Re: Another //e question

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article Justin Teague <snoball@pdq.net> writes...

>I was just loking at the motherboard of my //e, and I saw a long slot
>labled "Aux. Connector".  Can anyone tell me waht this is for?

    It is what replaced slot-0 that was present in the Apple II 
and II Plus (that was quite often used by the 16K Language Card, 
a feature built-in to the IIe). 

    It is called the Auxiliary slot and used for bank switchable 
memory. By adding 1K to that space (i.e. Apple IIe 80 Columns
Card) you could display 80 columns text since the IIe used bank
switching to mirror the standard 40 columns display. If you put
a full 64K in there (i.e. Apple Extended 80 Columns Card) you
could bank switch and mirror the Hi-Res graphics to get Double-
Hi-Res graphics and 80 columns text.

    Apple sold a 1K, 64K and 64K card with digital RGB adapter
that plugged into that slot. Some 3rd parties offered boards
with anywhere from 512K to 3 MB that plugged into that slot
(bank switchable too) as well as digital and analog RGB adapters
that piggybacked to them. At minimum, you would want a 64K
board in there to give your IIe 80 columns, Double-Hi-Res and
128K of memory to run most software out there. There is also
"Slinky" type memory for the IIe, but that is another story.
I have a 512K auxiliary card and 1 MB Slinky card in my IIe.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca