What are the chances of a Replica II project?

["Chris Morse" <win32mfc@gmail.com>]

Question is, would it be legal to implement?  Would it be much more
difficult to implement?

>From a legal standpoint, I would assume the ROMs are off limits.
Though if you own an Apple II already, would it be illegal to use them
in your own electronic designs?

Modern computer systems are ill-adapted to learning about computers,
especially the hardware-related aspects.  Try to design even a simple
board for todays PC architectures.  It would be nice to have a modern
kit for an 8-bit computer system (like the Replica I) that was
functionally equivelant to a real system (ie, the Apple II.)  I think
from an electronics hobbiest/student point of view, it would be more
exciting to build a computer system for which there was already a
plethora of knowledge and information on.  Candidates for such a system
would be an Apple II, C64 and an old IBM-PC (ISA bus).

Yesterday I dug out an old book called "The Apple Connection" by James
Coffron.  Even from my limited electronics background, it doesn't look
very complicated to use the Apple II system bus.  In chapter 4 (Input
and Output Hardware for the Apple), I think he does a good job of
describing the Apple II's 50-pin I/O slot and how the signals are used.
 By the end of the chapter, you've designed a basic Apple II board with
8 LED's that you can turn on/off with PEEK/POKEs.  But I would be
pretty timid the first time I tried to insert a home-made card (even a
simple one) into a working Apple II.  I'd hate to start frying real
Apples..

The Replica I has an expansion port, but it's completely different from
the Apple II design slot design.  With a "Replica II" type of project,
boards designed for such a machine could be plugged directly into a
real Apple II.  Nice.

// CHRIS