Re: Apple II Csa2 FAQs 9/9/1998 MainHall-1 (Start Here) w. Q20!

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

In article dmccor01@ccsf.cc.ca.us writes...

>There is actually a third flavor of //e. It has a platinum case and includes a
>built-in numeric keypad to the right of the keyboard. It also benefits from
>some of the //gs technology in that it has fewer chips than the other //e's
>(although a bit more than the 1 or 2 chips in the //gs that let it run //e
>software). 

    Not quite. Perhaps your thinking of the Apple IIe Card for PDS
slot based Macintoshes--it used a Mega II chip (along with an IWM,
65C02 and pair DRAMs) allowing an entire Apple IIe computer to fit 
on a small interface card.

    The Platinum IIe was virtually the same in terms of chip count
and size as previous IIe's released. The only chip reduction done
was through merging the 16K firmware into a single ROM marked 'CF'
and replacing the eight 64Kx1 DRAMs with a pair of 64Kx4 DRAMs (to
total the same 64K of built-in memory). So it had 7 less chips.

>I'm not sure, but I think it might have had 128k of RAM built in so
>it wouldn't need the Extended 80-column card. 

    Nope. It still only had 64K of memory built-in, although Apple
did include an Extended 80 Columns Card pre-installed inside every
Platinum Apple IIe sold. Like previous revisions of the card, it
too contained 64K--giving the machine 128K of bank switchable RAM,
and the ability to display 80 columns text and Double-Hi-Res mode
graphics. The new card was reduced in size and used only two DRAMs.

>I don't know if it had a unique signature byte.

    The ROM remained unchange from previous versions. It is identical 
to the firmware found inside the Enhanced IIe, right down to it still 
using the old Mousetext "Running Man" character set. :)

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca