc - The Memory Expansion IIc ROM revision '3', Apple IIc - The Memory Expansion IIc fix ROM revision '4', Apple IIc - International versions, Apple IIc - Add-on accessories

Read more here: » Apple IIc: Encyclopedia II - Apple IIc - History

The Apple IIGS was an innovative computer with many improvements over the older Apple IIe and Apple IIc. It used the new Western Design Center 65816 16-bit microprocessor running at 2.8 MHz, which was faster than the 8-bit 6502 and 65C02 processors used in earlier Apple IIs and also allowed the IIGS to use more RAM. It also included enhanced graphics and sound, which led to its name. The graphics of the IIGS were the best of the Apple II series, with new Super High Resolution (SHR) video modes. Th ...

See also:

Apple IIGS, Apple IIGS - Background, Apple IIGS - Hardware features, Apple IIGS - Hardware revisions, Apple IIGS - Graphics modes, Apple IIGS - Audio features, Apple IIGS - Expansion capabilities, Apple IIGS - Development and codenames, Apple IIGS - Influence on later computers, Apple IIGS - Software features, Apple IIGS - 8-bit Apple II compatibility, Apple IIGS - Apple IIGS System Software, Apple IIGS - Multitasking Capability, Apple IIGS - Trivia

Read more here: » Apple IIGS: Encyclopedia II - Apple IIGS - Hardware features

By 1975, Woz dropped out of the University of California, Berkeley (he would later finish his degree in 1987) and came up with a computer that eventually became successful nationwide. However, he was largely working within the scope of the Palo Alto-based Homebrew Computer Club, a local group of electronics hobbyists. His project had no wider ambition. Jobs and Wozniak came to the conclusion that a completely assembled and inexpensive computer would be in demand. They sold some of their prized possessions (e.g. Woz's HP scientific cal ...

See also:

Steve Wozniak, Steve Wozniak - Early life and inspiration, Steve Wozniak - The dawn of Apple, Steve Wozniak - The Success of the Apple II, Steve Wozniak - Post-Apple career, Steve Wozniak - Recognition and afterwards

Read more here: » Steve Wozniak: Encyclopedia II - Steve Wozniak - The dawn of Apple

In production from January 1983 until November 1993, the Apple IIe remained relatively unchanged through the years. However there was one significiant motherboard update, a major firmware update, two cosmetically revised machines and an official compatible from Apple, in the form of slot card for the Macintosh computer. These revisions are detailed below. Apple IIe - The Revision B motherboard. The earliest Apple IIe motherboard was labeled "Revision A". Very shortly after its release, during the same year ...

See also:

Apple IIe, Apple IIe - History, Apple IIe - The beginning, Apple IIe - Overview of new features, Apple IIe - Technical specifications, Apple IIe - Revisions, Apple IIe - The Revision B motherboard, Apple IIe - New case and keyboard, Apple IIe - The Enhanced IIe, Apple IIe - The Platinum IIe, Apple IIe - The Apple IIe Card for Macintosh, Apple IIe - International versions, Apple IIe - Upgrades, Apple IIe - The Apple IIGS Upgrade

Read more here: » Apple IIe: Encyclopedia II - Apple IIe - Revisions

The Apple IIc was in production between April 1984 until August 1988, and during this time, did go through some small changes. These included the existence of 4 ROM revisions, two motherboards (including a bug fix for one), and a slight cosmetic change to the external appearence of the machine. Note the original IIc ROM is identified as ROM revision "255". These revisions are detailed below. App ...

See also:

Apple IIc, Apple IIc - History, Apple IIc - Overview of features, Apple IIc - Technical specifications, Apple IIc - Revisions, Apple IIc - Serial port timing fix, Apple IIc - UniDisk 3.5 support ROM revision '0', Apple IIc - The Memory Expansion IIc ROM revision '3', Apple IIc - The Memory Expansion IIc fix ROM revision '4', Apple IIc - International versions, Apple IIc - Add-on accessories

Read more here: » Apple IIc: Encyclopedia II - Apple IIc - Revisions

Broadly speaking, software that runs on the Apple IIGS can be divided into two major categories: 8-bit software compatible with earlier Apple II systems such as the IIe and IIc, and 16-bit IIGS-specific software, most of which runs under the Apple IIGS System Software and takes advantage of its advanced features, including a Macintosh-like graphical user interface. A ...

See also:

Apple IIGS, Apple IIGS - Background, Apple IIGS - Hardware features, Apple IIGS - Hardware revisions, Apple IIGS - Graphics modes, Apple IIGS - Audio features, Apple IIGS - Expansion capabilities, Apple IIGS - Development and codenames, Apple IIGS - Influence on later computers, Apple IIGS - Software features, Apple IIGS - 8-bit Apple II compatibility, Apple IIGS - Apple IIGS System Software, Apple IIGS - Multitasking Capability, Apple IIGS - Trivia

Read more here: » Apple IIGS: Encyclopedia II - Apple IIGS - Software features

For years the Apple II was the main source of profit at Apple, and it assured the company's survival when its management undertook much less profitable ventures like the ill-fated Apple III and the short-lived Lisa. It was because of the reliable profits from the Apple II that Apple was able to develop the Macintosh, market it, and gradually make it evolve into a machine which is now at the center of all Apple products. In a sense then, Woz ...

See also:

Steve Wozniak, Steve Wozniak - Early life and inspiration, Steve Wozniak - The dawn of Apple, Steve Wozniak - The Success of the Apple II, Steve Wozniak - Post-Apple career, Steve Wozniak - Recognition and afterwards

Read more here: » Steve Wozniak: Encyclopedia II - Steve Wozniak - The Success of the Apple II

Woz left Apple for good on February 6, 1985, nine years after setting up the company. Wozniak then founded a new venture called Cloud 9 which developed home remote control switches, bringing the first universal remote control to market in 1987. Wozniak and Jobs were proud to have originated an anti-corporate ethic among big players in the computer market. Jobs focused on innovation with his NeXT vision, while Woz went into teaching (he taught fifth grade students) and charitable activities in the field of education. He has also hosted Unuson (Unite Us In Song), for ...

See also:

Steve Wozniak, Steve Wozniak - Early life and inspiration, Steve Wozniak - The dawn of Apple, Steve Wozniak - The Success of the Apple II, Steve Wozniak - Post-Apple career, Steve Wozniak - Recognition and afterwards

Read more here: » Steve Wozniak: Encyclopedia II - Steve Wozniak - Post-Apple career

Apple IIe - The Apple IIGS Upgrade. When the Apple IIGS computer was introduced by Apple Computer in September 1986, Apple also announced it would be making an upgrade kit for the IIe available for purchase. Essentially the "upgrade" replaced the Apple IIe motherboard for a 16-bit Apple IIGS motherboard, making it more of an outright computer transplant than upgrade. Users would bring their Apple IIe machines into an authorized Apple dealership, where the IIe motherboard and lower ba ...

See also:

Apple IIe, Apple IIe - History, Apple IIe - The beginning, Apple IIe - Overview of new features, Apple IIe - Technical specifications, Apple IIe - Revisions, Apple IIe - The Revision B motherboard, Apple IIe - New case and keyboard, Apple IIe - The Enhanced IIe, Apple IIe - The Platinum IIe, Apple IIe - The Apple IIe Card for Macintosh, Apple IIe - International versions, Apple IIe - Upgrades, Apple IIe - The Apple IIGS Upgrade

Read more here: » Apple IIe: Encyclopedia II - Apple IIe - Upgrades

Microprocessor 6502 or 65C02 running at 1.023 MHz 8-bit data bus Memory 64KB RAM built-in 16KB ROM built-in Expandable from 64KB up to 1MB RAM or more Video modes 40 and 80 columns text, with 24 lines¹ Low-Resolution: 40x48 (16 colors) High-Resolution: 280x192 (6 colors)* Double-Low-Resolution: 80x48 (16 colors) Double-High-Resolution: 560x192 (16 colors)* *effectively 140 ...

See also:

Apple IIe, Apple IIe - History, Apple IIe - The beginning, Apple IIe - Overview of new features, Apple IIe - Technical specifications, Apple IIe - Revisions, Apple IIe - The Revision B motherboard, Apple IIe - New case and keyboard, Apple IIe - The Enhanced IIe, Apple IIe - The Platinum IIe, Apple IIe - The Apple IIe Card for Macintosh, Apple IIe - International versions, Apple IIe - Upgrades, Apple IIe - The Apple IIGS Upgrade

Read more here: » Apple IIe: Encyclopedia II - Apple IIe - Technical specifications

Raskin first met Apple Computer's Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak following the debut of their Apple II personal computer at the First West Coast Computer Faire. Steve Jobs hired his firm, Bannister and Crun, to write the Apple II BASIC Programming Manual. In January 1978 Raskin joined Apple as manager of Publications, the company's 31st employee. For some time he continued as director of Publications and New Product Review, ...

See also:

Jef Raskin, Jef Raskin - Early years and education, Jef Raskin - Career at Apple, Jef Raskin - Pioneering the information appliance, Jef Raskin - Outside interests, Jef Raskin - Personal life and later years

Read more here: » Jef Raskin: Encyclopedia II - Jef Raskin - Career at Apple

Improving the IIe Technically the Apple IIc was the Apple IIe computer in a smaller case, retaining the same set of features. Building on the design, it did manage to offer a few minor improvement without affecting compatibility. First it utilized the CMOS based 65C02 microprocessor (instead of a plain 6502) which added 27 new processor instructions and drew less power. The new ROM firmware allowed Applesoft BASIC to recognize lowercase characters, work better with an 80 columns display and fixed several bugs from the IIe ROM. ...

See also:

Apple IIc, Apple IIc - History, Apple IIc - Overview of features, Apple IIc - Technical specifications, Apple IIc - Revisions, Apple IIc - Serial port timing fix, Apple IIc - UniDisk 3.5 support ROM revision '0', Apple IIc - The Memory Expansion IIc ROM revision '3', Apple IIc - The Memory Expansion IIc fix ROM revision '4', Apple IIc - International versions, Apple IIc - Add-on accessories

Read more here: » Apple IIc: Encyclopedia II - Apple IIc - Overview of features

Microprocessor 65C02 running at 1.023 MHz 8-bit data bus Memory 128K RAM built-in 32K ROM built-in (16K ROM in original) Expandable from 128K to 1 MB (only through non-conventional methods in original) Video 40 and 80 columns text, with 24 lines¹ Low-Resolution: 40x48 (16 colors) High-Resolution: 280x192 (6 colors)* Double-Low-Resolution: 80x48 (16 colors) Double-High-Resolution: 560x192 (16 colors)* *effectively 140 ...

See also:

Apple IIc, Apple IIc - History, Apple IIc - Overview of features, Apple IIc - Technical specifications, Apple IIc - Revisions, Apple IIc - Serial port timing fix, Apple IIc - UniDisk 3.5 support ROM revision '0', Apple IIc - The Memory Expansion IIc ROM revision '3', Apple IIc - The Memory Expansion IIc fix ROM revision '4', Apple IIc - International versions, Apple IIc - Add-on accessories

Read more here: » Apple IIc: Encyclopedia II - Apple IIc - Technical specifications