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The Apple II: The Machine That Started It All
Thomas Hormby writes "The first Apple II was sold on June 5, 1977. It was outfitted with a 1 mhz processor, 4 KB of RAM, a keyboard and a cassette interface. Despite the seemingly paltry specs, the machine made Apple, and bankrolled the LISA, Macintosh and LaserWriter. Besides building Apple, the machine revolutionized the entire microcomputer business, pulling it way from the hobbyist kits and closer to todays PC. Read about it at MLAgazine."
The PBS Triumph of the Nerds specials have additional information on the early years of the Personal Computer.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
I remember word processing at the time. Lots of punctuation.
Free, legal music for iTunes users.
TFA shows a picture of an Apple //e, not an Apple ][. To see the latter, look
here.
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
Sorry- that wasn't the case. Commodity standard cassette recorders worked really well for storing Integer BASIC and machine language code and they used ordinary cassette tapes that were way way cheaper than floppies, particularly at that time.
It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
back in the days, we survived on virtually nuthin', just one megahertz and a far cry from those gatesy 256 kB everyone was dreamin' of.
You kids of today 'ave it easy. You've got your gigahertz machines with gigabytes o' memory in RAM and on disk, splashee colors, many-button mice, DVD burnahs and tha intahweb, downloading more porn in one day than granpa has seen in his entire lifetime, ehhhehh.
Sniff. Nevertheless... back in da good ole' days we play'd Breakout faster on our lo'ly Apples than you do today with your Penthsium class Linux box'n. How do ya figure this is?
And I remember getting a Spellcheck utility (I think it was from Beagle Bros.) for AppleWriter.
Too bad the author of that webpage didn't use one. I hear they are quite good these days...
Time is the quality of nature that keeps events from happening all at once. Lately it doesn't seem to be working. -Anon
I worked in a computer shop selling computers at the time the apple II came on the scene. The brands around then were Imsai, cromenco, Sol, Northside, and even an altair if you wanted one. With the exception of the comodore pet, they all ran on 8080, 8085 or Z-80.
All had traditional power gobbling transfomer-rectifier-capacitor power supplies. If they had a bus it was an enornmous S-100 bus. None had memory mapped I/O or could interleave graphics and text. If they had disks, they were hard sectored disks. And most important of all none used Dynamic memory natively. You could buy dynamic memory cards as S-100 plug ins but they were not reliable.
Unlike the 8080/Z-80 the 6502 had a symmetric instruction clock cycle and all so there was a free cycle where memory woas gaurenteed not to be accessed every other cycle dependably. (not true of the 8080) This meant you could use that interval to refresh the dynamic ram. Thus one never had to insert wait states or have flaky thing happen when there was an irregular refresh rate. It simply worked.
But Wozniak and co, were even more clever. Why waste that clock refresh? since the duration was the same as the regular memory fecth time, they made it a full fetch. But what fetch that had to increment repetiviely over the upper 8 bits of address space would be useful? The video memory! so they backsided the video memory fetch on that.
Contrary to today having memory mapped video was better than having th e video memory on a graphics card. On most grpahic cards when the CPU was accessing the memory they video card could no and you saw glitches. thus video updates were usualy timed by the CPU to occur in thehorizonatal and veritcal re-trace blanking intervals. very clumsy and slow.
Apple used a switching power supply. the first I had ever seen. it was small, and took up no room. the imsai, altair, cromenco and northside computer were huge and half of them were the power supply. some of the capacitors in those were 8 inches tall and 3 inches in diameter. The switching powersupply made this thing a lighe weight "desktop" freindly unit. you could pick it up and easily move it.
It was partly the use of dynamic memory instead of static memory that made this possible. The power draw on static memory is enourmous. and the memory density on static memory was tiny. plus it was very expensive. it consumed most of the mother board. Today's computers would not be possible without it.
I assumed the apple II was a toy when I saw it's teeny tiny plug-in buss cards. until I looked at it's design. svelt memory mapped cards. all the address space decoding was done by the mother board so you didn't have to waste repetative logic on each card decoding it's own address. same with the power regulation. The switich power supply also gave lower ripple so less regulation was needed.
When apple came out with a disk it was the first reliable soft sectored floppy. I had sold lots of softsectored (8") floppies made by others and saw most of them come back too. Who wants an unrelaible storage system. The apple one worked. and soft secotring made it cheap since it had almost no added electorinics on board. It was all driven from software.
Then of course there was the choice of the 6502. it was a breath fo freshair compared to the 8080. It piplined the next instruction. it used relative jump extensively (calucalting an offset based on a register value not the hardwired instruction). It only had an accumulator and three registers. All the rest were memory mapped to the first 256 bytes of memory. So effectively it had enough registers you could really do something. the 8080 was hamstrung and register bound. and because of the pipelining the 6502 didn't lose any speed for the memory fetch using memory mapped registers.
However even then the MHZ myth was strong. people thought a 4Mhz intel must be faster than a 1Mhz 6502. It was not. nearly all the 8080 instructions were 3 to 5 clock cycles in length
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
audio cassette tapes worked MOST of the time. But they were lower quality and more prone to damage. Also the data cassettes did not have a blank leader tape. thus you could start recording the moment you turned them on and not have to wait some period of time after a rewind to start recording. Finally when the recorder was controlled by the computer and not the human pushing buttons it could rewind and seek by itself. At that time audio grade readhead were not reccomended for fast forwarding the tape as they would be destroyed by wear. computer readheads were hardened.
but in simple fact for simple storage needs audio tapes and recorders sis work well. but there was a slightly higher risk of data loss.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
IBM saw nothing. They were too stupid worrying that their little "home" computer, the PCjr, was going to take sales away from their lacklustre desktop that they crippled the jr, loading it with non-standard I/O ports and connectors, when in truth it outshone the IBM PC in many ways. The jr died a year later.
Compaq reversed engineered the BIOS, and it was all over for IBM's attempted dominance of the PC industry.
As for "lack of open standards" what do you mean? PCI? AGP? FireWire? USB 1 and 2? DVI? tcsh? bash?
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
My wife told me there was a bunch of computer gear they were throwing out at the university she attends, so I went rooting...
Found an obviously early Apple motherboard. With $$$s in my eyes I was thinking it might be an Apple I. Alas, the motherboard is for an early Apple ][.
I'm loath to throw it out, but I've got a bunch of computer junk, and don't need more.
So, if you're interested, email me and I'll ship it to you COD. Or, if you're in the North SF Bay area (Sebastopol), I can maybe drop it by...
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
What does
3D0G mean to you, eh?
Saying that Apple "blew it" due to not using open standards is to miss a sizable section of the picture. Large businesses held off from buying computers until they had received the Stamp of Approval from IBM. Apple was picked up by many early adopters (schools, small businesses using VisiCalc, etc.), but there was no way that large corporations would rely on such a small company when IBM could deliver on a much greater scale (at least in the minds of those contemplating computer purchases for said companies). Open standards were barely dreamed of by the time the war was over --- they appeared mainly because the war was over.
That Apple survived when the vast majority of their contemporaries failed shows that they hardly "blew it"; that they are making a healthy profit today says that their guerrilla action won't be ending any time soon.
"It's really a shame when you consider the influence they could have had. Personally, I'm just glad that IBM was smart enough to see an industry instead of a market."
That is funny. Really.
IBM did not support open standards. The open standard at that time was the Z-80 or 8085 running CP/M. IBM did document everything in the PC and used commodity parts but they also tried to sue the early clone makers. The first legal clones had to reverse engineer the BIOS and even then it was not 100 compatible. IBM was tricky and had Basic in ROM and the BASICA that you loaded with PC-DOS used part of the ROM. It would only run on a 100% IBM. Eventually programmers learned how to write compatible code so programs would run on most of the clones. If you read computer mags from the time the "standard" test was to run Microsoft Flight Simulator and Lotus 123. If a machine could run those two programs it was good enough.
The IBM PS/2 line was an attempt to STOP the clones. The reason the PS/2 line failed was that the clones offered a cheaper alternative. The PS/2 was technically a better machine than the clones but the lack of add on cards make the clones the better choice. BTW the ps/2 keyboard port, ps/2 mouse port, VGA, and 1.44 Floppy all started with the IBM PS/2.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I agree with you; IBM also rallied against the ISA bus when they realized it was out of their control with Micro Channel, which was technically better than ISA, but they wanted a fee for other companies to use it.
I'm guessing the parent was talking about NuBus and ADP, which is correct, they were not standard, but on the other hand, were technically superior (NuBus allowed for multiple video cards to run without any configuration, ADP allowed for device chaining while PS/2 ports are still single-device-only).
Today it's all about the standards, but back then there really weren't any that you'd *want* to standardize on. I would argue that NuBus needed to exist for the PCI designed to look at, same with ADP and USB.
3D0G,
well if you are really a man, then it means a damn cold night in the arctic. A 3 dog night in fact.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Apples and most other 8-bit computers used standard consumer cassette decks. IIRC, the Apple could not "seek" by itself, you had to plug in an earphone and listen for the gaps in the tape.
Most of us used the "tape counter" three digit counter as a directory. 005: brickout 020: lemonade stand 045: eliza and so on...
It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
Cheap tapes worked fine for us TRS-80 folks too. The main problem with cheap tapes was dropouts. Since the TRS-80 had motor control, it would stop the tape player when it got an error, and you could usually see the bad spot on the tape that caused the dropout.
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
How I remember the blinking green monster of the Apple Eye-Eye monochrome screen so well...
(Dissolve the picture, a la reminiscing mode, and cue the early 80s disco hits, if you please)
I was working for a Roger-Cormanish Hollywood cheapo movie company with a boss that was into computer tech, and we were one of the first productions to use an accounting software that was, at the time, still being fine-tuned as the movie was shot. When we started out, there was no such thing as hard disk, and swapping those big old 5-1/4-inch floppies was no fun. Later on, we upgraded to a hard disk that had a "whopping" 20-meg storage capacity, and it broke down on a daily basis.
Oh, yeah, even back then Hollywood knew it was critical to "count" the money in glorious high-tech fashion.
Sun and Fun
Imag *me ducks*
whew, close call,
gine a beo *whack*.
and then there's the whole story ...
Second they decided on an open architecture so that other manufacturers could produce and sell compatible machines -- the IBM PC compatibles, so the specification of the ROM BIOS was published. IBM hoped to maintain their position in the market by royalties from licensing the BIOS, and by keeping ahead of the competition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC (italics are mine)
My point still stands. I'd probably have owned a Mac or be using a Mac OS if Steve Jobs wasn't so much like Bill Gates. I'm just glad there wasn't a similiar egotist running IBM at the time.
Of course, anyone who dares to question Apple is always labelled. Why is that? Insecurity, perhaps?
Words to men, as air to birds.
Apple's profit is tiny compared to, say, Microsoft. So, in that sense, they've lost money. Oh, by the way, what about Compaq, Dell, HP, etc., etc.?
Now that's a hoot.
The apple used minimal circuitry for everything. Including floppy. Bit decode was done in software. Which meant that the drives had to be almost EXACTLY the same rotational speed, or they couldn't exchange disks.
As to soft sector being more reliable -- sorry, that's also not true. Hard sector is actually more reliable. Simple put, if a sector is damaged, it is possible to skip over it, and read sectors after it on the same track. Not possible (with ANY reliability) using a soft-sector format. As to cost savings? The hole detector is in the drive anyway (for either 1 hole, or n holes).
And, yes, my Apple ][ still works.
Ratboy
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
Not to nitpick, but wouldn't the computer with a "one" in the name be more usefully thought of as the one that started it all ?
And that's not even getting into earlier computers that can be thought of as having started it all (EVIAC anyone?) or proto-computers (*ahem* Babbage's Difference and Analytical Engines) or proto-proto-computers (the Jacquard loom, the abacus, etc), or more broadly, the things that *really* started it all (the Big Bang, the original monocellular organisms, or for the people in Kansas, pick your fairy tale of choice).
Maybe we should have clarified what "it" is that was "all started". But it's too late now...
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
I cut my computing teath on the apple //e. My friend
/// one of the best games ever.
had the ][+ with visicalc and 300 baud hayes modem.
The visicalc spread sheet was interesting because the left-right arrows became up-down when you pressed the space bar.
I remember
Beagle Bros software. Apple basic. Nibble magazine. 7 color hi res graphics (2 white , 2 black, purple, blue and orange). Ultima
The machine lives on in emulated form. How people got their 5.25 inch floppies into files I'll never now.
You could set the whole screen on solid color will a call command
if I remember correctly..
10 hgr
20 for i = 1 to 7
30 hcolor =i
40 hplot 0,0
50 call 62454
60 next i
super effects!
It's my understanding that IBM is full of egotists, not just their leader.
What about them? They survived.
What about Texas Instruments, Atari, Packard Bell... they didn't.
What about Gateway? What about Patriot? What about any of the other random brands that tried and failed.
That Apple has survived despite not catering to the Windows majority IS worth noting.
The fact that they survived when dozens of their competitors are on the trash heap of history DOES NOT MEAN APPLE FAILED!!!
TI stopped making computers, but they damn sure survived. They do CPU fab like no one's business, including taking a lot of overflow orders from Intel.
the Apple II instead of the Apple I that came before it. Hey wait...
Interesting commands from ages past...
:-)
XYZZY
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
Locksmith... Nibbles Away... Lockmaster...
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
"I'm guessing the parent was talking about NuBus and ADP, which is correct, they were not standard"
NuBus was most certainly a standard, with an IEEE number and all. It just was more common on minicomputers than micros.
Even ADB, Apple Desktop Bus, used to connect keyboards and mice, was adopted (sorta) by Sun for its keyboards.
"plugh"
I remember my computer teacher telling us not to kick the legs of the table by accident, or we would interupt the Commodore PET's twenty minute boot sequence. Those audio cassettes were noticeably more unreliable than floppies or the TI-99 cartridges.
No, I read it, however, I also read the "open architecture" part. Which, by the way, Apple's hardware still isn't. Care to address the issue?
competition can be a good thing
Once you've been here long enough, you'll notice that any attempts to correct incorrent statements about Apple gets one labelled an "apologist," whatever that means.
:)
:)
Now THAT, my friend, is insecurity.
Besides, the early Macs weren't really worth owning, IMHO. System 7 and the 68040 is where they really started to shine as a platform. It's too bad the management in the late 80s/early 90s were too focussed on profit margins to really compete with the x86 machines of the day.
At the end of the day, a computer is a tool to get a job done, whether it's DNA sequence processing or running Counter Strike to blow off some steam. With Apple still in the game there remains a viable commercial competitor for Windows. Whether their machines do what you want is another matter. Mine does.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
you mean load sequence. the PET boot sequence was near instantaneous
And if you lost the scrap of paper you wrote your directory on you had to sit there and listen to the tape to find where each program started/stopped, then load it to see what it was! Brutal.
Oh, and I can confirm that even the cheapest cassettes (3 pack with no cases for $1.99 at K-Mart as I recall) worked fine for my needs.
Now that I think about it though, I used the cassette method for my TI99/4a, not my Apple! By the time I got an Apple it was a IIc!
I remember when I first got that machine of mine. I still kick myself for not keeping nor any of those precious programs I wrote. Nibble was the best (and still is the best) computer magazine ever. It gave you programs and taught you how to write programs and think.
I remember when the MacIntosh came out...I was so jealous that I wrote a similiar desktop in assembly. How easy it was when Apple provided all the tech specs to extend your machine. I was 13 and I was and advid TV watcher of --- wait for it --- Whiz Kids!! I wanted to be the best programmer. Alas - that is no longer the case. It's no longer about the hobbyist - though I still write my own programs rather than purchase something. I want what I need. Which is what the Apple ][e gave you - the ability to create what you need.
I miss my lil computer. At least I still have my Mac!!
Save Pangaea!! Stop Continental Drift!!
first Apple II was sold on June 5, 1977
I believe the date you mention is for the Apple that was sold as a kit. I received one of the first Apple ]['s, which came assembled and with a lot of upgrades over the kit version, through a Computerland store and was on the waiting list. It originally was to ship with 8kb or RAM but at the last minute Apple swithed them to 16kb. I believe I received mine in March/April 1978. Maybe May/June.
An early happy 28th birthday, Apple II.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
The Macintosh was introduced in 1984, the PS/2 in 1987.
of course, no Mac users have ever been accused of being zealots
s tage=1&word=apologist
apologist: a person who argues to defend or justify some policy or institution
http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.0?
Considering that the Apple ][ came with full schematics, it's difficult to see how they could have been more open.
I remember diagnosing failures on the motherboard with my father in order to fix our Apple ][ several times.
The lack of such information was why we didn't bother with the macintosh.
lol ... what about them?? howabout they've all made more money selling PCs than apple ever will
You could do 2 DRAM accesses in the time it took for CPU clock cycle (1000 ns). Woz used this trick to do video DRAM access on one clock phase, and CPU DRAM access on the other ... oh how times have
changed since 1977 in this regard.
* 6^p^m
Wozniak spoke extensively about this period at Apple in a great interview at Gnomedex. It's available in high quality streaming audio on ITConversations: http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail214.htm l
...does it come before or after F666G?
I remember someone saying, 'Remember, PR36 wont boot a disk' and just laughing my ass off. I can't tell you how many times I typed that by mistake.
hey all my old kboards broke my son has snes, nes, gba et al emulation gone thru 8 or more he is using a GX keyboard from tip found 8 years ago only thing that takes his 1 key pounding on his 5500/225 on 9.2
Remember the Apricot or {Insert fruit name here} which was sued because they copied the apple roms. I believe they also had a Russian clone.
I have an old Hong Kong made II+ that someone jury-rigged the power supply to let it work with 240V. Problem is it put the 110V on the ground if you plug it into 110V. Found that out the hard way. It's otherwise identical to the II+ I have.
I'm not sure if this cloning had the effect of making the Apple more popular, mainly because they were illegally cloned until Laser made their units.
But I do think they were cloned before the PC.
The other thing about tapes in casettes was that they were way easier for home users to use than paper tapes.
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
We got our //e with the original tilt-screen monitor (I think Apple later revised it with motorized controls.) So I didn't get an RF Mod until later ... when I first saw a // with a monochrome monitor and a colour TV connected to it. TWO screens! First time seeing such, I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
Everyone knows it was really the TRS-80! ;)