Art of the IIe project grew out of the earlier work on custom integrated circuits for the Apple II. When they finally decided to go ahead and improve the design by adding new features, one of the original plans was to give the Apple II an 80-column text display and a full upper/lowercase keyboard. Walt Broedner at Apple did much of the original hardware planning, and was one of those at Apple who pushed for the upgrade in the first place. To help maintain compatibility with older 40-column software (which often addressed the screen directly for speed), he decided to make 80-columns work by mirroring the older 40 column text screen onto a 1K memory space parallel to it, with the even columns in main memory and the odd columns in this new “auxiliary” memory. To display 80-column text would require switching between the two memory banks. Broedner realized that with little extra effort he could do the same for the entire 64K memory space and get 128K of bank-switchable memory. They put this extra memory (the 1K “80-column card”, or a 64K “extended 80-column card”) in a special slot called the “auxiliary” slot that replaced slot 0 (the 16K Language Card was going to be a built-in feature). The 80-column firmware routines were mapped to slot 3, since that was a location commonly used by people who bought 80-column cards for their Apple II computers, and was also the place where the Apple Pascal system expected to find an external terminal. The auxiliary slot also supplied some special video signals, and was used during manufacture for testing on the motherboard. The engineers who worked on the IIe tried hard to make sure that cards designed for the II and II Plus would work properly in the new computer. They even had to “tune” the timing on the IIe to be slightly off (to act more like the II Plus) because the Microsoft Z-80 Softcard refused to function properly with the new hardware. A socket was included on the motherboard for attaching a numeric keypad, a feature that many business users had been adding (with difficulty) to the II Plus for years. The full keyboard they designed was very similar to the one found on the Apple III, including two unique keys that had first appeared with the III–one with a picture of an hollow apple (“open-apple”) and the other with the same apple picture filled in (“solid-apple”). These keys were electrically connected to buttons 0 and 1 on the Apple paddles or joystick. They were available to software designers as modifier keys when pressed with another key; for example, open-apple-H could be programmed to call up a “help” screen. The newer electronics of the keyboard also made it easier to manufacture foreign language versions of the Apple IIe Over all, Broedner and Peter Quinn (the design manager for the IIe and later the IIc projects) and their team managed to decrease the number of components on the motherboard from over one hundred to thirty-one, while adding to the capabilities of the computer by the equivalent of another hundred components. This item, A LOTE OF EXTRA CARDS - 2X APPLE DISK II - APPLE MONITOR II - NEW ORIGINAL SOFTWARE Specifications: - Processor:MOS Technology 6502 running at 1.023 MHz - Memory: - 16 KB ROM - Graphics: - Graphics mode: 280x192 pixels, 6 colors - Storage: - Cassette Interface (not included ) - 2xApple Disk II 5.25-inch floppy disk drive (included) - Expansion Slots: - Seven expansion slots for adding additional hardware, such as memory cards, peripheral cards, and interface cards - Ports: - Composite video output - RCA audio output - Joystick/game controller ports ( not included) - Expansion slots for additional peripherals and accessories ( one serial card included) - Built-in Keyboard: - Integrated keyboard with alphanumeric keys, function keys, and special command keys. Box Contents: - Apple IIe - 2x Apple Disk II (tested and working ) - New Apple Disckware original Software. Extra Cards - Microsoft Z-80 SoftCard - 1980 - 128K RAM Expansion Card. - Disk Drives Card. - Quadram E-80 For Apple IIe. - Apple Mouse Interface Card. - Perfect for collectors, vintage computing enthusiasts, or anyone with a passion for retro technology, this iMac Apple IIe bundle is a rare find that deserves a special place in any collection.