After the success of its first product, the Apple I - the " Steves' wanted to conquer the world. But for that they needed a more powerful computer with a better look and it was easy to use by as many people as possible. Wozniak touched him again sit on the drawing board, and again the result was spectacular: powered by a 8-bit MOS 6502 and a beige plastic case that concealed until 48KB of RAM, was born the first member of the Apple II family , whose members would be marketed between 1977 and 1993.
The Apple I had become a "best seller despite the modest it may seem today (sold hundreds of thousands of iPads in the early hours of its release) to sell a couple hundred units of a product throughout its shelf life. What happens is that at that time personal computers were practically unknown, the price very high, and people still did not quite learn that I could have one at home. When the fledgling Apple realized that design and manufacture computers could become a gold mine, went to work on a new computer intended to replace the Apple I . This might be a product designed from scratch to be sold, and would have everything a home user might need. Steve Wozniack undertook the design of the new computer, and put in everything that he could not include in its first machine.
Advertising Apple II (Byte, August 1977)
The Apple I was a hand-built machine designed primarily to fans who had already had some contact with computers. The Apple II , however, was a true product of mass production. Computer became extremely popular among home users but, especially since the launch of the VisiCalc spreadsheet - also sold well among businessmen. To achieve such a revolution, Apple used marketing techniques masterfully. Woz and Jobs complemented. The excellent design of the first had not been more than a curiosity if it had not had the thrust of Jobs, who along with the advertising agency Regis McKenna, who had designed for Apple bitten apple logo original (from green), was in charge of details completely unrelated to the technology that had made possible the computer but visual impact on its customers. So it was that insisted on highlighting the ability to display colors Apple II , placing it in a white box in which it highlighted a new version of the apple, this time with the colors of the rainbow. Apple would pay always pay attention to these details, which can also be seen in the first ads of Apple II appeared in the 1977 edition of Byte magazine.
was very easy to get into the Apple II
"What so special to Apple II? First, were no longer needed the user to procure a case and power supply for your computer. The Apple II was the kind of "plug and play ." It was still easy to remove the cover and inside access, but it was a pileup that out of place in a home or office. And second, its power, making the comparison with other computers of the era was not exactly negligible. Your motherboard, which was MOS 6502 microprocessor running at 1 MHz , had eight expansion slots and up 48 KB of RAM . But what made him a true object of desire was his ability to display colors and high resolution graphics, the sound generator and the programming language BASIC (Integer BASIC ) included. Unlike computers like the Altair 8800 , which were primarily aimed at engineers and hobbyists, the Apple II was a product for the masses.
Apple II Plus
Over 15 years of history, Apple sold a large number of different models of its " Apple II." The original, released on June 5, 1977, using the aforementioned microprocessor MOS Technology 6502 to 1 MHz, 4 kilobytes of available RAM , the programming language Integer BASIC in 12 KB ROM and a connector to use an audio cassette recorder and data storage device. On the video, one of the most striking features of this computer, was able to show 24 lines of 40 columns of text in capital letters on a monitor or TV , thanks to an RF modulator. The launch price for this model was $ 1,298 , and the version with 48KB of RAM could be achieved by $ 2,638, an amount that serves to get an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat it was the memory of those years. The success of the Apple II attracted like flies to many manufacturers, who began designing expansion cards or software to further enhance the features of your computer. That's how cards appeared to display text in 80 columns, other programming languages, games and applications. Apple also developed many peripherals such as -Disk II floppy disk drive 5 ¼ inch plus external controller card, which avoided the agony of the endless waiting that occurred when trying to load a large program from a audio cassette. Woz also designed by the Disk II interface is considered one of the most interesting electronic designs in history.
VisiCalc, running on an Apple II As
happen years later with the IBM PC , the open design and the inclusion of connectors expansion made possible the emergence of hundreds of devices that helped popularize the Apple II . If you stop to snap a computer magazine in late 1970, will see a lot of ads highlighting the benefits of their products for the computer, such as serial communications controllers, network cards and primitive, a little later, until hard drives. Some came to build expansion cards equipped with a microprocessor Z80, which gave the Apple II the ability to run programs developed for the-then-very popular operating system CP / M . So was that users of this computer to access database managers like dBase II or WordStar word processor . As the months passed, the cost of the components used in building the Apple II were down in price, while competition was beginning to develop products that could move the market. This meant that Apple would create new versions of your computer, resulting in a large family whose lineage extended until about the early years of the decade of 1990.
Apple IIc, the "portable" family
The first review of the Apple II took place in 1979. Called "Apple II Plus ," included as standard BASIC Applesoft -written by Microsoft, which until then only offered as an improvement and allowed to operate including floating point numbers. RAM Memory were around 16KB (or 48KB, if you were willing to spend a little more) and could be extended to 64KB. This hardware enabled Apple machine could run the compilers UCSD Pascal and FORTRAN 77 very popular at that time. For three years the "Plus" kept Apple from the top spot in sales. When his popularity began to decline slightly was decided to lower its price, so it was launched in 1982 model IIe, a version that took advantage of the new chips available in the market to reduce their number, the size of the main board and, of course, the final cost of the computer. This model, besides being cheaper, the screen could show uppercase and lowercase letters and 64 KB of available RAM expandable to 128 KB. The Apple IIe (Enhanced A pple II) was the most popular model of the family and is one of the most easily be achieved today.
Apple IIGS, a real beauty
In May 1984 the sale was the first portable model of the family, the Apple IIc . His heart was 65C02 microprocessor, an improved version in CMOS technology "old" MOS 6502 used in previous models. The improvements do not end there: the IIc, called "Lolly " during its development, was able to show 80 columns of text without the help of extra plates, connect with other computers through a telephone line with its internal modem, access a floppy disk drive from its integrated controller and more. Its design is more compact than its brethren, limited enough to expand. In 1986 he introduced what became the most powerful member of the Apple II family . Although in 1894 the company started marketing the Macintosh -much more powerful and equipped with a GUI - the successful Apple II was not over. The Apple IIGS represented a major change in the "family" as their 65C816 microprocessor had 16-bit registers and an address bus of 24 bits. Ran at 2.8 MHz, had more memory (256KB and 1024KB, expandable to 8 MB), and a graphical user interface inspired by the Macintosh .
Apple IIc Plus, 1988
The last " embodiment" of the Apple II was the Apple IIc Plus 1988. It was not too different from the IIc, but had a new disk drive 3.5-inch, including an internal power supply and microprocessor 65C02 going to 4 Mhz. It was, as came from the factory, the faster model. However, some expansion cards as RocketChip or ZipGS allowed different models of the Apple II running at 10 or 12 MHz Apple would manufacture and provide further support for this family until about 1993. However, times had changed and a computer that had its roots deeply buried in the 8-bit prevailing in the late 1970's did not have much future in front of " monsters" as the IBM PC the Macintosh or Amiga . Gradually, the Apple I I disappeared from the scene, and although sold millions and many companies even produced clones of them, today there are many people who never heard of these computers. However, it was a very important part of the history of personal computers. Until next week!
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