The Apple IIc is a personal computer introduced by Apple Inc. in April 1984. It is essentially a compact and portable version of the Apple IIe. The IIc has a built-in floppy disk drive and a keyboard, and was often sold with its matching monitor. The c in the name stands for compact, referring to the fact it is a complete Apple II setup in a smaller notebook-sized housing. The computer is compatible with a wide range of Apple II software and peripherals.
The Apple IIc has rear peripheral expansion ports integrated onto the main logic board instead of the expansion slots and direct motherboard access of earlier Apple II models. Apple intended the Apple IIc to require less technical expertise to use. The Apple IIc weighs . It was succeeded by the Apple IIc Plus in 1988.
History The Apple IIc was released on April 24, 1984, during an Apple-held event called Apple II Forever. With that motto, Apple proclaimed the new machine was proof of the company's long-term commitment to the Apple II and its users, despite the recent introduction of the Macintosh. The IIc was also seen as the company's response to the new IBM PCjr, and Apple hoped to sell 400,000 by the end of 1984. The company described it as a portable computer despite lacking a display or battery. While essentially an Apple IIe computer in a smaller case, it was not a successor, but rather a complement. One Apple II machine would be sold for users who required the expandability of slots, and another for those wanting the simplicity of a plug and play machine with portability in mind.
The machine introduced Apple's Snow White design language, notable for its case styling and a modern look designed by Hartmut Esslinger which became the standard for Apple equipment and computers for nearly a decade. The Apple IIc introduced a unique off-white coloring known as "Fog", chosen to enhance the Snow White design style. The IIc and some peripherals are the only Apple products to use the "Fog" coloring.Kunkel, Paul, "AppleDesign: The work of the Apple Industrial Design Group", with photographs by Rick English, New York: Graphis, 1997, p. 30
Codenames for the machine while under development included Lollie, ET, Yoda, Teddy, VLC, IIb, IIp.
Overview of features
Improving the IIe The Apple IIc is an Apple IIe in a smaller case, more portable and easier to use but also less expandable. The IIc uses the CMOS-based 65C02 microprocessor which added 27 new instructions to the 6502, but is incompatible with programs that use illegal opcodes of the 6502. (Apple stated that the Apple IIc was compatible with 90–95% of the 10,000 software packages available for the Apple II.) The new ROM firmware allows Applesoft BASIC to recognize lowercase characters and work better with an 80-column display, and fixes several bugs from the IIe ROM. In terms of video, the text display adds 32 unique character symbols called "MouseText" which, when placed side by side, can display simple icons, windows and menus to create a graphical user interface completely out of text, similar in concept to IBM code page 437 or PETSCII's box-drawing characters. A year later, the Apple IIe would benefit from these improvements in the form of a four-chip upgrade called the Enhanced IIe.
Built-in cards and ports The equivalent of five expansion cards are built-in and integrated into the Apple IIc motherboard: An Extended 80-Column Text Card, two Super Serial Cards, a Mouse Card, and a Disk II floppy drive controller card. The Apple IIc has 128 KB RAM, 80-column text, and Double-Hi-Resolution graphics built-in and available right out of the box, unlike the IIe. The built-in cards are mapped to virtual slots so software from the slot-based Apple II can use them without modification. The entire Apple Disk II Card, used for controlling floppy drives, is part of the single chip called the "IWM" (Integrated Woz Machine).
In the rear of the machine are connection ports. The standard DE-9 joystick connector doubles as a mouse interface, compatible with the same mice used by the Lisa and early Macintoshes. Two serial ports are primarily for a printer and modem, and a floppy port connector supports a single external 5.25-inch drive (and later "intelligent" devices such as 3.5-inch drives and hard disks). A Video Expansion port provides rudimentary signals for add-on adapters but, alone, cannot directly generate a video signal (Apple produced an LCD and an RF-modulator for this port; the latter shipped with early IIc computers). A port connector ties into an internal 12 V power converter for attaching batteries; this is where the large external power supply (dubbed "brick on a leash" by users) plugs in. The same composite video port found on earlier Apple II models is present, but not the cassette ports or internal DIP-16 game port.
Built-in accessories and keyboard The Apple IIc has a built-in 5.25-inch floppy drive (140 KB) along the right side of the case, the first Apple II model to include such a feature. Along the left side of the case is a dial to control the volume of the internal speaker, along with a -inch monaural audio jack for headphones or an external speaker.
A fold-out carrying handle is also used to prop up the back end of the machine when in use. This is required to provide good air circulation and make typing comfortable. The photos in this article show the system sitting flat, which was not uncommon for owners to do as it allowed accessories to be stacked on the upper surface.
The keyboard layout is similar to that of the Apple IIe; however, the "Reset" key is above the "Esc" key. Two toggle switches are also located in the same area: an "80/40"-column switch for (specially written) software to detect which text video mode to start up in, and a "Keyboard" switch to select between QWERTY and Dvorak layout, or between US and national layout on non-American machines. The keyboard itself is built into the front half of the case, much like a notebook computer, and early models have a rubber mat placed beneath the keycaps which acted as a liquid spill guard.
Reception Apple expected the IIc to be its top seller during Christmas 1984, competing against the improved PCjr. The company almost stopped production of the IIe because of the IIc's expected popularity, causing a shortage of the former and glut of the latter. Although Apple predicted that it would sell 100,000 IIc computers per month, it sold an average of 100,000 per year over four years; even the unsuccessful PCjr outsold it during each computer's first year on the market. Although the IIc was less expensive than the IIe in most configurations, the latter was much more popular than the former because of its greater expandability, with the newer computer not outselling the older until late 1984. (However, according to Paul Kunkel in AppleDesign, Apple sold more than 400,000 Apple IIc computers in the first year, most of the sales including the matching monitor.)
IIc's incomplete compatibility—mostly because of copy protection—also affected sales; while not as serious a problem as PCjr's imperfect PC compatibility, Apple's internal guide to affected products grew from April 1984's 47 pages to July 1984's 93. As publishers rewrote software some appeared in separate IIc and IIe versions, confusing consumers.
While noting its lack of an internal modem and inability to use expansion cards such as the popular Z-80 SoftCard, BYTE in May 1984 described the Apple IIc as a "head-to-head [competitor] with the IBM PCjr" for novice computer users. Creative Computing agreed, stating in July 1984 that "This war will have no clear winner. Apple fans will buy the IIc, and IBM fans will buy the PCjr. I believe the Apple II will live forever", with the IIc as the "final transmutation" of the Apple II because it was about as small as a computer with a full-sized keyboard and 5 1/4" drive could be. The magazine said in December 1984 that the IIe and IIc were the best home computers with prices above $500, with the IIc better for those using word processing and business software.
Specifications
Microprocessor 65C02 running at 1.023 MHz 8-bit data bus Memory 128 KB RAM built-in 32 KB ROM built-in (16 KB ROM in original) Expandable from 128 KB to 1 MB (only through non-conventional methods in original) Video 40 and 80 columns text, with 24 linesText can be mixed with graphic modes, replacing either bottom 8 or 32 lines, depending on video mode Low-Resolution: 40 × 48 (16 colors) High-Resolution: 280 × 192 (6 colors)effectively 140×192 in color, due to pixel placement restrictions Double-Low-Resolution: 80 × 48 (16 colors) Double-High-Resolution: 560 × 192 (16 colors) Audio Built-in speaker; 1-bit toggling User-adjustable volume (manual dial control) Built-in storage Slim-line internal 5.25-inch floppy drive (140 KB, single-sided) Internal connectors Memory Expansion Card connector (34-pin)*
* Only available on ROM 3 motherboard and higher; original IIc: NONE
Specialized chip controllers IWM (Integrated Woz Machine) for floppy drives Dual 6551 ACIA chips for serial I/O External connectors Joystick/Mouse (DE-9) Printer, serial-1 (DIN-5) Modem, serial-2 (DIN-5) Video Expansion Port (D-15) Floppy drive SmartPort (D-19) 15-Volt DC connector input (DIN-7, male) NTSC composite video output (RCA connector) Audio-out (-inch mono phone jack)
Revisions The Apple IIc was in production from April 1984 to August 1988, with minor changes. These modifications include three new ROM updates, a bug-fix correction to the original motherboard, a newly revised motherboard, and a slight cosmetic change to the external appearance of the machine. The ROM revision for a specific Apple IIc is determined by entering the Applesoft BASIC programming language and typing in the command which returns the value indicating the particular ROM version.
Original IIc (ROM version '255') The initial ROM, installed in machines produced during the first year and a half of production, is 16 KB in size. The only device which can be connected to the disk port is (one) external 5.25-inch floppy drive; software can be booted from this external drive by typing the command . The serial port does not mask incoming linefeed characters or support the XON/XOFF protocol, unlike all later firmware revisions. There is no self-test diagnostic present in this ROM; holding down the key during cold boot merely cycles unusual patterns on screen which serves no useful purpose or indication of the machine's health.
Serial port timing fix Serial ports on Apple IIc motherboards manufactured before December 1984 are 2.9% slower than the Electronic Industries Association standard, greater than the permitted plus or minus 2% variance. Non-Apple modems with speeds greater than 300 baud are incompatible with the ports. The motherboards derive the serial timing through a 74LS161 TTL logic chip. This causes some third-party modems and printers, which operated at 1200 baud or faster, to function improperly. Slower serial devices operating at 300 baud or less are unaffected, as well as some faster devices which can tolerate the deviation. The solution to ensure all devices are compatible is to replace the TTL chip with a 1.8432 MHz crystal oscillator (next to capacitor C19) during manufacture. Apple swapped affected motherboards for users who could prove they had an incompatible serial device (e.g. a third-party 1200-baud modem which presented problems; not all do).
UniDisk 3.5 support (ROM version '0')