| Name | Apple //c |
| Codenames | 'Teddy' (short for 'testing every day'), 'IIb' (for 'book-sized'), 'IIp' ('portable'), 'Yoda', 'Pippin' (either there's been a Tolkien-fan there, or they meant the sort of apples), 'Elf', 'VLC' (Very Low Cost), 'E.T.' (extraterrestrial) |
| Made by | Apple Computer Inc.
Cupertino, California |
| Released | - April 24th, 1984 (about 3 months after the Mac)
- first presented to public at Moscone Center, San Francisco
|
| Serial-No. | 2A2S4-050948 |
| Board-info | |
| CPU | NCR 65C02A- the 65C02 is redesigned and enhanced version of the popular MOS 6502, created by Western Design Center, Inc. (WDC) in 1981. It has 27 additional instructions and was manufactured in CMOS process for lower power consumption
|
| Speed | 1.02 MHz |
| RAM | 344-001 MMU ('Memory Management Unit')- 128 KBytes
- all revisions of the //c are generally expandable to 1 MByte. But since it was originally designed as a 'closed system' without need for expansion, earlier boards (like this 820-0115-C) could only be expanded with 3rd party products. Newer board revisions (the so-called 'Memory Expandable //c', 1986) had
an internal expansion slot for easy upgrading with an original Apple memory board
- the Apple ][ design theoretically is expandable to 8 MBytes, although I don't know if such 3rd party expansions do exist
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| ROM/ Native OS | 342-0272-A ('monitor ROM', 16 KB)
341-0151-A ('keyboard ROM Rev.A', 16 KB, contains german- & US-layouts)
- the 342-0272-A contains the Applesoft BASIC interpreter, a system monitor for machine-language programming, a disassembler, a mini-assembler and the 80 latch
firmwarethere were several Apple //c ROM revisions; this particular machine contains the so-called Original //c-ROM (ID: 255), which did not yet support the UniDisk-format (see Media)
Usable operating systems were- AppleDOS 3.3
- ProDOS
- CP/M (if a 3rd party Z80-expansion was installed)
- ... and others
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| Keyboard/ Layout | General Instruments AY-5-3600-PRO keyboard encoder- 62 keys/ german (QWERTZ) layout
- the Apple //c has a button to switch between two keyboard layouts stored in the keyboard ROM. This was useful for selling it to different countries. Take this machine, for example: it comes with german 'QWERTZ' layout, but can be switched to the original US-'QWERTY'
- since in the US this capability wasn't required, Apple used the button for a goodie:
it toggles the machine between QWERTY (also called 'Sholes') and Dvorak-layouts (Dvorak is a layout where the keys are especially arranged for the english language, and so allow faster and more accurate typing)
|
| Graphics | 344-0023-A IOU ('Input/Output Unit')
342-0275-A character generator
341-0170-A TMG ('Timing Generator')
343-1001 VID- Max.Res.: 560x192 ('double HiRes' monochrome)
- Max. Colors:
- 16 @40x48 ('LoRes')
- 16 @140x192 ('MedRes')
- 8 @260x192 ('HiRes')
- 40x24 and 80x24 characters text-modes
- double HiRes- and MedRes-modes were first introduced with the Apple //e Rev.B, and are thus unavailable in the older Apple ][s
- like the //e, the //c already came with 80-column expansion
onboard, which had to be purchased as an expansion board for all older Apple ][ |
| Sound | 343-1002 AUD- AUD generates sound output just by turning the speaker on and off very fast (similar to Sinclair's ZX81). With that technique, it was possible to output different tones, and, with 'tricks', even digitized sound effects (although at poor quality)
- sound output can be done via internal speaker or 3.5mm jack plug
- the machine's limited sound capabilities created a market
for expansions like the 'MockingBoard' (an early soundcard) and its derivates. The MockingBoard added a General Instruments AY-3-8192 to the Apple ][ architecture, capable of outputting three tones and one percussive noise. As already mentioned, there were several of these 3rd-party expansions, some even for the Apple //c (connecting through serial), others using different soundchips
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| Media | 344-0041-A IWM ('Integrated Woz Machine', disk controller)- integrated 5.25" drive
- 143 KBytes/disk Apple ][-format
- 124 KBytes/disk usable under DOS, 137 KBytes/disk with ProDOS or Pascal
- the later Apple //c Plus came with an integrated 3.5" drive (800KB/ disk, so-called 'UniDisk'-format which became standard after the Macintosh was introduced in 1986)
- external drives in both these formats were also available.
Note that earliest machines with a 16KB ROM (like this one) did not support the UniDisk-format
|
| Input/ Output | 344-0023-A IOU ('Input/Output Unit')
341-0243-A GLU ('General Logic Unit')
341-0170-A TMG ('Timing Generator')
Motorola MC1488PD + MC1489PD (RS232)
2x Rockwell R6551 (RS232)
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| Miscellaneous | - The Apple //c came with built-in 5.25" diskdrive and a carrying-handle (making it a 'portable')
- Being a compact version of the Apple //e (hence the 'c'), the Apple //c had no expansion slots. But many useful things were already integrated on the board, like the 80-column expansion, 128 KBytes RAM or the
disk drive controller, which the Apple ][ lacked by default
- The Apple //c with its 128 KBytes and the Apple //e enhanced were placed as direct competitors to AMSTRAD's CPC 6128, Sinclair's ZX Spectrum 128k and Commodore's C128 - 128 KBytes were standard (and trendy!) these days
- In 1988, Apple introduced the Apple //c Plus with internal 3.5" 800K UniDisk-drive and 4 MHz 65C02 in the USA. The //c Plus was the last of the original 8 bit Apple ][-series, which was abandoned by Apple in 1993 (the //e Platinum, introduced in January 1987, was the last //e). However, in 1983, Apple (i.e. Steve Wozniak) had already conceived plans for a 16 bit Apple ][-compatible machine, codename Apple IIx. It should feature the 65816 CPU, which could emulate the 6502 without additional software, and a co-processor slot (e.g. for Motorola 68000 or Intel 8088) - filling the gap between the upcoming Macintosh and the old Apple ][ series.
Maybe this was the reason for the project being cancelled in 1984 - the machine's professional features got too close to the Macintosh, which was Apple's most important project these days
- But then, under the codename 'Phoenix', the IIx returned in 1986, as Apple IIgs. Being compatible with existing Apple ][ software on the one hand, while on the other hand featuring a Finder GUI and improved graphic- and sound-capabilities, it was an interesting piece of technology (with concept similar to Commodore's C64DX/ C65 prototypes: releasing a 16 bit variant of a successful 8 bit homecomputer).
It came with ADB ('Apple Desktop Bus'), UniDisk drive and LocalTalk networking - the latter two technologies were taken from the Macintosh, while ADB was a new bus for connecting mouse and keyboard, which made its way the other direction - the Macintosh II series were the first Macs to use ADB as well. Despite its interesting technology, the Apple IIgs wasn't very successful - its Finder was incompatible with the Mac Finder, and software making use of its enhanced capabilities was rare. It would also be interesting to know how much of the original Apple IIx-concept, exactly, became part of the IIgs...
- for the Macintosh LC series, an Apple IIe expansion card became available in 1991, enabling it to run Apple ][ software. It plugged in the machine's PDS-slot, and even allowed you to use the Mac's diskdrive, harddisk and AppleTalk
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