Franklin Electronic Publishers (formerly Franklin Computer Corporation) is an American consumer electronics manufacturer based in Burlington, New Jersey, founded in 1981. Today it manufactures and sells handheld devices that serve as spelling correctors (such as the Franklin Spelling Ace, dictionaries, eBook readers, such as the Franklin eBookMan and other reference books. Consumer electronics is electronic equipment intended for use by everyday people. ... See also: Burlington Township, New Jersey The City of Burlington highlighted in Burlington County. ... 1981 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... An ebook is an electronic (or digital) version of a book. ... The Franklin eBookMan is a handheld device specifically made to read ebooks, but it also has standard PDA functions, it plays audiobooks and other audio, and it can record sounds. ...

In the past, it also produced the Rex line of personal digitial assistants, such as the Rex 5000, that product line was later sold to Xircom.

Franklin is a publicly traded company on the American Stock Exchange with ticker symbol FEP. The American Stock Exchange (AMEX) is a stock exchange operated by American Stock Exchange LLC, a subsidiary of the United States of America. ...

Early History

Although Franklin now manufactures handheld computers, it got its start, under the name Franklin Computer Corporation, as a manufacturer of clones of the Apple II series, which it first marketed in 1982. Handheld devices (also known as handhelds) are pocket-sized computing devices that are rapidly gaining popularity as the access to information in every walk of life becomes more and more mission critical. ... The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ... 1982 is a number and represents a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar Events January-February January 6 - William Bonin is convicted of being the freeway killer. January 8 - AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions January 11 - Mark Thatcher, son of the British...

The Franklin Ace 1000, released in March 1982, was a very close copy of the Apple II+ computer. The motherboard design is nearly identical and Franklin also copied Apple's ROMs. Two months later, Apple Computer sued Franklin for copyright violation. Franklin initially won. 1982 is a number and represents a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar Events January-February January 6 - William Bonin is convicted of being the freeway killer. January 8 - AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions January 11 - Mark Thatcher, son of the British... Sony Playstation motherboard A motherboard, also known as main board, logic board or system board, is the central or primary circuit board making up a complex electronic system, such as a computer. ... Rom is also the name of a toy and comic book character Rom (Spaceknight). ... Apple Computer, Inc. ... A copyright is a form of intellectual property which secures to its holder the exclusive right to produce copies of his or her works of original expression, such as a literary work, movie, musical work or sound recording, painting, photograph, computer program, or industrial design, for a defined, yet extendable...

Franklin followed with the Ace 1200, which included a Zilog Z80 processor for CP/M compatibility—a popular third-party option for the Apple II. The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Zilog from 1976 onwards. ... CP/M (Command Processor for Microcomputers) was an operating system for Intel 8080/85 and Zilog Z80 based microcomputers. ...

In August 1983, a court ruled against Franklin, who had argued that because computer code generally did not exist in printed form, it could not be copyrighted. Franklin freely admitted it had copied Apple's ROM and operating system code. However, Franklin was able to get an injunction that allowed it to continue marketing its computers. This case had lasting implications, setting precedent for copyright and reverse engineering. The case was still frequently cited more than 20 years after the August 1983 ruling. 1983 is an integer and composite number that represents a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of taking something (a device, an electrical component, a software program, etc. ... 1983 is an integer and composite number that represents a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Starting in October 1985, Franklin released a second-generation line of Apple II clones, compatible with the Apple IIe and IIc, including the Ace 2000 and Ace 500. Most added more memory and a numeric keypad in addition to undercutting Apple's price. Franklin's last Apple II clone, the Ace 2200, sported a detached keyboard and dual internal 5.25-inch floppy disk drives. It was released in the 1987-1988 time frame. 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a circular piece of thin, flexible (i. ... 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Although they are far less common today than the Apple computers they copied, the Franklin computers were highly regarded by their owners and received good reviews in the press.

Franklin also released a pair of IBM PC compatible computers, the Franklin PC6000 and PC8000, during the 1986-1988 time frame. Both were based on the Intel 8088 running at 4.77 MHz. The PC6000 had 512K of RAM and a single floppy drive, while the PC8000 had 640K and dual drives. These matched the most common configurations of the time. One of the first PCs from IBM - the IBM PC model 5150. ... 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Intel 8088 is an Intel microprocessor based on the 8086, with 16-bit registers and an 8-bit external data bus. ...

Soon after the Ace 2200's release, Apple was able to force Franklin out of the desktop computer market entirely, including its IBM-compatible PCs. As a result, the only Apple-compatible computer that remained on the market was VTech's Laser 128. This article needs cleanup. ... The Laser 128 was a clone of the Apple IIc, first released by VTech in 1984. ...

With the loss of its desktop computer business, Franklin concentrated on its handheld line, which it had introduced in 1986. 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Franklin official home page (http://www.franklin.com)
• Franklin Remembered, a series of articles at apple2clones.com (http://www.apple2clones.com/?q=article/franklin+remembered)
• After the Franklin affair, Apple added a backdoor into their ROMs so that stolen Apple code could be detected (http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Stolen_From_Apple.txt)