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The Apple IIe was the third model in the Apple II line of personal computers, produced by Apple Computer. The "e" in the name stood for "enhanced", referring to the fact that several popular features were now built-in that were previously only available as third party upgrades and add-ons in earlier models. It also improved upon expandability and added a few new features, which all combined, made it very attractive to first-time computer shoppers as a general purpose machine. The Apple IIe has the distinction of being the longest-lived computer in Apple's history, having been manufactured and sold for nearly 11 years with relatively few changes. For this reason, it is the most commonly recognized model in the Apple II line. Image File history File linksMetadata 290px-Apple_IIe_middle_age. ...
Type has historically had the following uses: In biology, a type is the specimen or specimens upon which an original species description is based. ...
TRS-80 Color Computer II The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers (the technical term that was previously used), entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. ...
A developer can be one of: A software developer, one who programs computers or designs the system to match the requirements of a systems analyst. ...
Apple Computer, Inc. ...
Release may refer to multiple things: in marketing: issuing a product for sale or public showing (especially a music release or a film release). ...
A CPU The exact term processor is a sub-system of a data processing system which processes received information after it has been encoded into data by the input sub-system. ...
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the SI unit of frequency. ...
The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by MOS Technology in 1975. ...
The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by MOS Technology in 1975. ...
Intel 80486DX2 microprocessor in a ceramic PGA package A central processing unit (CPU), or sometimes simply processor, is the component in a digital computer that interprets instructions and processes data contained in software, like a brain in a human. ...
The front page of the English Wikipedia Website. ...
The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ...
Apple Computer, Inc. ...
History
 An early model Apple IIe with typical peripherals in 1983 Image File history File linksMetadata Apple_IIe_original. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Apple_IIe_original. ...
The beginning Apple had planned to retire the Apple II series after the introduction of the Apple III in 1980, however, after that machine turned out to be a disastrous failure, management decided the further continuation of the Apple II was in the company's best interest. So, after three and a half years at a stand-still, came the introduction of a new Apple II model--the Apple IIe (codenamed: Diana and Super II). The Apple IIe was released in January 1983, the successor to the Apple II Plus that came before it. Of interest is some of the hardware and software features of the Apple III were borrowed in the design of the Apple IIe. Apple III The Apple III, or Apple /// as it was sometimes styled, was the first completely new computer designed by Apple Computer, Inc. ...
Overview of new features One of the most notable improvements of the Apple IIe was the addition of a full ASCII keyboard, with four-way directional cursor control and standard editing keys (Delete and Tab), two special Apple modifier keys (Open and Solid Apple), a safe off-to-side relocation of the "Reset" key, as well as upper and lowercase support. The auto-repeat function (any key held down to repeat same character continuously) was now automatic, no longer requiring the "REPT" key (now gone) found on the previous model's keyboard. There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ...
The machine came standard with 64K RAM, with the equivalent of a built-in Apple Language Card in its circuitry, and had a new special "Auxiliary slot" (replacing slot-0, though electronically mapped to slot-3) for adding more memory via bank-switching RAM cards. Through this slot it also included built-in support for an 80 columns text display on monitors (with the addition of a plug-in 1K memory card, via bank-switching of 40 columns) and could be easily doubled to 128K RAM by alternatively plugging in an Apple's Extended 80 Columns Card. As time progressed even more memory could be added through third party cards using the same bank-switching slot, or alternatively general purpose slot cards that addressed memory 1 byte at a time (i.e. Slinky RAM cards). A new ROM diagnostic routine could be invoked to test the motherboard for faults and its main bank of memory.
The Apple IIe lowered production costs and improved reliability by merging the function of several off-the-shelf IC's into single custom chips, reducing total chip count to 31 (previous models used 120 chips). For this reason the motherboard design was much cleaner and ran cooler too, with enough room to add a pin-connector for an (optional) external numeric keypad. Also added was a backport accessible DE-9 joystick connector, making it far easier for users to add and remove game and input devices (previous models requiring plugging the joystick/paddles directly into a 16-pin DIP socket on the motherboard; the IIe retained this connector for backwards compatibility). Also improved were port openings for expansion cards. Rather than cutout V-shaped slot openings as in the Apple II and II Plus, the IIe had a variety of different sized openings, with thumb-screw holes, to accommodate mounting interface cards with DB-xx and DE-xx connectors (removable plastic covers filled the cutouts if not used). The Apple IIe maintained full backwards compatibility with the previous two Apple II models, allowing most hardware and software from those system to be used.
Technical specifications
An Apple IIe motherboard (revision B). Note the 7 expansion slots, the separated auxiliary slot and relatively low chip count. Microprocessor Image File history File linksMetadata Apple_IIe_motherboard. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Apple_IIe_motherboard. ...
- 6502 or 65C02 running at 1.023 MHz
- 8-bit data bus
Memory - 64KB RAM built-in
- 16KB ROM built-in
- Expandable from 64KB up to 1MB RAM or more
Video modes - 40 and 80 columns text, with 24 lines¹
- Low-Resolution: 40x48 (16 colors)
- High-Resolution: 280x192 (6 colors)*
- Double-Low-Resolution: 80x48 (16 colors)
- Double-High-Resolution: 560x192 (16 colors)*
*effectively 140x192 in color, due to pixel placement restrictions
¹Text can be mixed with graphic modes, replacing either bottom 8 or 32 lines, depending on video mode
Audio
- Built-in speaker; 1-bit toggling
- Built-in cassette recorder interface; 1-bit toggle output, 1-bit zero-crossing input
Expansion - Seven Apple II Bus slots (50-pin card-edge)
- Auxiliary slot (60-pin card-edge)
Internal connectors - Game I/O socket (16-pin DIP)
- RF modulation output (4-pin Molex)
- Numeric keypad (11-pin Molex)
External connectors - NTSC composite video output (RCA connector)
- Cassette in/out (two 1/8" mono phono jacks)
- Joystick (DE-9)
Revisions In production from January 1983 until November 1993, the Apple IIe remained relatively unchanged through the years. However there was one significant motherboard update, a major firmware update, two cosmetically revised machines and an official compatible from Apple, in the form of slot card for the Macintosh computer. These revisions are detailed below. Macintosh can refer to: Apple Macintosh (computer) Charles Macintosh (Scottish inventor) Mackintosh (raincoat) The Scottish clan Mackintosh or MacIntosh McIntosh (apple cultivar) The town of McIntosh, Alabama The hi-fi manufacturer McIntosh Laboratory This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same...
The Revision B motherboard The earliest Apple IIe motherboard was labeled "Revision A". Very shortly after its release, during the same year in 1983, engineers discovered that the bank-switching feature (which used a paralleled 64K of RAM on the Extended 80 Columns Card; or 1K to produce 80 columns using bank-switching) could also be utilized to produce a new graphics mode, with double the horizontal resolution and number of colors of standard High-Resolution; hence the name: Double-High-Resolution (and Double-Low-Resolution). In order to support this, some modifications had to be made to the motherboard, which became the Revision B. In addition to supporting Double-High-Resolution and Double-Low-Resolution (560x192 and 80x40 pixels respectively, with 16 colors in each mode; with hi-res effectively 140x192 due to color placement restrictions) it also added a special video signal accessible in slot-7.
 Original keyboard, with large white print on keycaps.
 New keyboard, with smaller superscripted black print. Note the user added "Enhanced" badge. This motherboard was replaced by Apple free of charge, making the new graphic mode available to all owners of the Apple IIe. Oddly, in later years Apple began labeling newer IIe motherboards with a "-A" suffix once again (indicating revision A) causing some confusion in the process; however functionally, these were Revision B motherboards. Image File history File links IIe_keys_original. ...
Image File history File links IIe_keys_original. ...
Image File history File links IIe_keys_new. ...
Image File history File links IIe_keys_new. ...
New case and keyboard Sometime during 1984 Apple revised the case and keyboard. The original IIe used a case very similar to the Apple II Plus, painted and with Velcro-type clips to secure the lid with a strip of metal mesh along the edge to eliminate RF interference. The new case was made of colored plastic mold with a more simplified snap-case lid. The other noticeable change was a new keyboard, with more professional looking print on darker keycaps (small black lettering, versus large white print). This was the first cosmetic change. Velcro is a brand name of fabric hook-and-loop fasteners used for connecting objects. ...
Rf or RF may stand for: Radio frequency, a term in broadcasting Right field(er), a defensive position in baseball Rutherfordium (Rf), symbol for the chemical element RF, rheumatoid factor RF, a Mazda piston engine The Russian Federation This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages...
The Enhanced IIe In March 1985, Apple replaced the original machine with a new revision called the Enhanced IIe. It was completely identical to the previous machine except for 4 chips changed on the motherboard (and a small "65C02" sticker placed over the keyboard power indicator). The purpose of the update was to make the Apple IIe more compatible with the Apple IIc (released the previous year) and to a smaller degree, the Apple II Plus. This change involved a new processor, the CMOS based 65C02 CPU, a new (text-based) video ROM, and two new ROM firmware chips. The 65C02 added more CPU instructions (allowing more compact, easier to read and write, and sometimes faster code, but breaking compatibility with a few older games that used illegal opcodes), the video ROM added 32 special Mousetext characters (similar to IBM ANSI), and the new ROM firmware fixed problems and speed issues with 80 columns text, ability to use lowercase in Applesoft BASIC and Monitor, as well as improvements (and fixes) in the latter two. Many later Apple II programs need an enhanced IIe with 128K of memory as minimal system requirements. The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ...
The 65C02 Microprocessor is a slightly upgraded version of the popular and venerable 6502 microprocessor. ...
The 65C02 Microprocessor is a slightly upgraded version of the popular and venerable 6502 microprocessor. ...
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private, non-profit standards organization that produces industrial standards in the United States. ...
An upgrade kit, consisting of these 4 replacement chips and an "Enhanced" badge, was made available for purchase to owners of the original Apple IIe. People wishing to do the enhancement without access to that kit can do so by acquiring a 65C02 chip and three 27xx series EPROMs, which can be programmed with the new ROM contents and then serve as a drop-in replacement for the old ROMs. An EPROM, or erasable programmable read-only memory, is a type of computer memory chip that retains its data when its power supply is switched off. ...
The Platinum IIe
 The Platinum Apple IIe with numeric keypad, circa 1987 In January 1987 came the final revision of the Apple IIe, often referred to as the Platinum IIe, due to the color change of its case to the light-grey color scheme that Apple dubbed "Platinum". Changes to this revision were mostly cosmetic to modernize the look of the machine. The most obvious change was the case changed from beige to light-grey (platinum) and a new keyboard layout, with built-in numeric keypad. The keyboard was changed to match the layout of the Apple IIGS, with the reset key moved above the ESC and '1' keys, and Open and Solid Apple function keys replaced by Option and Command. A (reduced in size) Extended 80 Columns Card was factory pre-installed, making it come standard with 128K RAM and Double-Hi-Res graphics enabled. A location on the motherboard was shorted by default making the Shift keys presses detectable in software (this was optional on the original IIe). Image File history File links IIe_platinum_thumb. ...
Image File history File links IIe_platinum_thumb. ...
The Apple IIGS, the fifth model inception of the Apple II, was the most powerful member of the Apple II series of personal computers made by Apple Computer. ...
Internally the motherboard had a reduced chip count by merging the two firmware chips into one and used higher density memory chips so its 64K could be made up of two (64Kx4) chips rather than eight (64Kx1) chips. There were no ROM changes however, and functionally the motherboard was identical to the Enhanced IIe. This last final model of the Apple IIe was discontinued in November 1993, officially retiring the entire Apple II family line with it.
The Apple IIe Card for Macintosh In March 1991, shortly after the release of the Macintosh LC series, Apple released the PDS slot based Apple IIe Card for the Macintosh. By plugging this card in, through hardware and (some) software emulation, the Macintosh could run most software written for the 8-bit Apple IIe computer. This miniaturized computer on a card was made possible by a chip called the Mega II, first used in the Apple IIGS computer to emulate the Apple IIe. Macintosh LC sans display, keyboard or mouse The Macintosh LC (meaning low-cost color) was Apple Computers product family of low-end consumer Macintosh personal computers in the early 1990s. ...
The Apple IIe Card (Apple Computer part #820_0444_A) was the smallest Apple II computer ever designed. ...
Macintosh can refer to: Apple Macintosh (computer) Charles Macintosh (Scottish inventor) Mackintosh (raincoat) The Scottish clan Mackintosh or MacIntosh McIntosh (apple cultivar) The town of McIntosh, Alabama The hi-fi manufacturer McIntosh Laboratory This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same...
The Apple IIGS, the fifth model inception of the Apple II, was the most powerful member of the Apple II series of personal computers made by Apple Computer. ...
 The Apple IIe Card for Macintosh. The Mega II duplicated all the functions of a standard Apple IIe, minus RAM, ROM and CPU. Image File history File links PDS_Apple_IIe_Card. ...
Image File history File links PDS_Apple_IIe_Card. ...
Many of the built-in Macintosh peripherals could be "borrowed" by the card when in Apple II mode (i.e. extra RAM, 3½ floppy, AppleTalk networking, clock, hard disk). It could even run at an accelerated 2 MHz, however as video was emulated using Macintosh QuickDraw routines, in slower machines it sometimes could not keep up with the speed of a real Apple IIe. With a specialized Y-cable, the card could use an actual Apple 5.25, Apple UniDisk 3.5 or even Apple II joystick/paddles. The Apple IIe Card is thought of as an Apple II compatible or emulator rather than an extension of the Apple II line, but included in this article for the sake of completion. Two quickdraws. ...
A Y-cable (also: Y cable) is a self describing name of a type of cable containing three ends of which one is a common end that in turn leads to a split into the remaining two ends. ...
An emulator reproducing a console games playable atmosphere on a Windows computer. ...
International versions The Apple IIe keyboard differed depending on what region of the world it was sold in. Sometimes the differences were very minor, such as extra local language characters and symbols printed on certain keycaps (e.g. French accented characters on Canadian IIe such as "á", "é", "ç", etc, or the British Pound "£" symbol on the UK IIe) while other times the layout and shape of keys greatly differed (e.g. European IIe). In order to access the local character set and keyboard layout, a user-accessible switch was found on the underside of the keyboard -- flipping it would instantly switch the video output and keyboard input from the US character set to the local set. To support this, special double capacity Video and Keyboard ROMs were used; in early motherboards they had to reside on a tiny circuit card that plugged into the socket. In some countries these localized IIe's also supported 50 Hz PAL video instead of 60Hz NTSC video (the equivalent of the Apple IIeuroplus PAL encoder card was built into their motherboard) and the different 110/220 volt power of that region. The PAL IIe motherboards had a change in layout that was sometimes important: The AUX slot was now in line with slot 3, instead of near the left edge of the board. Some European slot cards made use of this by plugging into both slots (aux and slot 3) at the same time; these are unusable on NTSC motherboards. On the other hand, using a full-length card in slot 3 of a PAL IIe prevents the use of the aux slot.
Upgrades
The Apple IIGS Upgrade
 The replacement ID badges for the front lid, used in the Apple IIe to II GS upgrade. When the Apple IIGS computer was introduced by Apple Computer in September 1986, Apple also announced it would be making an upgrade kit for the IIe available for purchase. Essentially the "upgrade" replaced the Apple IIe motherboard for a 16-bit Apple IIGS motherboard, making it more of an outright computer transplant than upgrade. Users would bring their Apple IIe machines into an authorized Apple dealership, where the IIe motherboard and lower baseboard of the case were swapped for an Apple IIGS motherboard with a new baseboard (with matching cut-outs for the new built-in ports). New metal sticker ID badges replaced those on the front of the Apple IIe, rebranding the machine. Retained were the upper half of the IIe case, the keyboard, speaker and powersupply. Certain IIGS motherboard's had extra connectors to support the IIe powersupply and keyboard connectors. Image File history File linksMetadata IIGS_upgrade. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata IIGS_upgrade. ...
The Apple IIGS, the fifth model inception of the Apple II, was the most powerful member of the Apple II series of personal computers made by Apple Computer. ...
The upgrade cost US$500, plus the trade-in of the user's existing Apple IIe motherboard.
 Back view of II GS upgrade, note the new port openings and connectors. It proved unpopular as it did not include a mouse (which was an essential part of the new machine, much like the Macintosh) the keyboard although functional, did not mimic all the features and functions of the Apple Desktop Bus keyboard, as well as lacking a numeric keypad. Some cards designed for the new 16-bit machine did not fit in the Apple IIe's slanted case either. In the end most users found they were not saving much, once they had to purchase a 3.5 floppy drive, analog RGB monitor and mouse. Although it could use some IIe peripherhals, most of them became obsolete in the upgrade due to their function being already built-in. It did however make an attractive upgrade for Apple IIe users wanting to use the machine strictly in IIe-emulation mode (ignoring the native part of the machine), which provided faster CPU operation, 256K RAM, a clock and many built-in peripherals via the backports. Image File history File linksMetadata IIe_to_IIGS_upgrade_ports. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata IIe_to_IIGS_upgrade_ports. ...
See also The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ...
Apple III The Apple III, or Apple /// as it was sometimes styled, was the first completely new computer designed by Apple Computer, Inc. ...
The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ...
The Apple IIc Plus was the sixth and final model in the Apple II line of personal computers, produced by Apple Computer. ...
The Apple IIGS, the fifth model inception of the Apple II, was the most powerful member of the Apple II series of personal computers made by Apple Computer. ...
Following is a List of Apple II games. ...
There was a thriving industry devoted to the Apple II at one time, including: inCider A+ - Published by IDG Open-Apple (later renamed A2-Central) - Published by Resource Central The Road Apple Nibble Softdisk & Softdisk G-S - by Softdisk Publishing A2-Central On Disk Script-Central Studio City Softalk Apple...
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