APPLEBOX - the Apple-1 pages
 
 

 
    
 
the Apple-1 history

 
 
  In 1975 two guys - Steven Wozniak and Steven Jobs -joined together in
Crist Drive, Los Altos, California in the Garage of Steven Jobs parents. In the last
  months of 1975 and the first months of 1976 Steven Wozniak developed with several attempts ( first attempt was a single board Computer based on 6500
  or Z80 ) then the later version of the first singleboard computer ( based on 6502 or 6800 ) to launch as the later recommended Apple-1 computer.

  When the development was completed they first started trying to get a dealer in Silicon Valley. After introducing the Mainboard at the Byte Shop
 
in Mountain View, California to the owner Paul Terrell and trying to sell the computer as a do-it-yourself-kit he refused this offer and told them, that the
  mainboard must be at least soldered together and a proof of working condition must be made before he could offer to sell that computer.

   Both Geeks had to return home to the garage and think about how to manage that task and decided to pick up some friends to start a kind of production
   of that boards and then returned back to Terell after few weeks and then offering the soldered boards to him again. After confirming to him that the boards
   would be delivered as finished ( soldered ) boards he agreed and put the first time the board into the window of the shop.

   While soldering and assembling the boards Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs went by invitation of Stan Viet ( owner of the Computer Mart in New York )
   in April 1976 to the the first Atlantic City Personal Computer Festival in his double sized booth.
 
   Steven Jobs and Daniel Kottke
(
one of the first employees at Apple ) at the fair
 

   There they presented the Apple-1 first time after Stan Viet had already presented the Apple-1 he had bought in a show before.
   He had built his own Apple-1 inside a attache case ( so you might call that the very first Laptop ever ! ) and a small 9 inch monitor (!) 
   and he took away the visitors from the Altair show, who had still a huge bunch and load of equipment along with them. This might be
   called the birthdate of the personal computer in the public.....

  

              

   In the years of 1976 and early 1977 both - Steven Jobs and Steven Wozniak sold all together 250 of the Apple-1 computers.
   While the first 100 computerboards had been made by a small PCB company that first "run" of the boards are nowadays called the
   "preNTI" version of the Apple-1.  The later second "run" of the PCBīs ( 150 boards ) had been made by a larger PCB-company ( NTI )
   who inserted their logo ( a square diamond with the Letter NTI inside of that square ) below the company logo of Apple Computer.
   The computers out of that run are nowadays referred to be the "NTI-version" of the Apple-1.

     the "pre NTI-version"    the "NTI-version"
   

   In fact there are several minor other differences between both versions of the Apple-1 - in main restricted to the kind of population of the
   components on the mainboard. The main differences between both versions are listed here below:
 

  "pre-NTI" version of the Apple-1   "NTI"-version of the Apple-1
  ceramic CPU and PIA    plastic CPU and PIA
   
  ceramic disc decoupling capacitors   multilayer ceramic decoupling capacitors
   
  blue electrolytic capacitors   yellow electrolytic capacitors
   

   But in fact the PCB-boards themselves donīt vary from eachother besides of the NTI-Logo.

   One of the largest disabilities in the beginning of the launch of the Apple-1 was the fast that the computer was distributed only with a
   monitor in prom and no basic along with the computer. So in the beginning the programs had to be written in machine code instructions.
   This was also at the beginning a point mentioned by Paul Terrell at the Byte Shop. So after a very short period Steven Wozniak introduced
   the Apple-1 with his own Basic to be loaded from Cassette and the Apple-1 Cassette Interface ( lated just called ACI ) into the computer.

   While selling the Apple-1 by the Byte Shop and later also by advertisements in computer magazines

 



   Steven Jobs was traveling around to raise funds for the Company foundation and searching for dealers and in the meantime Steven Wozniak started the
   development of the Apple II and that model was introduced in early 1978 to the public. In the beginning of 1977 the Apple Computer
   changed itīs form and founded as Apple Computer Inc. and was introduced to the stock exchange market.

   So thatīs a brief overview of the foundation and the early days of the Apple Computer Company.

   In the meantime the days have past that far away, that a Apple-1 Owners Club has been created at the applefritter.com site
   and at the site from Mike Willegal there is kept track on the confirmed to be known as original boards of the Apple-1.

   The last sell of an original Apple-1 board at Sothebyīs in 2012 raised up to the amount of 374.500,00 U.S. Dollars.
 

 
     
 
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Đ copyright: Harro Walsh 2013