01.010 What is an Apple II: The Apple //e
Description
This article is from the Apple II Csa2 FAQ, by Jeff Hurlburt with numerous contributions by others.
01.010 What is an Apple II: The Apple //e
The //e comes in two flavors: Enhanced and unenhanced. When you start your
computer, the unenhanced IIe displays "Apple ][" at the top of screen; the
Enhanced IIe displays "Apple //e". Apple made an Enhancement kit to upgrade an
unenhanced to Enhanced by replacing 4 chips (CPU [65C02], Video ROM
[MouseText], and new Monitor/Applesoft ROMs). Apple Resource Center sells a IIe
Enhancement kit for $20.00.
The current IIe operating system is ProDOS-8. (The IIe can also run DOS
3.3, earlier DOS's, and Pascal.) A lot of ProDOS software requires an Enhanced
//e, and sometimes 128K, too.
A IIe Enhancement Kit does not include any extra RAM. You can expand a 64k
IIe to the standard 128k required for a fully Enhanced IIe via an Extended 80-
column card. It plugs into the Aux Connector on the motherboard. Alltech
($19.00), and MC Price Breakers ($14.95) sell such cards.
Except for being able to type and display lower-case characters, the
unenhanced IIe is very similar to the II+. A 128k Enhanced IIe adds a number of
features including 80-column firmware and 16-color double-lores and double
hires display capability.
The Apple //e remains useful for four major reasons:
1) It runs AppleWorks, a simple to use, yet sophisticated Spreadsheet/Word
Processor/Database.
2) It can run many games and other entertainment software products.
3) There are many Apples in schools-- an example is Louis Cornelio's room at
Clairemont High School ( http://www.n2.net/clairemont/ )-- so there is a ton of
Apple II educational software.
4) It is was and will always be a Personal computer. You can learn as
little or as much as you want, and nothing stops you from learning about every
nook and cranny in it. Ask any big name programmer in MS/DOS or Mac where they
learned to program. Most of them taught themselves on a good ol' Apple II.
Recommended configuration: Extended 80 Column card (gives you 128K) or RamWorks
(512K to 1MB RAM), Enhancement kit (for unenhanced IIe), and a composite color
monitor which can display decent 80-colume text, Super Serial card, Disk ]
[ controller card, two 5.25" Disk ][ or compatible drives, parallel printer
interface card, and parallell-interface printer. A Hard Drive is recommended if
you use a lot of different programs. Heavy Appleworks users should add the hard
disk, extra RAM, and a 4MHz or better acce
lerator (like the Rocket Chip, Zip Chip or TransWarp). --Dan DeMaggio, Rubywand
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