Re: Apple 2E What Is It?

[wbaguhn@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Will Baguhn)]

In article <19AUG199621412941@vax2.concordia.ca>,
Mitchell Spector <spec@vax2.concordia.ca> wrote:
>In article dastar@crl.com (Sam Ismail) writes...
>>
>>Mitchell Spector (spec@vax2.concordia.ca) wrote:
>> 
>>: CPU Model           Month              Year
>>: ---------           -----              ----
>>: Apple I             July               1976
>>: Apple II            April              1977 *
>>: Apple II Plus       June               1979 *
>>....
>>: Apple IIc           April              1984 *
>>....
>>: Apple IIc Plus      September          1988 *
>> 
>>: * = A new Apple II model
>> 
>>I would have to disagree on classifying the II+ and the //c+ as
>>"new models".  The only difference from the ][ to the ][+ was FP
>>basic and the autostart rom, and the only difference between the
>>//c and the //c+ was the 3.5" drive, the internal power supply and
>>the faster CPU (and maybe a couple other insignificant cosmetic things).
>
>    Technically, your correct. The Apple IIc Plus is basically an 
>Apple IIc with additional hardware add-ons built-in, such as a 3.5 
>drive and Zip Chip. Yet the IIc is functionally an Apple IIe without 
>slots and common add-ons like an Extended 80 Columns Card, Disk II/
>Liron floppy controller, a pair of Super Serial Cards and Mouse Card 
>intergrated into the motherboard design. Then consider that the 
>Apple IIe is really nothing more than an Apple II Plus, with a 16K 
>Lauguage Card built-in, lowercase character generator, full-ASCII 
>keyboard and an auxiliary slot. Then, as you mention, the II Plus 
>is really the same as the original Apple II, the major difference 
>being Autostart Applesoft ROMs replaced the Integer ROMs.
>
>    In otherwords, going by that logic, the only "new" model of the
>Apple II line came about in 1986. :) The Apple IIgs was the _only_
>model of the Apple II with major significant changes released. 
>Otherwise, the 8-bit Apple II design remained relatively unchanged 
>from 1977 (Apple II) until the last model in 1988 (Apple IIc Plus).

And the //c.  The //c had a significantly different case design and
was not expandable like the II, II+ and //e.  Functionally yes,
it is almost the same as a //e, but... (never having used one but
looked at a spec or two) doesn't it have a keyboard interrupt?
That is a significantly different step from the //e as well.  The
other II's (II, II+, //e) came with no disk drive... the //c
had an integrated one.  The //c is a significantly different
system from the hardware standpoint, and did add SOME functionality
over the //e (keyboard interrupt).  Also, it loses something
(cassette ports).

The IIc Plus of course has even more fun things, with a faster
processor and cache memory as standard features.


>    Anything that had a new name on the cover, I consider a new
>model. Note that the original model just had "Apple ][" on the
>metal name plate, the following model had "Plus" in green lettering 
>below it. 
>
>Mitchell Spector
>spec@vax2.concordia.ca

That only holds true in a few of the cases... (II+, vaguely //e,
Rom3 IIgs, IIc Plus) as the II was a new case, the IIgs was a new
case, and the //c was a new case.

-- 
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