Send CathInfo's owner Matthew a gift from his Amazon wish list:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/25M2B8RERL1UO

Author Topic: Apple ][ Introduced 40 Years Ago  (Read 1966 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline AlligatorDicax

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 908
  • Reputation: +372/-173
  • Gender: Male
Apple ][ Introduced 40 Years Ago
« on: April 16, 2017, 10:56:28 PM »
  • Thanks!0
  • No Thanks!0
  • For any parents trying to reconcile the joy of watching their children run around--properly catechized, of course--for Easter eggs, while trying to tune out feelings of "getting old"--unsettlingly reminiscent of what many of us thought of our own parents--here's another thought for you:

    The Apple ][  personal computer [†] was introduced 40 years ago today, in 1977, at the first of the West-Coast Computer Faires (in San Francisco).  That computer was by no means the first electronic product to qualify as a "personal computer" as the term is understood today, but it was the first runaway-successful one.  It boasted an installable memory limit 48 kilobytes, but only for those enthusiasts affluent enough to be able to afford the new envelope-pushing 16 kilobit  memory chips.

    Like the single-circuit-board kit-only Apple I, its CPU was MOS Technology's[‡] 6502 microprocessor.

    The company had been founded 1 year earlier, on the U.S. April Fools' Day, but its incorporation was delayed for 3/4 year, to the Monday (January 3) after 1977 New Year's Day, which was only 3½ months before the WCCF introduction.

    Back in 1977, the subject day in April was Easter Saturday.  For political perspective, Jimmy Carter had been President of the U.S.A. for 4 days less than 3 months.

    -------
    Note †: E.g.: "[Part] 3-The Apple II": <http://apple2history.org/history/ah03/>, after a page-visitor tunes out the waaay overboard size of its initial image, presents waaay more than enough technical-history detail to establish its credibility.  Yes, that PC's logo--if not also legal trademark--used 2 misordered (square) brackets "][", instead of a pair of capital-'I', as a perverse pair of Roman numerals to identify the 2nd major product from Apple Computer (beware that CathInfo's SMF BB-Code posting syntax might prevent me from displaying them properly).

    Note ‡: "MOS" abbreviates the semiconductor technology "Metal Oxide on Silicon".  More modern readers might've encountered the letters "CMOS" from time to time; that abbreviates the especially low-power-consumption semiconductor technology "Complementary Metal Oxide on Silicon".