- 1976
the Mostek 1MHz 6502 based Apple II was introduced at "The First West Coast Computer Faire". It sold for $1,298 for a 4 KB computer without the cassette recorder or monitor. Optional RF Modulator to allow the connection of a standard TV set. RAM expandable to 48 KB. Two paddles. Four colors (black, white, green, violet). - Video output: NTSC connector. Standard resolution: 40x24 text (upper case and punctuation only). High resolution graphics: 280x192x4 colors. Later models had a high resolution graphics mode of 280x192x6 colors. Low resolution graphics mode: 40x48x16 colors. Sound. 8 expansion slots. Slot 0 reserved for RAM/ROM upgrades. Sold with 4 KB of RAM (for $970) up to 48 KB of RAM (for $1,795). Steve Wozniak's integer basic in ROM. Later models had Applesoft basic in ROM. Cassette tape interface. Disk drives were the 5 1/4" Disk II drive (single head 140 KB per side, you had to flip the disk over manually). Options included joysticks, paddles, 80 column video card, more memory, Several after market processor upgrades were sold such as the TransWarp, ZipChip and RocketChip units. Several after market external hard drives were sold such as the Sider and Corvus units. An optional modified character ROM allowed lower case letters to be displayed. An additional shift key modification allowed the shift keys to be used. A 16 KB language card in slot 0 with a cable going to the RAM extended the RAM from 48 KB to 64 KB. More than 2 Million units were sold. Lots of businesses used them because it was the source platform for VisiCalc. Most games required 48-64 KB of RAM. Units with 128 KB of RAM and PlusWorks software could run early versions of the AppleWorks integrated software package which included a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a database management system. 95% of all software that requires 128+ KB of RAM also requires an Apple IIe or better. Two good web resources are: http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/csa2b.html , and http://www.syndicomm.com/a2web/a2faq.html
A good usenet group on the subject is Comp.Sys.Apple2 Here is the manufacturer's web site: Apple Apple's official history of the Apple II series (in 23 parts) can be found: Here - December AppleSoft basic was introduced. It included support for floating point arithmetic. A printer interface card was also introduced.
- January The Disk II floppy disk drive introduced at a consumer electronics show
- July The Disk II went into general production. Including the controller card, it cost $495 for orders prior to the July release, $595 thereafter.
- June
New units shipped with AppleSoft Basic in ROM rather than loading from tape or diskette. The new units came standard with 48 KB of RAM. They added blue and orange to the earlier four colors and had two additional varieties of black & white. The reset key was added to the startup cycle. At POST time, if a Disk II controller was detected it automatically booted DOS. Otherwise the AppleSoft Basic in ROM was loaded. An AppleSoft firmware card was released. It plugged into slot 0 of an Apple II. The ability to pause a listing was added, and the program break key was improved. The new units sold for $1,195. Around this time the Microsoft CP/M soft card was released.
The Apple IIc briefcase sized computer is released at an event entitled "Apple II for ever" at the Moscone Center in down town San Francisco. It is a notebook sized Apple IIe with 128 KB of RAM built in. It also has a built in 80 column card, 2 serial cards, a disk controller and a mouse card. All in an 11"x12" case designed to fit into a briefcase. It also used the 65C02 of the enhanced Apple IIe, supported mouse text and took a variety of international and Dvorak keyboards. List price $1,295. 