Re: Language card vs RAM card

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Ernest <ernestls@attbi.NOSPAM.com> wrote:

> I have a bunch of different 16k add-on memory cards for Apple II/II+ systems,
> and some of them have ROM chips (or empty ROM sockets) but others don't. I
> see the term "language card" used to loosely describe all of them, whether
> they have a ROM (applesoft?) chip or not, and that's what my question is
> about.
> 
> Is it a language card if there is no language ROM chip on it?

A "language card" is always a 16KB RAM card.

Some language cards also have a single socket for a ROM, which is used
to install the "Autostart" monitor ROM in an original Apple ][ (with Old
Monitor ROM on the motherboard).  I believe these cards work by
inhibiting the motherboard ROM in the F800-FFFF area all the time, but
select between RAM or ROM on the card based on the language card soft
switches.

There are also ROM-only cards, which have six sockets.  This type of
card is usually called a "ROM Card", "Integer Card" or "Applesoft Card"
(depending on which ROMs are installed on it).  It is not a "language
card", even though you might consider this to be a reasonable
description.

The term "language card" comes from the "Apple II Language System",
which was the original source of the 16KB RAM card.  The Apple II
Language System included Apple II Pascal 1.0, and may have included or
supported some other languages like Fortran (a different compiler
running on the same UCSD Pascal operating system).  I don't know exactly
when Apple II Fortran was available (I never used it).

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz