Re: What's a Platimum/FS 2e?

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

In article Marc Walters <mwalters@attila.apana.org.au> writes...

>In some threads there's reference to a 'Platinum IIe'. Is this yet another
>model of the Apple 2e or a third party hack?

    The "Platinum IIe" was just Apple's way of modernizing the look
of the Apple IIe. The case and keyboard was changed from beige to a
platinum/light-grey (the standard color used by Apple since 1987),
they standarized the keyboard layout and added a numeric keypad,
plus it came out of the box with 128K installed (a miniturized
Extended 80 Columns Card was included free).

    They reduced the number of chips on the main board (two chips
made up 64K instead of eight; entire 16K ROM merged onto on chip).
The only real change was, by default, it could detect if the shift
keys were being pressed (you could easily modify the original IIe
to act the same by shorting a location on the mainboard).

    I suppose it is very much like the Commodore C64c, or some of
the Atari XE models, the Atari 2600 Junior, or Platinum Macintosh
Plus--fucntionally identical, but in a newer/streamlined looking
case.

>Also a 'Flagship' IIe? Another model?

    Nope, just a nickname started here on this newsgroup. The IIe
was relatively unchanged in its 11 year run, but varients of it
include the "Original IIe" (6502, original firmware, in rare cases
the Revision 'A' board), "Enhanced IIe" (65C02, updated ROM and
video firmware), "Platinum IIe" (Enhanced IIe in a grey box with
new keyboard), "IIe Card" (PDS Macintosh card that uses the
Mega II chip to help emulate an Apple IIe).

    To the user, the most significant difference to note is
whether you have an enhanced or non-enhanced machine (or a
revision A or B motherboard, since the former will not support
Double-Hi-Res or the special signal in slot 7).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca