 The Apple II was designed on the original
Apple I but was much more expandable, easier
to use, and complete overall. It is the work of one man, Steve
Wozniak. It is unarguably the greatest work done by a single
person in the computer industry. The Apple II debuted in April,
1977, almost exactly one year after the introduction of Apple's
first computer. It included the same MOS Technology 6502 processor
running at the same clock speed (1.023 MHz) as the Apple
I. The differences most noticeably included a plastic casing,
the first of any commercial microcomputer, and an NTSC or PAL
video out connector. This is what allowed you to use your TV
to connect to an Apple II as a monitor. It offered up to a 16
fixed colors, another first in commercial microcomputing technology,
and sound. They were sold with 4 to 64k of RAM, and were more
expandable than the original Apple I. The
II's first programming evironment, Wozniak's Integer BASIC was
burned into the Apple II ROM. It let even non-hackers create
programs for there computers using its new advances like color
and sound. In August 1977, Apple agreed to pay $21,000 for an
eight year license of Microsoft's Applesoft BASIC, designed by
a then-teenage Randy Wigginton, who would later write MacWrite,
and would be very influential in the creation of the Macintosh.
The machine offered a cassette tape interface at the time of
its introduction. In 1978 the Disk ][, a 143k 5.25" Disk
Drive was introduced. With it came the first full version of
the Apple II's OS, DOS 3.1. The Apple II was finally discontinued
in 1982, but still has not died. You can often find it living
in countless schools, basements, attics, and other rooms of the
faithful. |
