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Apple I Replica Creation
I read the Foreword and was put off -- it had no discussion about what to expect in the book, nothing about Tom Owad, or even Vince Briel; it seemed to be a letter from Steve Wozniak discussing the Apple I and its place in history.
Moving on into the book, in the first chapter I read about several people that own (or have owned) genuine Apple I -- and while this was interesting, and helped to get me in the mindset of mid-seventies computing, I felt this too had little to do with the stated purpose of the book -- building an Apple I replica. Personally, I would have put this chapter in the back of the book, most likely as an Appendix, since the reader must have some knowledge of the Apple I before they picked up the book, and these stories do little to describe the hardware we are going to build.
The next two chapters -- "Tools and Materials" and "Digital Logic" -- provide thin overviews on building electronics projects in general, and an overview of Digital Logic. I contend that if you've never picked up a soldering iron, you shouldn't make your first effort a computer, no matter how "simple" this one is (and it is pretty straightforward, just a handful of chips with no tricky analog "adjustments" to make), and if you want to learn about Digital Logic, you'd be well served to focus on the material as covered in Charles Petzold's classic tome Code.
Next we have a chapter on building the Replica I -- there are no real insights provided, no hints or tips that relate to the reader that the author even built his own Replica I. In fact, the author includes a quote from someone who built his own Replica I, but by the end of the included story, this person hasn't gotten it working yet. Since this story was (apparently) written well in advance of the book being published, why not include an update indicating that Vince was able to get his Apple I replica up and running? (By all accounts, Vince is very helpful to those that buy his kits.)
There are almost 4 pages dedicated to the McCAD program included with the book on CD-ROM, but unless you are familiar with CAD/circuit design software, you will finish the four pages with precious little understanding of how to actually use the software, or how to turn the circuits you designed into actual printed circuit boards.
Moving on, we have a chapter on programming the Replica I in BASIC -- this chapter provides only the barest minimum information on the BASIC included with the Replica I. This BASIC is Integer only, and was written by Steve Wozniak personally. While BASIC once was a very common language (it used to be included in ROM on almost all consumer and business personal computers, before Disk Drives became commonplace), it merits a better overview than the author provides. The original Apple I BASIC Manual (available from Vince Briel's website) does a better job describing the language. The author includes an extensive dissection of a larger BASIC program (a simple text-based role-playing game), but gets lost in describing how the program works. I was left with the feeling that the larger BASIC program was included to pad the section on BASIC programming.
Then we move on to programming the Replica I in Assembler -- here the author cuts so many corners (he even reduces the now-obligatory "Hello, World" program to a much shorter text message "H W" to save space) that the reader is left with only a hint of what can be done with the Replica I in assembler. Again, material appears to be added to the book to pad out the chapter, including one of three separate ASCII Character charts, all the Op Codes of the 6502 CPU listed in several different ways (both in this chapter and in the Appendices), and the thinnest of details in the "detailed" views of each Op Code (Op Codes are the instructions used to build a program in assembler).
Next we come to a chapter entitled "Understanding the Apple I" -- what this chapter is doing in the back of the book is beyond me, since understanding the Apple I is, you know, the whole point of this book, right? The information provided is fairly technical, but does little to provide the reader with the information needed to actually design/build anything based on the Apple I design. Note that while this book is about building an Apple I replica, it is not a "clone" -- where the original had 8K of RAM, this unit has 32K of RAM, provided by one chip instead of the original 16 chips on the Apple I. This unit is functionally identical to the Apple I, but the circuit design is greatly simplified over Woz's original design (based on about 30 years of progress in the computer industry). As a concession to the realities of the current computer market, the Replica I also uses an "AT" power supply, and can use a PS/2 keyboard in place of the ASCII keyboards popular in the mid-seventies. These changes make the Replica I a more convenient project to attempt, while retaining the original programming environment of the Apple I.
Now we enter into the Appendices -- we have another ASCII Character Chart as Appendix 1 (there are three total, if memory serves me correctly), then three appendices which simply list all the Op Codes of the 6502 processor three different ways. Again, these appear to be added simply as filler material to add heft to the book -- the author adds nothing to these sections, and they repeat information covered elsewhere in the book.
Next we have an Appendix on "Hacking Macintosh": this is the clearest case of padding a book I've ever seen -- the author describes how to take a Macintosh SE and replace the case with "Lego-type" blocks -- a trivial hack, unrelated to the Apple I in any way, and a potentially dangerous activity, because you are exposing high voltage electronics by removing the manufacturer's original case with its shielding and protection. Then we have a slightly more technical hack in the "UFO Mouse" hack -- adding an LED to the original iMac UFO mouse. Then we have our final Mac Hack -- wrapping the interior case of a Mac Cube system with decorative wrapping paper and placing the now "beautiful" system back in the clear plastic case. This is a hack? How does this relate to the Apple I?
The final appendix is titled "Electrical Engineering Basics" -- and while it does a reasonable job of describing what various components do (like resistors, capacitors, diodes and transistors), there is no reference to take the reader to a place where they can learn to build things of any sophistication (like, say, a computer, perhaps?). I was left asking the question, if this material is needed by the target reader, why are they attempting to build a Replica I computer? If the target reader doesn't need it, why is it included? We also are treated to our second set of instructions on how to solder -- again, why was this included in the book?
In the end, I have no idea who the target audience market is for this book, and I felt the book had no central theme -- it seemed to be a bunch of material culled (I can only assume) from the author's Apple Fritter web site. This book was too "light" to be of any real use to an experienced electronics person looking to design an "Apple I-inspired" system, and there is precious little material for the electronics novice who wants to build Vince Briel's Replica I kit that isn't provided by Vince either on his site or in the included assembly instructions and original Apple I documentation.
I noted numerous errors in the book, and attempted to forward them to the publisher for inclusion in the next printing of the book, but after finishing the book, I suspect there will be no need for a reprinting. I say attempted, because my email to the publisher bounced, but I was able to send my notes to the technical reviewer of the book, and I have sent my notes to Vince as well, for his reference.
I found this book to be confused (no clear narrative/theme/idea), cluttered (why three ASCII charts? Why Mac Hacks?), and to contain many typos/errors. In the final analysis, unless you simply have to have this book because it is about the Apple I, I'd say save yourself the cost of the book, and simply order a pre-assembled Replica I from Vince Briel -- the money you save by not buying the book ($39.95 Suggested retail price) will almost exactly cover the price difference between the unassembled Replica I and the the assembled version (currently $40 US).
You can purchase Apple I Replica Creation: Back to the Garage from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
i'm a little concerned. This pic gave me a boner.
Homebrewed hardware is sexy.
Uh, all you did was paste the last paragraph of this article into a slashdot comment...hello moderators. Read before moderating :)
*Apple will sue*
:/
Ok... it was 3 words
The Apple I was the very first Apple computer. This book shows you how to build one for under US$100.
FYI, the original model was marketed at $666. I think it's safe to say that Apple's marketing strategies have improved a bit since then.
Cool, I want one! It's about time for an upgrade anyways.
All kidding aside, this is exactly how I remember the manuals and literature of the day. The author clearly captured the "you figure it out" style of documentation from that era. Documentation has really advanced in the past 30 years.
Someone you trust is one of us.
I guess it's time for me to write my "How to build an Abacus Replica" Book, and include my address - so folks can send for their wire, frame, and brightly colored beads.
I will include a useful Arabic Numerals chart, a discussion of Roman Numerals, the use of zero as a place-holder, as well as how to resolve that pesky "multiplication" stuff.
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
Using a static wrist-strap at least, or you could spawn a whole race of cyborg offspring and be stuck making custody payments to the Woz.
air and light and time and space
From reading the review I'd figure on a 2. Maybe 3 tops. Makes me think of the New England's Phantom Gourmet reviews:
"Atmosphere of a stable. Entrees resemble low grade dog food. Phantom Gourmet give is a 7!"
Dogma - "let's just say we'd like to avoid any empirical entanglements."
They shouldnt care, shout be pretty cool if you ask me
http://onticfusion.sytes.net/
People doesn't RTFA, ok.
Now, moderators, doens't even read the slashdot history?
This text has been copied and pasted from the review, and the stupid moderator had it a few lines up!
what's wrong with this people?
Not only that, but the meta-moderators are even more confused, even though they have access to the context. They see a well formed paragraph and what appears to be unfair moderation. What a wonderful system (that's sarcasm).
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
From the review, I see no evidence at all that you, the reviewer, would recommend the book for anyone. Yet you rate it 4 (out of 10, right?) How bad would it have to be to rate 1?
The replica I is a neat idea.
I'm currently building a variety of SBC with Z80 and 6502 chips. What I'd really like is a transputer or at least plans to build something similar with Z80 chips. Did I mention I have over 100 of the things.
All rolled together to save everyone a lot of time
- yeah, but does it run Linux?
- imagine a beowulf cluster of these!
- In Soviet Russia, Apple 1 kit makes YOU
- Step1: Make kit Step2: Make book Step3: Step4: PROFIT!
- I don't care how cool the kit is, I can get a Dell that costs less and runs with a faster CPU!
Thanks!
Blockwars: free, multiplayer, head to head game
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
I find the reviewer to be confused, unclear, and unnecessary.
He seems unclear on what is typically said in a foreword, especially by someone like Woz. He doesn't seem to understand why an unrelated Mac chapter might be added as an appendix.. it's there because Apple hackers might find it entertaining. It's a free bonus.
I found the first chapter, the one about the Apple I history, to be essential and appropriately placed at the beginning. I started with the Apple ][, and I had always assumed that the Apple I was similar, i.e. standardized, came with basic, etc... instead, Chapter 1 has cleared up the fact that nearly all owners customized their Apple Is. It also tells why the serial board was popular, and hence why you might want one for the Replica I. It tells what was up with the different RAM amounts, BASIC, and so on.
To be fair, I only got a couple of chapters into my copy before I had to give it away to a Mac enthusiast (who used to work at Apple) who wanted it to have an electronics project for his kids. My replacement copy is on the way, maybe I'll write a proper review and see if Slashdot will take it. Note: for the conspiracy theorists, I often write for Syngress, though I had nothing to do with this book. Assume I'm a shill if you must.
Also, I see a few talking about Apple suing and such. I doubt that will happen. Syngress is generally pretty careful about that. Woz gave his blessing for the use of the ROM monitor, and the book states that Apple had given over support of the Apple I to the Apple I Owners Club anyway.
Finally an emulator that won't suck on a P4! Now if I could only find those 20 year old 5 1/4s that I store next to my magnet collection.
What a wonderful system (that's sarcasm).
You acknowledge that they have access to the context, yet you still complain about the system. If a meta-moderator chooses not to read the context, that's the fault of the meta-moderator, not the moderation system. Hell, even if the context was automatically spat out onto my screen, I could choose to meta-moderate all even posts Fair, and all odd posts Unfair. Again, it would have nothing to do with the system itself.
Though you do get a +1 Old School.
does it run mac os x tiger?
http://www.6502.org/homebuilt/
There is alot of work being done on creating 6502 based systems, and I'm sure that an especially industrious designer could emulate the entire Apple I in a single FGPA chip.
Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
Not verbatim, but it's just a mindless paraphrase, probably trolling for delicious karma.
When the book arrived, I quickly scanned it
Torrent?
I wa just about to build a replica of the ENIAC, but the cost of the 1000 square feet was quite discouraging :/
So was this intended as an homage? :-)
This reminds me of Stan Kelly-Bootle's book parody (OK, it was a magazine column) called something like "Getting the Most Out of Your Cray" -- Appendix A was of course an ASCII table, but I thought the best tip was that you should be sure to save all the packing material in case you have to send it back for service.
(For what will surely be the most obscure bit of '80s computer industry insider humor you'll find on Slashdot today, the "book's" useful example program, instead of printing "Hello, world!" read "Goodbye, Steve!")
This Mac I is pretty cool. I wonder if its Doom 3 benchmarks are any worse than a high-end Dual G5's are? ;-)
If you brought an Apple 1 in 1977, would it have been expensive?
According to here this can be translated (into 2003 dollars) as follows;
In 2003, $666.66 from 1977 is worth:
$2,023.56 using the Consumer Price Index
$1,647.39 using the GDP deflator
$1,947.17 using the unskilled wage
$2,733.51 using the GDP per capita
$3,605.56 using the relative share of GDP
Which I guess means that the relativelty the Apple 1 was expensive compared to a mini at $500 USD, but about the same as a top line G5 dual 2.5G at $3,000 USD
But I doubt I'll be whacking together a dual G5 in 23 years for only 100 bucks
This may sound like the lamentations of an old coot, and perhaps it is.
Back in those early days, computers were so much simpler that any decent hobbyist could understand everything. Simple processors, simple instruction sets, simple memory maps, and simple OSes meant it was all comprehensible. When all your code (and data) can fit in 4k, 16k, or even (if you were rich enough), 64k, you could understand it all. Little beasts like a Kim-1or TRS-80 or Commodore PET were amazing little machines. And with full-size components , macroscopic traces, and sub-MHz electronics, anyone with a soldering iron could hack on some new functionality.
Sorry for the nostalgia.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
n/t
It went from a book for film-makers and 3D animators on how to use a new medium, to a book for everyone on how to use a game to make a movie with "no special skills required."
ILL Clinton Maker of Machinima Movies
The schematics for the II+ are readily available as well. In fact the manuals that Apple shipped with the II and II+ had not only the schematics, but a hex dump of the roms. And to think, they were actually surprised when people started cloning their systems....
As for whether Apple would sue, I don't really think I care. Last time I checked there was nothing illegal about implementing a hardware design that one has the plans to. Selling it would probably violate IP laws of one sort of another, but then I'm not advocating that. As for the ROMS, there are II+ and IIe systems for sale on ebay all the time. There are also several Apple II series emulators that include dumps of the roms. These have been around for many a year. If Apple cared they'd have rattled their cage by now.
Lee
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
I just want an add on that lets me take a $20-$40 grapics card and make it into a general purpose computer without a motherboard.
Graphics card provides:
1. CPU
2. Ram memory
3. video out
Stub motherboard replacement provides:
1. Mouse port
2. Keyboard port
3. Boot rom
4. Power supply interface
5. AGP port to power graphcis card as well as transfer boot rom contents to graphics card CPU
My own description of the book can be found here:
www.applefritter.com/replica
Cool concept, but if it's not going to be a direct copy of the original PCB, doing the clone in VHDL on an FPGA would so the same thing, and be a fair bit easier. I'm curious just what are the chips on the original Apple I that are no longer available...
Sites are disappearing fast.
g e= gallery&model=aI
http://www.apple-history.com/frames/body.php?pa
http://www.nd.edu/~jvanderk/sysone/
http://home.earthlink.net/~gamba2/index.html
http://w3.trib.com/~dwood/oldmac.shtml#soft
http://www.jagshouse.com/cds.html#sw
~hylas
Well, I for one am glad somebody finally came up with a "this book sucks, don't touch it with with a ten foot pole" type review, after the boring slashvertisements we've been seeing lately.
I do agree with the reviewer review that the review was confused, spending way too much time talking about how he would have prefered the book to be organised, rather than just telling us how it was and letting us make up our minds (or bringing his own feelings up in the conclusion).
Other than that, I'd say the review was interesting. Also, the reviewer review was fair and balanced, correcting the reviewer's mistakes without too much flaming. Kudos.
A technical forum has been set up on Applefritter to provide support to those working with McCAD. Documentation and a training video are available on the CD and from McCAD's website. The included software is an excellent value and is only needed for readers interested in printing their own circuits.
Then we move on to programming the Replica I in Assembler -- here the author cuts so many corners (he even reduces the now-obligatory "Hello, World" program to a much shorter text message "H W" to save space) that the reader is left with only a hint of what can be done with the Replica I in assembler.
The very first assembly program on page 155 explains how to echo the characters 'H' and 'W'. Page 165 provides a more complex example that does spell out the entire phrase. The reviewer is correct that this chapter is "only a hint" at what is possible in assembly. It is intended as an _introduction_.
Again, material appears to be added to the book to pad out the chapter, including one of three separate ASCII Character charts, all the Op Codes of the 6502 CPU listed in several different ways
The Op Codes are presented in matrix form (for reverse look-up), as an alphabetical chart with memory modes, and organized by category. I'm not sure which of these the reviewer would want left out.
(both in this chapter and in the Appendices)
This is simply not true. The Op Code charts appear only in the appendices.
Next we come to a chapter entitled "Understanding the Apple I" -- what this chapter is doing in the back of the book is beyond me, since understanding the Apple I is, you know, the whole point of this book, right? The information provided is fairly technical, but does little to provide the reader with the information needed to actually design/build anything based on the Apple I design.
It appears the reviewer was looking for a book aimed at engineers. What he found was a guide intended for beginners. While this chapter does discuss some modifications and variations to the circuit, describing circuits that go beyond the Apple I is outside of its scope.
then three appendices which simply list all the Op Codes of the 6502 processor three different ways. Again, these appear to be added simply as filler material to add heft to the book
This baffles me, given the reviewers earlier complaints that the book is not technical enough. All three styles are imperative. These are not filler at all.
Next we have an Appendix on "Hacking Macintosh",
This section was filler from an earlier book (though another review I read was delighted by it)
In the end, I have no idea who the target audience market is for this book, and I felt the book had no central theme -- it seemed to be a bunch of material culled (I can only assume) from the author's Apple Fritter web site. This book was too "light" to be of any real use to an experienced electronics person looking to design an "Apple I-inspired" system, and there is precious little material for the electronics novice who wants to build Vince Briel's Replica I kit that isn't provided by Vince either on his site or in the included assembly instructions and original Apple I documentation.
The book is intended the novice or intermediary reader interested in learning more about electronics and computers. Very little of this material is on Applefritter (did you look?) and the Replica I kit includes less than 5 pages of assembly instructions.
I noted numerous errors in the book, and attempted to forward them to the publisher for inclusion in the next printing of the book, but af
into a Klien bottle.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Another clone
You're obviously posting this from your mother's basement in Ottumwa.
If the book was padded anywhere near as much as this article, its a dud for sure.
We get a "boner" comment and a "two words" comment that get higher points that the AUTHORS REBUTTAL
I'll concur with the review, I saw that book at Frys last night and took a look at it.
Waste of paper.. is my opinion.
Starman97@Gmail.com (bring it on spammers)
That very concept is present in computing today. It 's put out there without any tainting with nostalgia - like it was then. It is any value other than inspiration or gee-whiz-factor if you know how to apply is - just like it was then.
/usr/src.
It's there in 'man' and in
There are only going to be so many people building or fabbing anything, even with modified toasters and microwaves to be able to take advantage of that sort of technical disclosure. Companies today also pride themselves (conciously or unconciously) on guarding intellectual property for fun and profit rather than sharing it.
Apple's trying to plant the seed again with OS X and the Development capabilities delivered therewith. The Development package is that Technical Manual.
Those that want to find out how to eek out a few more cycles, or bypass this or that - will, with or without technical documentation.
----
I picked up the book and read through thinking that someone sat down and "replicated the Apple I". Maybe it's a practical application of classic electronics technique. Model-making on another level. It's not. I don't know who or what it it's supposed to be for, either.
Does this hollowness of the art have anything to say about the state of American Engineering & Research?
The schematic of the Replica I is very interesting. There are three processors on the board -- there is the main 6502, of course, but the keyboard and the video output get their own processors. I thought it would be neat to compare how they stack up...
Main processor:
6502 @ 1MHz. 32K SRAM, 8K ROM.
0.3-0.5 MIPS, 3 registers + 256 zero-page registers
Keyboard processor:
ATMega8515 @ 8MHz, 512 bytes RAM, 8.5K EEPROM
8 MIPS, 32 registers, hardware multiplier. Would be 16 MIPS if a faster crystal was used.
Video processor:
ATMega8 @ 14.318 MHz, 512 bytes RAM, 8.5K EEPROM
14 MIPS, 32 registers, hardware multiplier.
So, basically, the auxillary processors are 20-40 times faster, more powerful, and have the same ROM size as the main processor. But, this is the way iit had to be -- it would have hard to find a modern microcontroller that is significantly slower than the 6502.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
what was written to sound like
"apple one, replica" went through my head as
"apple i-replica"
about 6 times. When will Apple come out with the i-replica? What new market will it invent or conquer with a 3% market share...will it be a photocopier running OS-X? fortunately the parse-error state was thrown before smoke started to come out of my ears.
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
In grad school at RPI's Physics department, I worked on semi-automated physics lab projects using the SYM-1, a single-board KIM-1 clone with some extra goodies (including text-only NTSC video output, IIRC, though we might have added that on ourselves).
One of the gadgets I helped hack together was a graphics overlay device for the video port; it plotted a single-valued function as an overlay on the video text by counting the vertical scan lines and horizontal pixel clocks, comparing the scan-line count at each horizontal position (pixel clock count) to a value stored in a static RAM chip, and boosting the video signal in that horizontal position if the scan line count matched the RAM cell value. It was cheap, crude, very simple, and dead elegant. Great for plotting measurement results on-screen above the explanatory text.
Of course, a single-chip uC now does what the single-board system did then, but those systems did their part to transform the world, and they were a joy to work with!
"My strength is as the strength of ten men, for I am wired to the eyeballs on espresso."
I do like the idea to make a functional replica with newer parts. And as much as modern replicas focus on aesthetics, I was actually expecting 3/4 of the book to talk about how to lathe the wooden case and apply a nice varnish stain. Even with these changes and updates, it does appear to have more than I expected. As a hardware hacking project though, I'm a bit disappointed that this book doesn't appear to go into further details with how to make a true clone. I routinely see 1970's era electronics (still apparently working well) made available for the price of hauling the stuff away. I was expecting some deviations, but pointers about what is a deviation, why it was made, and how to do it the right way might have been even better.
I'm a bit disappointed that the author doesn't talk about using one of the Apple I emulation projects (such as Sim6502 or Cocoa Pom I to offer a reference platform to introduce the programming. (Just in case the user gave up with the hardware hacking). Admittedly half the fun in programming old hardware are the tribulations in doing it, but the emulator would give the reader a better introduction to concepts without tossing the reader straight in to the confusing world of the old tools as well. Most programming books teach the user how to user the compiler and debugger separately from teaching the language; it seems like a natural way to do it if it's possible.
I thought this reviewer was excellent and remained fairly objective despite his disappointment. If someone such as Griffin or MacAlly got a kit together, and Wiley or some other publisher overhauled the text, and one of the emulator projects were able to make the software available, then it sounds like this would be an incredible project. As it is, it sounds like it would sate some of my curiousity about the Apple I, but perhaps not in a good way.
How do you know if it is inside or outside of the Klein bottle?
Want a replica of a classic computer? You want a TOAD-1!
"But all your emitter and collector are belong to me!"
I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you Apple I fanatics? I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of an Apple I for about 20 minutes now while it attempts to copy a 17 Meg file from one folder on the hard drive to another folder. 20 minutes. At home, on my Pentium Pro 200 running NT 4, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that
In addition, during this file transfer, PhotoShop will not work. And everything else has ground to a halt. Even the computational fluid dynamics code is straining to keep up as I type this.
I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while working on various Apple Is, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a Apple I that has run faster than its Wintel counterpart, despite the Apple I's faster chip architecture. My 486/66 with 8 megs of ram runs faster than this 6502 machine at times. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that the Apple I is a superior machine.
Apple I addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use a Apple I over other faster, cheaper, more stable systems.
Second: it does not run windows. Some call that an advantage.
Third: have a look at your sig, it's like a microwave-dealer that advertises like "Buy a microwave and get the second fire extinguisher for free!" (I won't repeat the link, it's not that good).
First things that came to mind, sorry for those that I should have included but forgot or simply did not know. I don't own an Apple I by the way. But if you have a hobby like building model planes, would you build a nice, shiny brand model, like a classic Boeing, or an anonymous former CCCP-brand klone, like the Gravitov XIIV?
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
> I doubt I'll be whacking together a dual G5 in 23 years for only 100 bucks
Or at all? Low-level homebrew like this can only easily be done on that sort of late 70s/early 80s platform. Things start to get too complicated after that.
To most modern initiates in computing, computers will only ever be the abstract theoretical desktop magic boxes or maybe the abstract theoretical machines of a text book. Their loss...
Think today's great? Should've been here *yesterday*.
The moderation system includes meta-moderator.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
Why doesn't he just pay the $1? I'd just pay the settlement and admit a "mistake in judgement". Then I'd go back to doing what I did.
the "17 Meg file" troll
It's funny because it's true, this time.
Slashdot - Mutual Assured Discussion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
For those cheapskates among us ....
As you note, there's Apple // systems for sale all the time of eBay. Except for extreme geek factor, there's not much use for cloning one of those when you can just buy an actual system ... and pay far more for just the shipping than the purchase price itself.
The Apple I however is a rare item, what few that do exist fetch prices in the thousands if not ten-thousands. And it has far more of a hobbyist nature to it than the II series since you always had to provide your own power and keyboard.
What is interesting, at least just from quickly glancing over the schematic - is that it seems like the Apple IIe was nothing more than the 6502 and a ton of 74xx and 74LSxx glue logic (plus the ROMs and RAM chips). Both the video and keyboard appear to come off of similar logic, or at least 74xx TTL video driver chips or whatnot.
So - are they using the uCU's to emulate this glue logic and/or interface logic/chips? Seems like that may be the case. I also tend to wonder if Apple would sue their pants off if they used something similar to the original schematic layout for the replica system...
Seems like it would have made more sense just to use high speed Atmel or similar uCU and emulate the hardware...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
In the review by Ken (above), he wrote: >>>> the author includes a quote from someone who built his own Replica I, but by the end of the included story, this person hasn't gotten it working yet. Since this story was (apparently) written well in advance of the book being published, why not include an update indicating that Vince was able to get his Apple I replica up and running? (By all accounts, Vince is very helpful to those that buy his kits.)
I am the "someone" referenced. However, my contribution to Tom's book was not written "well in advance" of publishing. In fact, I just barely made the deadline.
Ken is correct regarding Vince Briel's superb technical support. Vince was on the phone and email with me for hours, explaining concepts and details to me. As I wrote for the book, I am a ** novice ** at hands-on microelectronics work, and my review of the replica kit is intended for other novices.
Yes, shortly after the deadline passed, Vince helped me to get the replica working. It turns out that I didn't make any major mistakes. What I did wrong was leave the resistors too high off the board. Once Vince lowered them, the video signal appeared on the screen immediately. I had some additional glitches getting it to work with an LCD screen, but that is a very non-standard use of the replica kit.
In the next week or two, my custom case for the replica will be finished. I am building the replica into a battery-powered 'laptop' version.
An earlier version of the review that I contributed to Tom's book is posted under the 'product reviews' section of my web site. The address is http://news.computercollector.com. (Contrary to other reports, you do NOT have to sign up to read this content. You only have to sign up if you want to get the weekly newsletter.)
- Evan Koblentz
I see only *two* reviews, and one is a "five star" review that simply adds to the marketing material presented by Amazon.
The author is very clear about this not being a review, but an expansion on the marketing info, but ot give yourself five stars...
And the other author read the book in under 2 hours, and wished there were more technical info - and gave the book 4 out of 5 stars.
Not really a resounding review in either case, and I question his four-star rating - I suspect it was based on his hope that similar books are published...
Ken
Thanks to all the recent traffic to the replica 1 site I moved the pages here: http://www.applefritter.com/briel/ Most people would agree that I can't give a biased reply to the review. So, I will just tell you that the type of feedback I'm getting is all positive. People have told me this is exactly what they are looking for. Nothing to involved that they don't understand it. Does the replica compliment the book or the book compliment the replica, yes. I've never come across a tech book that I later felt I needed more information. You can't put 2 years of electronic engineering courses into 1 book, there's just no way. Overall, if I was a student again, this would be a great book to get started on. If there is anything negative to say about it, I didn't like the Mac hacks, it was off subject and never listed as "bonus material". If it had been listed as bonus material I would have no objections. I can not tell you why the reviewer doesn't like the book, only that everybody has a differnt opinion. It is good to read reviews but in the end you need to do your own research to determine if the product is right for you or not.