Apple IIe Desktop System

Apple IIe

The Apple IIe needs no introduction. The Apple IIe is arguably the most successful computer Apple has ever produced. It was introduced on January 1983 and included the same 1.02 MHz 6502 processor as the Apple II (1977) and the Apple Plus (1979). The Apple IIe, however, included the new ProDOS operating system and Applesoft BASIC burned into the 32k ROM.

The IIe contained 64k RAM built-in, and allowed up to 128k RAM using the 80 column card which allowed 80 column text and an additional 64k RAM (much more RAM could be added later via third party hardware). The IIe also allowed upper and lower case letters be used allowing full functionality of the Shift and Caps Lock keys.

The main goal of the IIe was to create a professional computer for use in business. It served its purpose well, and also became abundant in schools and homes. All models were discontinued in November 1993. The entire Apple II series had a production run of 16 years!

Here are the Apple IIe specifications:

Microprocessor
6502 or 65C02 running at 1.023 MHz
8-bit data bus
Memory
64 KB RAM built-in
16 KB ROM built-in
Expandable from 64 KB up to 1 MB RAM or more
Video modes
40 and 80 columns text, white-on-black, with 24 lines¹
Low-Resolution: 40×48 (15 colors)
High-Resolution: 280×192 (6 colors)
Double-Low-Resolution: 80×48 (15 colors)
Double-High-Resolution: 560×192 (15 colors)
Audio
Built-in speaker; 1-bit toggling
Built-in cassette recorder interface; 1-bit toggle output, 1-bit zero-crossing input
Expansion
Seven Apple II Bus slots (50-pin card-edge)
Auxiliary slot (60-pin card-edge)
Internal connectors
Game I/O socket (16-pin DIP)
RF modulation output (4-pin Molex)
Numeric keypad (11-pin Molex)
External connectors
NTSC composite video output (RCA connector)
Cassette in/out (two 1⁄8-inch mono phono jacks)
Joystick (DE-9)

Apple Disk II

The Disk II Floppy Disk Subsystem, often spelled as Disk ][, is a 5¼-inch floppy disk drive designed by Steve Wozniak and manufactured by Apple Computer. It was first introduced in 1978 at a retail price of US$495 for pre-order; it was later sold for $595 including the controller card (which can control up to two drives) and cable. The Disk II was designed specifically for use with the Apple II personal computer family to replace the slower cassette tape storage and cannot be used with any Macintosh computer without an Apple IIe Card as doing so will damage the drive or the controller.

Apple Monitor II

The Apple Monitor II is a CRT-based green monochrome 12-inch monitor manufactured by Apple Computer for the Apple II personal computer family. It was introduce in 1984 and discontinued November 1993. Apple didn't manufacture the monitor until halfway through the lifespan of the II series.  Many home users of Apple II computers used their televisions as computer monitors before the Monitor II was released. It featured an inner vertical-swiveling frame. This allowed users to adjust the viewing angle up or down to suit their taste without the addition of a tilt-and-swivel device. The Monitor II was widely adjustable for the time, as it included adjustments for the size and location of the image on the screen. These adjustments had a very small influence on the picture, however, much to the disliking of some users. The Monitor II was designed for the Apple II+, but was used widely throughout the Apple II product line, most recognizably on the Apple IIe.

1984 costs of an Apple IIe system

In the Febuary 1984 issue of Byte magazine, there's an advertisement for the cost of an Apple IIe system:

A starter kit with monitor, disk drive and 80 col. card would run at $1365. In today's dollars that would be about $3,209.31.

There were also clones during this time as shown in this advertisement from Byte magizine:

Gateway 2000 P5-100: Final system tweaks

Video and sound drivers

To finish up the install of all the operating systems, the video and sound drivers for the Gateway P5-100 must be installed . For Windows 95 and 98, an automatic install was made and this is not necessary.

The video and sound drivers were re-installed in Windows 3.1 as previously shown in an earlier blog entry.  Video is here and sound is here.

Installing the required drivers for the MS-DOS 6.22 partition has not been complete. I have found that the same sound driver install disk for Windows 3.1 can be used to install the DOS only drivers quite easily, but I have not found the appropriate DOS video drivers for the TRIO64 video card. However, this may not be a problem since the default 640x480 with 16 colors will most likely be fine for the DOS programs I plan to use on this system.

Optimizing MS-DOS memory

The common problem running old DOS programs from the early '80s is memory errors. MS-DOS-based programs require a certain amount of conventional memory to run, even when you run them in Windows. If you attempt to run an MS-DOS-based program that requires more conventional memory than is currently available on your computer, the program may not run correctly or at all, and an error message indicating that there is insufficient memory to run the program may be displayed. When this occurs, you must reconfigure your computer so that more conventional memory is available.

In order to solve this, some changes need to be made in the autoexec.bat and config.sys files. Adding the following lines to the existing autoexec.bat file (or modifying the appropriate line) is necessary:

LH c:\dos\smartdrv.exe

LH c:\apps\doskey.com -i

path c:\apps;c:\dos;c:\dos\net

set DIRCMD=/o:gne

set TEMP=c:\temp

Add (or modify) the following lines in the Config.sys file:

SWITCHES=/f

DEVICE=c:\dos\himem.sys /testmem:off

DEVICEHIGH=c:\dos\emm386.exe ram i=b000-b7ff

DOS=high,umb

BREAK=on

rem DEVICEHIGH=c:\dos\setver.exe

Leave all the other files intact. This will now load the older DOS programs without memory problems.