Apple II History

Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich (C) Copyright 1991, Zonker Software (PART 1 -- PRE-APPLE HISTORY) [v1.1 :: 12 Dec 91] INTRODUCTION This project began as a description of how the Apple II evolved into a IIGS, and some of the standards that emerged along the way. It has grown into a history of Apple Computer, with an emphasis on the place of the Apple II in that history. It has been gleaned from a variety of magazine articles and books that I have collected over the years, supplemented by information supplied by individuals who were "there" when it happened. I have tried not to spend much time on information that has been often repe...

Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich (C) Copyright 1991, Zonker Software (PART 2 -- THE APPLE I) [v1.1 :: 12 Dec 91] THE APPLE I: DEVELOPMENT At the Homebrew Computer club in Palo Alto, California (in Silicon Valley), Steve Wozniak, a 26 year old employee of Hewlett-Packard and a long-time digital electronics hacker, had been wanting to build a computer of his own for a long time. For years he had designed many on paper, and even written FORTRAN compilers and BASIC interpreters for these theoretical machines, but a lack of money kept him from carrying out his desire. He looked at the Intel 8080 chip (the heart of the Altair), but at $1...

Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich (C) Copyright 1991, Zonker Software (PART 3 -- THE APPLE II) [v1.1 :: 12 Dec 91] THE APPLE II: HARDWARE AND FIRMWARE Moving our time machine on to 1977, we can now look at Steve Wozniak's next generation Apple. Even as the AppleI was completed and was slowly selling, Wozniak was already working on making enhancements that would make his computer faster and more functional. He wanted to make it display in color. He worked to combine the terminal and memory functions of the AppleI by moving the display into main memory, allowing instant screen changes. Many of his changes were not added with the e...

Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich (C) Copyright 1991, Zonker Software (PART 4 -- THE APPLE II, CONT.) [v1.1 :: 12 Dec 91] THE APPLE II: OTHER DESIGN FEATURES Since Steve Wozniak was the designer of the AppleI and II, exactly what contribution did Steve Jobs make to the effort? Unlike Wozniak, who would not think much of extra wires hanging out of a computer that worked properly, Jobs had an eye for the appearance of the final product. He wanted the AppleII to be a product that people outside the Homebrew Computer Club would want to own: "Jobs thought the cigar boxes [housing the home-made computers] that sat on the... desk tops duri...

Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich (C) Copyright 1991, Zonker Software (PART 5 -- THE DISK II) [v1.1 :: 12 Dec 91] THE DISK II Let's put some more trash into Mr. Fusion to fuel the next leg of our trip. How about one of those KIM-1 computers over there in the corner of the Computer Faire auditorium? We might have to break it up a bit to make it fit... Okay, now we'll just make a small jump, to December of 1977. By this time the AppleII had been generally available for about six months. Most customers used their television as an inexpensive color monitor, and used a cassette recorder to store and retrieve their programs and da...

Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich (C) Copyright 1991, Zonker Software (PART 6 -- THE APPLE II PLUS) [v1.1 :: 12 Dec 91] THE APPLE II PLUS: HARDWARE We now go cruising ahead in time about one year, to June of 1979. Applesoft BASIC had been in heavy demand since the introduction in late 1978 of an improved version. It was needed by those wanting to write and use applications that needed the capability of floating-point math. Because of this, Apple engineers had begun working in 1978 on the AppleII Plus, a modest enhancement to the AppleII. The main attraction of this newer Apple would be Applesoft in ROM, available immediately without...

Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich (C) Copyright 1992, Zonker Software (PART 7 -- THE APPLE IIE) [v1.1 :: 26 Jan 92] PRELUDE: THE APPLE III PROJECT As we continue our travels examining the history of the AppleII, let's fine tune the time-machine card on our souped-up AppleII to concentrate specifically on the next version of the II, the IIe. As before, just accelerate the microprocessor speed to 88 MHz, and watch out for the digital fire-trails! Destination: 1982. Between the years 1979 and 1983, although no new versions of the AppleII were released, it enjoyed a broad popularity and annually increasing sales. The open architectu...

Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich (C) Copyright 1992, Zonker Software (PART 8 -- THE APPLE IIC) [v1.1 :: 12 May 92] PRELUDE: STEVE JOBS AND MACINTOSH Rewind back to 1982, before the AppleIIe was introduced, and adjust the tuning on our Flux Capacitor-enhanced peripheral card. Before dealing specifically with the smallest AppleII, the IIc, it would help to take an aside and look at some other events happening at Apple Computers, Inc. at this time that affected its development. If you recall, the Lisa project was designated as the computer that was considered to be the future of Apple. From a series of parallel processors and a "bit s...

Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich (C) Copyright 1992, Zonker Software (PART 9 -- DISK EVOLUTION / THE APPLE IIC PLUS) [v1.2 :: 21 May 92] ADVANCES IN APPLE II DISK STORAGE Since Steve Wozniak's DiskII floppy drive changed the AppleII from a hobbyist toy to a serious home and business computer in the late 1970's, the progress of disk storage has been slow for the AppleII series. In 1978, the year the DiskII was released, Mike Scott (Apple's president) and Randy Wigginton were asked at a user group meeting whether they were going to go to the larger capacity eight-inch floppy drives (which had been around before the 5....

Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich (C) Copyright 1991, Zonker Software (PART 10 -- THE APPLE IIGS) [v1.0 :: 06 Dec 91] THE APPLE II EVOLVES While the capabilities of the AppleII slowly advanced as it changed from the II up through the IIc, the one thing that remained essentially unchanged was the 6502 microprocessor that controlled it. Even though the 65c02 had more commands than the 6502, as an 8-bit processor it was inherently limited to directly addressing no more than 64K of memory at one time. (As an 8-bit processor, the 6502 could handle only 8 bits, or one byte at a time. However, its address bus was 16 bits wide, which made f...