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Woz OK's Apple I Resurrection
A reader wrote to us with a story from Wired about a gentleman who's hand-crafting Apple Is for ordering. He's been unable to get a response from Apple, but Woz has graciously responded.
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I think that you want OpenCores.
Warhammer forums
Actually, it's not a mac. The Apple I predated the Macintosh by almost a decade. It's also a very important contributing factor to why you're even able to post a comment to slashdot like that today.
:)
So show some respect, dammit
Having the machine would be really cool, but you can emulate the Apple I right now if you like.
:-(
Java Apple I emulator.
Other Apple I emulators for Windows and Macintosh.
I'm just about to give them a try. Can't find anything for Linux or UNIX though
Ahh yes, http://home.comcast.net/~vbriel/r1_4.jpg shows a better view. Perhaps the Apple 1 had a good start, but damn... the VIC20/C64 has to be my favourite 8bit micro ;-)
Other than in highly commercialized areas, most source was 'open' in as much that you could easily see a lot of it, even if you couldn't legally copy it or change it.
Of course, it sounds like Woz was inviting people to take it and change it, although that is not made clear.. making something public back then was not the same as giving everyone a right to change it for commercial purposes (unlike today's GPL world).
Back then, of course, even on mainframes the code for business applications was often interpreted. On the microcomputers that appeared in the late 70's and early 80's, a lot of source was also open to view. Everyone remembers typing in sources from books and computer magazines. And I'm sure a lot of us 'escaped' programs and typed 'LIST' (on those platforms which used BASIC anyway!) and watched the source code fly up the screen.
The code was not 'open' in the GPL/Open Source way, but open as in.. not protected.. somewhat in the same way that nearly all Perl scripts you can buy now are readable source-wise (even if they're obfuscated).
Today everything's only 'protected' because of the commercialization of the IT sector, and a cynicism and 'protectionist' attitude of coders. But back in the fun 'early' days, source was a lot more in your face, even if you couldn't change it and sell it on.
> Could this be the first implementation of open source?
You must be kidding. "Open Source" is very old. It is the concept of hiding the source that is quite recent.
(Think about it: at one point, the software was hand-assembled. This means that there was no distinction between the source and the executable)
Well, it loads its OS faster than the PIII loads Windows. (Of course a Pentium I probably loads Windows XP faster than a G5 loads jaguar, so Apple probably doesn't want to use OS loading speed as a benchmark.)
Little Brother, watching the watchers
What he's talking about is that the Apple I was (and will be) sold as just a circuit board; you had to make or buy your own case, power supply, keyboard, etc. Sure, slapping an iBook motherboard inside a IIe is easy (although I worry a bit about cooling), but there's no case of an Apple I to put a mobo into. :)
My English teacher once told me that two positives don't make a negative. Two words for her: Yeah, right.
Just thought I would mention that Woz is appearing for our local Mac user group on Wednesday. I realize I'll probably get modded down for this, but we really need to sell a few more tickets, so if you mods can find it in your heart to at least leave it at karma 1... :)
My English teacher once told me that two positives don't make a negative. Two words for her: Yeah, right.
Lunix Next Generation - it seems there's an Apple // port in the works... I wouldn't run it on anything with less than 64K RAM, though. The Apple 1 has 8K RAM max.
No, no, no. If your ROM code is released under the GPL license, anyone making a derivative work from that code (an upgraded ROM) would have to release their ROM code under the GPL. But simply using that code to run non-derived software doesn't require that software to be GPLed any more than the GPL requires software I write in emacs to be GPLed.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
I've still got one of those 1702 monitors - they're great. Monitors (little televisions, essentially). Still holds up better than most televisions I've ever owned. In the front you could hook up standard A/V RCA cables and use it as a television. The back had two separate ports for video since the C64 split up the signal (luma/chroma, I think).
Schnapple
If you love this stuff like I do, and want a very nice replica of an "Altair Style" retrobox, the Imsai has been made available again(albeit at a slightly exorbitant price)....
I for one will definitely pony up the $2bux this guy is asking for his Apple replica long before I can afford one of those old Imsais. Much as I want one, I ain't exactly rolling in dough sadly. Just pricked my finger, noticed my blood ain't blue enough.
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
While building it on a breadboard is looking more difficult, discrete logic is still quite usable (with, for example, wire wrapping). In fact, in recent years, advanced families of TTL (or hybrid CMOS) (like ABT, etc) have boosted speed to a point where discrete logic can easily manage these clock rates (33MHz isn't that bad anyway).
That said, ISA and the standard 8-bit microprocessor busses were both much easier to interface to.
Hardware, software, and blinking lights!
He would have been lynched for such an action back in the days of the Apple-Commodore-Atari religious wars! The photo on his home page clearly shows the Apple I prototype hooked up to a Commodore 1701 monitor on the builder's workbench.
(BTW, was that model # 1701 -really- Commodore's reference to the USS Enterprise as we all seemed to think at the time? Or did we just not get out enough?)