1983: Apple III Plus

Well, hi there. As a new contributor to Low End Mac, I would just like to extend my hand and offer you the warmest of welcomes. I know a lot of you have been avid readers and followers of Low End Mac, and I don’t want to disappoint!

Apple III Plus

Apple III nameplateNeedless to say, I will be offering advice, tips, humorous quotes, and various useful bits of information and insights in the world of all things Mac.

Apple III

Apple III with 5 MB ProDrive hard drive.

Well, it appears to be Christmas once again, and what better way to celebrate than by remembering the Apple III Plus, which was introduced 30 years ago this month. Did you get one for Christmas? It had a whopping 256 KB of RAM as standard, and a revised keyboard to match the Apple IIe.

The Plus model included a built-in clock, video interlacing, and standardised rear port connections. Many owners of the original III could upgrade by obtaining a newer logic board as a service replacement. Also, a keyboard kit dubbed Apple III Plus upgrade kit was made available. It included the keyboard, a cover, keyboard encoder ROM, and logo replacements. This upgrade had to be installed by an authorised service technician.

Unfortunately, due to insufficient cooling, many of the machines failed, and to address this problem many Apple III’s were fitted with heat sinks, but the case, which was made of aluminium, still made it hard for heat to escape. There are reports that sometimes the machine got so hot that chips started dislodging themselves from the board. The screen would show garbled data, or the disk would be ejected from the slot melted.

This certainly would have been an entertaining Christmas present, but at the cost of around $3,495 (£2,138) in today’s terms. it would have been a very expensive one.

Further Reading

Keywords: #appleiii #appleiiiplus #6502 #6502cpu #mostech6502

Short link: http://goo.gl/LhoOV4

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