Apple I Replica Creation 163
| Apple I Replica Creation: Back to the Garage | |
| author | Tom Owad, John Greco |
| pages | 416 |
| publisher | Syngress Press |
| rating | 4 |
| reviewer | Ken Hansen |
| ISBN | 193183640X |
| summary | A confused book that is thin on details. |
I read the Foreword and was put off -- it had no discussion about what to expect in the book, nothing about Tom Owad, or even Vince Briel; it seemed to be a letter from Steve Wozniak discussing the Apple I and its place in history.
Moving on into the book, in the first chapter I read about several people that own (or have owned) genuine Apple I -- and while this was interesting, and helped to get me in the mindset of mid-seventies computing, I felt this too had little to do with the stated purpose of the book -- building an Apple I replica. Personally, I would have put this chapter in the back of the book, most likely as an Appendix, since the reader must have some knowledge of the Apple I before they picked up the book, and these stories do little to describe the hardware we are going to build.
The next two chapters -- "Tools and Materials" and "Digital Logic" -- provide thin overviews on building electronics projects in general, and an overview of Digital Logic. I contend that if you've never picked up a soldering iron, you shouldn't make your first effort a computer, no matter how "simple" this one is (and it is pretty straightforward, just a handful of chips with no tricky analog "adjustments" to make), and if you want to learn about Digital Logic, you'd be well served to focus on the material as covered in Charles Petzold's classic tome Code.
Next we have a chapter on building the Replica I -- there are no real insights provided, no hints or tips that relate to the reader that the author even built his own Replica I. In fact, the author includes a quote from someone who built his own Replica I, but by the end of the included story, this person hasn't gotten it working yet. Since this story was (apparently) written well in advance of the book being published, why not include an update indicating that Vince was able to get his Apple I replica up and running? (By all accounts, Vince is very helpful to those that buy his kits.)
There are almost 4 pages dedicated to the McCAD program included with the book on CD-ROM, but unless you are familiar with CAD/circuit design software, you will finish the four pages with precious little understanding of how to actually use the software, or how to turn the circuits you designed into actual printed circuit boards.
Moving on, we have a chapter on programming the Replica I in BASIC -- this chapter provides only the barest minimum information on the BASIC included with the Replica I. This BASIC is Integer only, and was written by Steve Wozniak personally. While BASIC once was a very common language (it used to be included in ROM on almost all consumer and business personal computers, before Disk Drives became commonplace), it merits a better overview than the author provides. The original Apple I BASIC Manual (available from Vince Briel's website) does a better job describing the language. The author includes an extensive dissection of a larger BASIC program (a simple text-based role-playing game), but gets lost in describing how the program works. I was left with the feeling that the larger BASIC program was included to pad the section on BASIC programming.
Then we move on to programming the Replica I in Assembler -- here the author cuts so many corners (he even reduces the now-obligatory "Hello, World" program to a much shorter text message "H W" to save space) that the reader is left with only a hint of what can be done with the Replica I in assembler. Again, material appears to be added to the book to pad out the chapter, including one of three separate ASCII Character charts, all the Op Codes of the 6502 CPU listed in several different ways (both in this chapter and in the Appendices), and the thinnest of details in the "detailed" views of each Op Code (Op Codes are the instructions used to build a program in assembler).
Next we come to a chapter entitled "Understanding the Apple I" -- what this chapter is doing in the back of the book is beyond me, since understanding the Apple I is, you know, the whole point of this book, right? The information provided is fairly technical, but does little to provide the reader with the information needed to actually design/build anything based on the Apple I design. Note that while this book is about building an Apple I replica, it is not a "clone" -- where the original had 8K of RAM, this unit has 32K of RAM, provided by one chip instead of the original 16 chips on the Apple I. This unit is functionally identical to the Apple I, but the circuit design is greatly simplified over Woz's original design (based on about 30 years of progress in the computer industry). As a concession to the realities of the current computer market, the Replica I also uses an "AT" power supply, and can use a PS/2 keyboard in place of the ASCII keyboards popular in the mid-seventies. These changes make the Replica I a more convenient project to attempt, while retaining the original programming environment of the Apple I.
Now we enter into the Appendices -- we have another ASCII Character Chart as Appendix 1 (there are three total, if memory serves me correctly), then three appendices which simply list all the Op Codes of the 6502 processor three different ways. Again, these appear to be added simply as filler material to add heft to the book -- the author adds nothing to these sections, and they repeat information covered elsewhere in the book.
Next we have an Appendix on "Hacking Macintosh": this is the clearest case of padding a book I've ever seen -- the author describes how to take a Macintosh SE and replace the case with "Lego-type" blocks -- a trivial hack, unrelated to the Apple I in any way, and a potentially dangerous activity, because you are exposing high voltage electronics by removing the manufacturer's original case with its shielding and protection. Then we have a slightly more technical hack in the "UFO Mouse" hack -- adding an LED to the original iMac UFO mouse. Then we have our final Mac Hack -- wrapping the interior case of a Mac Cube system with decorative wrapping paper and placing the now "beautiful" system back in the clear plastic case. This is a hack? How does this relate to the Apple I?
The final appendix is titled "Electrical Engineering Basics" -- and while it does a reasonable job of describing what various components do (like resistors, capacitors, diodes and transistors), there is no reference to take the reader to a place where they can learn to build things of any sophistication (like, say, a computer, perhaps?). I was left asking the question, if this material is needed by the target reader, why are they attempting to build a Replica I computer? If the target reader doesn't need it, why is it included? We also are treated to our second set of instructions on how to solder -- again, why was this included in the book?
In the end, I have no idea who the target audience market is for this book, and I felt the book had no central theme -- it seemed to be a bunch of material culled (I can only assume) from the author's Apple Fritter web site. This book was too "light" to be of any real use to an experienced electronics person looking to design an "Apple I-inspired" system, and there is precious little material for the electronics novice who wants to build Vince Briel's Replica I kit that isn't provided by Vince either on his site or in the included assembly instructions and original Apple I documentation.
I noted numerous errors in the book, and attempted to forward them to the publisher for inclusion in the next printing of the book, but after finishing the book, I suspect there will be no need for a reprinting. I say attempted, because my email to the publisher bounced, but I was able to send my notes to the technical reviewer of the book, and I have sent my notes to Vince as well, for his reference.
I found this book to be confused (no clear narrative/theme/idea), cluttered (why three ASCII charts? Why Mac Hacks?), and to contain many typos/errors. In the final analysis, unless you simply have to have this book because it is about the Apple I, I'd say save yourself the cost of the book, and simply order a pre-assembled Replica I from Vince Briel -- the money you save by not buying the book ($39.95 Suggested retail price) will almost exactly cover the price difference between the unassembled Replica I and the the assembled version (currently $40 US).
You can purchase Apple I Replica Creation: Back to the Garage from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Disturbing. (Score:5, Funny)
Homebrewed hardware is sexy.
Always wear protection (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Disturbing. (Score:1)
Re:Disturbing. (Score:2)
Two words: (Score:2, Funny)
Ok... it was 3 words
Re:Two words: (Score:2)
Apple marketing has improved (Score:5, Funny)
FYI, the original model was marketed at $666. I think it's safe to say that Apple's marketing strategies have improved a bit since then.
Re:Apple marketing has improved (Score:3, Insightful)
pay it (Score:2)
Re:Apple marketing has improved (Score:2)
Re:Apple marketing has improved (Score:2)
Re:Apple marketing has improved (Score:5, Funny)
That was during the short-lived "Think Demonic" phase, in which the Apple logo briefly grew horns. You know how Apple's corporate headerquarters is at "1 Infinite Loop" in Cupertino? That's how they trapped the horrible devil-beast that had taken control of them, putting all of Northern California in mortal peril -- capturing him in a building-sized Moebius strip.
That time period is also where the mutant dog-cow Clarus came from, but it's probably best not to mention her.
And putting the Moebius strip (Score:2)
I want one (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I want one (Score:3, Funny)
Hard Hat Mack and Load Runner Emulator (Score:3, Funny)
GP board PC (Score:2, Interesting)
Graphics card provides:
1. CPU
2. Ram memory
3. video out
Stub motherboard replacement provides:
1. Mouse port
2. Keyboard port
3. Boot rom
4. Power supply interface
5. AGP port to power graphcis card as well as transfer boot rom contents to graphics card CPU
Re:GP board PC (Score:2)
Re:GP board PC (Score:3, Funny)
So basically you recommend the book then? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:So basically you recommend the book then? (Score:2)
Documentation used to include the BLUEPRINTS so you knew how to fix it. Those were awesome.
Re:So basically you recommend the book then? (Score:2)
Re:So basically you recommend the book then? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So basically you recommend the book then? (Score:2)
solution: move zig for great justice
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So basically you recommend the book then? (Score:2)
Abacus Replica (Score:5, Funny)
I will include a useful Arabic Numerals chart, a discussion of Roman Numerals, the use of zero as a place-holder, as well as how to resolve that pesky "multiplication" stuff.
Re:Abacus Replica (Score:2)
You may think you're being funny, but your idea may actually be a sale-able concept. I can see it being one of those Klutz [klutz.com] book items you see at many educational toy stores.
Re:Abacus Replica (Score:2)
review rates a 4? (Score:4, Funny)
"Atmosphere of a stable. Entrees resemble low grade dog food. Phantom Gourmet give is a 7!"
Re:review rates a 4? (Score:3, Funny)
Apple (Score:1)
Why a 4? (Score:2)
From the review, I see no evidence at all that you, the reviewer, would recommend the book for anyone. Yet you rate it 4 (out of 10, right?) How bad would it have to be to rate 1?
Re:Why a 4? (Score:1, Funny)
Cool (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm currently building a variety of SBC with Z80 and 6502 chips. What I'd really like is a transputer or at least plans to build something similar with Z80 chips. Did I mention I have over 100 of the things.
Re:Cool (Score:1)
ob /. comments (Score:1, Funny)
- yeah, but does it run Linux?
- imagine a beowulf cluster of these!
- In Soviet Russia, Apple 1 kit makes YOU
- Step1: Make kit Step2: Make book Step3: Step4: PROFIT!
- I don't care how cool the kit is, I can get a Dell that costs less and runs with a faster CPU!
Re:ob /. comments (Score:2)
"You're new here, aren't you?"
Re:ob /. comments (Score:1, Offtopic)
Thanks for the review (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks!
Blockwars [blockwars.com]: free, multiplayer, head to head game
Reviewer review (Score:5, Insightful)
He seems unclear on what is typically said in a foreword, especially by someone like Woz. He doesn't seem to understand why an unrelated Mac chapter might be added as an appendix.. it's there because Apple hackers might find it entertaining. It's a free bonus.
I found the first chapter, the one about the Apple I history, to be essential and appropriately placed at the beginning. I started with the Apple ][, and I had always assumed that the Apple I was similar, i.e. standardized, came with basic, etc... instead, Chapter 1 has cleared up the fact that nearly all owners customized their Apple Is. It also tells why the serial board was popular, and hence why you might want one for the Replica I. It tells what was up with the different RAM amounts, BASIC, and so on.
To be fair, I only got a couple of chapters into my copy before I had to give it away to a Mac enthusiast (who used to work at Apple) who wanted it to have an electronics project for his kids. My replacement copy is on the way, maybe I'll write a proper review and see if Slashdot will take it. Note: for the conspiracy theorists, I often write for Syngress, though I had nothing to do with this book. Assume I'm a shill if you must.
Also, I see a few talking about Apple suing and such. I doubt that will happen. Syngress is generally pretty careful about that. Woz gave his blessing for the use of the ROM monitor, and the book states that Apple had given over support of the Apple I to the Apple I Owners Club anyway.
Re:Reviewer review (Score:4, Interesting)
It was an Apple clone that copied the ROMs. Apple sued and won. That case established the precedent that binary ROM code was covered by copyright.
Its also an early example (1984) of misusing an apostrophe to pluralize an acronym: "ROM's"
Re:Reviewer review (Score:2)
But I specifically meant the Apple I monitor. Woz says that he gave that code away in the Homebrew Computer Club, so he considers it to be usable by anyway. Granted, Apple and Woz don't always agree on those fine points, but I suspect there will be no issue here.
Franklin Ace (Score:2)
Re:Reviewer review (Score:4, Interesting)
http://apple2clones.com/ [apple2clones.com] has a LONG list of Apple II clones.
As for the Laser 128, that was the only legal clone that came with ROMs. Apple tried to sue, but lost. Basically, the precedent had already been set by Phoenix beating IBM back when they created the clone BIOS.
IIRC, the Pineapple did NOT use pirated ROMs - you had to find your own ROMs from a real Apple II. That said, they got sued, because they called it the Pineapple. They renamed it to Pinecom, and kept selling it.
One of the biggest brands of Apple II clone was Franklin, and they got sued, because (again, IIRC) they used pieces of Apple code in their ROMs and software.
Reviewing reviewer review (Score:2, Insightful)
I do agree with the reviewer review that the review was confused, spending way too much time talking about how he would have prefered the book to be organised, rather than just telling us how it was and letting us make up our minds (or bringing his own feelings up in the conclusion).
Other than that, I'd say the review w
Re:Reviewing reviewer review (Score:2)
Yes, at one point I traded a couple of emails with one of the slashdot guys (Hemos? Taco?) about a book review. This was when it was somewhat early in the process for them, and I had sent a couple of books to them, and they were going to find a reviewer. At the time I was told that they had an explict policy of not posting bad book reviews. I guess that changed at some point. I DO think there is utility in unfavorabe reviews. I just don't think there was in this instance.
6502 resources (Score:4, Informative)
There is alot of work being done on creating 6502 based systems, and I'm sure that an especially industrious designer could emulate the entire Apple I in a single FGPA chip.
Re:6502 resources (Score:1)
Fun fact: I'm currently using a Spartan3 eval board to emulate the 6502 core. Works like a hot damn
Scanned it? (Score:5, Funny)
Torrent?
Re:Scanned it? (Score:2, Funny)
No, he said *quickly*.
me too (Score:1)
Re:me too (Score:2)
But what about the ASCII tables? (Score:2, Interesting)
and
and
So was this intended as an homage? :-)
This reminds me of Stan Kelly-Bootle's book parody (OK, it was a magazine co
Re:But what about the ASCII tables? (Score:1)
Re:But what about the ASCII tables? (Score:2)
I never jumped onto his new mouthpiece, though, because his projects started getting pretty high-threshold. (cost and commitment-wise, that is.) OH, well, now most of the stuff he worked with could be done with one PIC, one PEEL, and 20 lines of PIC basic. I guess this is progress.
Doom 3 (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re:Doom 3 (Score:2)
What's it worth now? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you brought an Apple 1 in 1977, would it have been expensive?
According to here [eh.net] this can be translated (into 2003 dollars) as follows;
In 2003, $666.66 from 1977 is worth:
$2,023.56 using the Consumer Price Index
$1,647.39 using the GDP deflator
$1,947.17 using the unskilled wage
$2,733.51 using the GDP per capita
$3,605.56 using the relative share of GDP
Which I guess means that the relativelty the Apple 1 was expensive compared to a mini at $500 USD, but about the same as a top line G5 dual 2.5G at $3,000 USD
But I doubt I'll be whacking together a dual G5 in 23 years for only 100 bucks
Re:What's it worth now? (Score:2)
No, but you will probably be able to get one off of eBay for $50!
Re:What's it worth now? (Score:4, Informative)
That was an Apple I which, as I recall, was just the stuffed board. Case, keyboard, and monitor had to be supplied by you.
Then the Apple ][ came out shortly afterward, which retailed for $1200. Even after the Mac got introduced in 1984, the Apple ]['s price never fell below $1000 (despite the fact that the more powerful Atari 800 and Commodore 64 -- also 6502-based systems -- were available for less than half that). And that didn't include the Disk ][ floppy drives, which were another $200 each (IIRC).
The only major technology advance on the ][ line came in the form of the Apple ][GS (widely referred to as the "Apple ][ Gee-Whiz"), which doubled the CPU speed to 2 MHz, increased the pixel depth, and got sampled sound. It sold for around $1500 and tried to portray itself as competitive with the Amiga 1000 (7.1MHz 68000, $1200).
All of which is a long-winded way of saying, Apple's machines were always overpriced.
Schwab
Re:What's it worth now? (Score:3, Interesting)
Luckily System 5.0.2 (the first really usable GS/OS
Re:What's it worth now? (Score:3, Informative)
I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to call bullshit.
We will set aside the sound hardware, and compare against other features:
The only point... (Score:1)
Or at all? Low-level homebrew like this can only easily be done on that sort of late 70s/early 80s platform. Things start to get too complicated after that.
To most modern initiates in computing, computers will only ever be the abstract theoretical desktop magic boxes or maybe the abstract theoretical machines of a text book. Their loss...
Those were the days.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Back in those early days, computers were so much simpler that any decent hobbyist could understand everything. Simple processors, simple instruction sets, simple memory maps, and simple OSes meant it was all comprehensible. When all your code (and data) can fit in 4k, 16k, or even (if you were rich enough), 64k, you could understand it all. Little beasts like a Kim-1 [old-computers.com]or TRS-80 [old-computers.com] or Commodore PET [old-computers.com] were amazing little machines. And with full-size components , macroscopic traces, and sub-MHz electronics, anyone with a soldering iron could hack on some new functionality.
Sorry for the nostalgia.
Re:Those were the days.... (Score:2)
We used on in high school to control our rail gun science project, worked great, until we were switching one of the relays (with a screw driver of course) and discharged a 600V capacitor into the I/O port... who let the smoke out?
Re:Those were the days.... (Score:3, Interesting)
The Apple II even came with schematics. I poured over them, and in highschool, I even built my own 6502-based computer. It look
Re:Those were the days.... (Score:1)
Re:Those were the days.... (Score:1)
off topic... your name looks familiar... oh yeah, you hacked the old garmins [abnormal.com] - great work! I reverse-engineered the protocol too, but I wasn't on the web at the time so I didn't have a good way to get out the details. Things have changed since then! I didn't open up
Kim-1 and congeners were quite useful.... (Score:2)
One of the gadgets I helped hack together was a graphics overlay device for the video port; it plotted a single-valued function as an overlay on the video text by counting the vertical scan lines and horizontal pixel clocks, comparing the scan-line count at e
3 Reviews of book at Amazon; 4 1/3 stars out of 5 (Score:3, Interesting)
typical how-to publishers meddling with content (Score:3, Interesting)
It went from a book for film-makers and 3D animators on how to use a new medium, to a book for everyone on how to use a game to make a movie with "no special skills required."
ILL Clinton Maker of Machinima Movies [slashdot.org]
Re:typical how-to publishers meddling with content (Score:2, Interesting)
The book I'm interested in writing would show the reader how to build an Apple I replica from scratch and then teach him how to write programs for it. Computers like the Apple I are incredibly simple machines, consisting of merely a processor section and video section. Handling video can be done by a single microcontroller. The processor section is very simple and easy to understand, consisti
Re:typical how-to publishers meddling with content (Score:2)
I admit I generalized a bit. Maybe Syngress is different.
But one thing that's true is that how-to books have to target their audience based on expertise. It can be very annoying to be an expert in a subject looking for a reference guide, and the only thing you can find is a giant how-to book filled with fluff aimed at grandma.
Heh. How many things can we say are "aimed at grandma?"
ILL Clinton
How about an Apple II+ or IIe clone? (Score:4, Insightful)
As for whether Apple would sue, I don't really think I care. Last time I checked there was nothing illegal about implementing a hardware design that one has the plans to. Selling it would probably violate IP laws of one sort of another, but then I'm not advocating that. As for the ROMS, there are II+ and IIe systems for sale on ebay all the time. There are also several Apple II series emulators that include dumps of the roms. These have been around for many a year. If Apple cared they'd have rattled their cage by now.
Lee
Re:How about an Apple II+ or IIe clone? (Score:2)
Not just a hex dump, but the source (at least for the Apple II-not-plus). That's how I learned 6502 assembly language. Somewhere I still have my November 1977 Byte magazine that had the only published documentation on Sweet-16.
Re:How about an Apple II+ or IIe clone? (Score:2)
Even though Apple might not care if you put up INSTRUCTIONS, and say how to flash the thing, if you start selling it (unless it's missing ROMs), they'll be pissed. Even if it's not APPLE that's pissed, MICROSOFT'll be pissed if you use any ROM with Applesoft BASIC on it - Applesoft is a modified version of Microsoft 6502 BASIC. Not even Apple can license it to you anymore - as of 1997, their MS BASIC license expired.
Re:But What For? (Score:2)
Back when I was younger I actually had thoughts of creating an Apple II clone in a PC form factor case, which back then would have been an XT/Baby-AT case. Every so often I think about doing it again.... maybe I just will.
Lee
Author's Description (Score:4, Informative)
www.applefritter.com/replica [applefritter.com]
Re:Author's Description (Score:1)
Re:Author's Description (Score:2)
An in-depth description of the book by author Tom Owad:
The aim of Apple I Relica Creation is to guide the reader in building, programming, and understanding the Apple I. The book begins with a history of the Apple I, but not the sort of corporate history you may be used to reading. This account is of the computer itself, the early peripherals and modifications, and the hobbyists and visionaries who bought and used the the Apple
Why not VHDL on an FPGA? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Why not VHDL on an FPGA? (Score:2)
http://www.woz.org/letters/general/92.html [woz.org]
in particular states that Woz did not use VRAM at all in the Apple I, but instead went with 7-bit PMOS shift-registers in a 4-pin package.
Can you imagine buying a whole chip to store just 7 BITS, in this day and age? (I didn't think so. Not to mention that PMOS is obsolete in favor of CMOS and others.)
Resources For The Older Macintosh (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.apple-history.com/frames/body.php?pa
http://www.nd.edu/~jvanderk/sysone/
http://home.earthlink.net/~gamba2/index.html
http://w3.trib.com/~dwood/oldmac.shtml#soft
http://www.jagshouse.com/cds.html#sw
Re:Resources For The Older Macintosh (Score:1)
But this is actually off-topic, since the book is about pre-Macintosh computers ...
Comments from the author (Score:5, Informative)
A technical forum has been set up on Applefritter to provide support to those working with McCAD. Documentation and a training video are available on the CD and from McCAD's website. The included software is an excellent value and is only needed for readers interested in printing their own circuits.
Then we move on to programming the Replica I in Assembler -- here the author cuts so many corners (he even reduces the now-obligatory "Hello, World" program to a much shorter text message "H W" to save space) that the reader is left with only a hint of what can be done with the Replica I in assembler.
The very first assembly program on page 155 explains how to echo the characters 'H' and 'W'. Page 165 provides a more complex example that does spell out the entire phrase. The reviewer is correct that this chapter is "only a hint" at what is possible in assembly. It is intended as an _introduction_.
Again, material appears to be added to the book to pad out the chapter, including one of three separate ASCII Character charts, all the Op Codes of the 6502 CPU listed in several different ways
The Op Codes are presented in matrix form (for reverse look-up), as an alphabetical chart with memory modes, and organized by category. I'm not sure which of these the reviewer would want left out.
(both in this chapter and in the Appendices)
This is simply not true. The Op Code charts appear only in the appendices.
Next we come to a chapter entitled "Understanding the Apple I" -- what this chapter is doing in the back of the book is beyond me, since understanding the Apple I is, you know, the whole point of this book, right? The information provided is fairly technical, but does little to provide the reader with the information needed to actually design/build anything based on the Apple I design.
It appears the reviewer was looking for a book aimed at engineers. What he found was a guide intended for beginners. While this chapter does discuss some modifications and variations to the circuit, describing circuits that go beyond the Apple I is outside of its scope.
then three appendices which simply list all the Op Codes of the 6502 processor three different ways. Again, these appear to be added simply as filler material to add heft to the book
This baffles me, given the reviewers earlier complaints that the book is not technical enough. All three styles are imperative. These are not filler at all.
Next we have an Appendix on "Hacking Macintosh",
This section was filler from an earlier book (though another review I read was delighted by it)
In the end, I have no idea who the target audience market is for this book, and I felt the book had no central theme -- it seemed to be a bunch of material culled (I can only assume) from the author's Apple Fritter web site. This book was too "light" to be of any real use to an experienced electronics person looking to design an "Apple I-inspired" system, and there is precious little material for the electronics novice who wants to build Vince Briel's Replica I kit that isn't provided by Vince either on his site or in the included assembly instructions and original Apple I documentation.
The book is intended the novice or intermediary reader interested in learning more about electronics and computers. Very little of this material is on Applefritter (did you look?) and the Replica I kit includes less than 5 pages of assembly instructions.
I noted numerous errors in the book, and attempted to forward them to the publisher for inclusion in the next printing of the book, but af
0 Stars out of 5 (Score:2)
Waste of paper.. is my opinion.
Replica I processing power (Score:5, Interesting)
Main processor:
6502 @ 1MHz. 32K SRAM, 8K ROM.
0.3-0.5 MIPS, 3 registers + 256 zero-page registers
Keyboard processor:
ATMega8515 [atmel.com] @ 8MHz, 512 bytes RAM, 8.5K EEPROM
8 MIPS, 32 registers, hardware multiplier. Would be 16 MIPS if a faster crystal was used.
Video processor:
ATMega8 [atmel.com] @ 14.318 MHz, 512 bytes RAM, 8.5K EEPROM
14 MIPS, 32 registers, hardware multiplier.
So, basically, the auxillary processors are 20-40 times faster, more powerful, and have the same ROM size as the main processor. But, this is the way iit had to be -- it would have hard to find a modern microcontroller that is significantly slower than the 6502.
WTF? (Score:2)
What is interesting, at least just from quickly glancing over the schematic - is that it seems like the Apple IIe was nothing more than the 6502 and a ton of 74xx and 74LSxx glue logic (plus the ROMs and RAM chips). Both the video and keyboard appear
parsing error (Score:2, Funny)
"apple one, replica" went through my head as
"apple i-replica"
about 6 times. When will Apple come out with the i-replica? What new market will it invent or conquer with a 3% market share...will it be a photocopier running OS-X? fortunately the parse-error state was thrown before smoke started to come out of my ears.
Some Ideas for the Second Edition... (Score:4, Interesting)
I do like the idea to make a functional replica with newer parts. And as much as modern replicas focus on aesthetics, I was actually expecting 3/4 of the book to talk about how to lathe the wooden case and apply a nice varnish stain. Even with these changes and updates, it does appear to have more than I expected. As a hardware hacking project though, I'm a bit disappointed that this book doesn't appear to go into further details with how to make a true clone. I routinely see 1970's era electronics (still apparently working well) made available for the price of hauling the stuff away. I was expecting some deviations, but pointers about what is a deviation, why it was made, and how to do it the right way might have been even better.
I'm a bit disappointed that the author doesn't talk about using one of the Apple I emulation projects (such as Sim6502 or Cocoa Pom I to offer a reference platform to introduce the programming. (Just in case the user gave up with the hardware hacking). Admittedly half the fun in programming old hardware are the tribulations in doing it, but the emulator would give the reader a better introduction to concepts without tossing the reader straight in to the confusing world of the old tools as well. Most programming books teach the user how to user the compiler and debugger separately from teaching the language; it seems like a natural way to do it if it's possible.
I thought this reviewer was excellent and remained fairly objective despite his disappointment. If someone such as Griffin or MacAlly got a kit together, and Wiley or some other publisher overhauled the text, and one of the emulator projects were able to make the software available, then it sounds like this would be an incredible project. As it is, it sounds like it would sate some of my curiousity about the Apple I, but perhaps not in a good way.
Re:Some Ideas for the Second Edition... (Score:1)
Re:Some Ideas for the Second Edition... (Score:1)
Larry Nelson wrote a detailed guide about just that topic, as a matter of fact:
Building a Case for the Replica I [applefritter.com]
You call that a classic? Bah. (Score:1)
Apple I problems (Score:5, Funny)
In addition, during this file transfer, PhotoShop will not work. And everything else has ground to a halt. Even the computational fluid dynamics code is straining to keep up as I type this.
I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while working on various Apple Is, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a Apple I that has run faster than its Wintel counterpart, despite the Apple I's faster chip architecture. My 486/66 with 8 megs of ram runs faster than this 6502 machine at times. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that the Apple I is a superior machine.
Apple I addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use a Apple I over other faster, cheaper, more stable systems.
Re:Apple I problems (Score:2)
The Apple 1 replica I'm building (Score:2, Informative)
I am the "someone" referenced. However, my cont
Re:My take... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:My take... (Score:2)
Re:My take... (Score:1)