Re: Mitac Apple 2 clone?

["Ernest" <leucoplast@seanet.NOSPAM.com>]

"Jules" <julesrichardsonuk@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message

> > How does the slot expander attach? Does that cable
> > plug into a connector on the computer or is there a piece that goes
between
> > the grey cable and the computer?

> Straight into the back of the computer - unless I'm missing something
> that sits inbetween. I really don't know why there are two of the slot
> expander units; it isn't like I can use more than one at once anyway.

Very slick. Your clone might be smart enough to scan the slots, or something
like that. If you put a printer card in slot 1 and tell the compute to print
to slot one, it might be smart enough to figure it out. I'm not really sure.

> I opened it after I'd taken those last shots, but I just opened it
> again and got a couple of photos:

Cool! I love to see the guts of these weird clones, and yours is definitely
an unusual one. I especially like that second board underneath.

>   http://www.moosenet.demon.co.uk/temp/apple2/mitac_internal01.jpg
>
> The 6502 is on the left in that shot; to the right is a Z80 - no idea
> if it's a built-in Z80 card for CP/M applications or whether it's just
> used to control the machine's I/O.

I'm guessing that the Z80 is for running CP/M. They built everything else in
so why not that as well.

> The 3 ROMs together on the board
> are 2764 chips; the ROM on its own is a 2716. Memory is 8 4864 chips.

The 3 ROMs together would be the monitor and Basic roms. The separate ROM to
the left is the character generator rom.

 > Beneath the main board there's a smaller board:

It looks like you've got the disk controller, printer, 80 col, and additional
memory expansion.

> Last chip date code I can see is week 13 of 1983.

That's a very cool system you've got there. Have you tested it yet? Do you
have any CP/M disks for an Apple II? What does it show on the screen when you
turn it on -ie does it say Apple ][ or Mitac, etc.?