APPLE II HISTORY
================

Compiled and written by Steven Weyhrich
(C) Copyright 1993, Zonker Software

(PART 11 -- THE APPLE IIGS, CONT.)
[v1.1 :: 05 Mar 93]


THE APPLE IIGS: MISCELLANEOUS HARDWARE

	Other features Apple engineers added to make the Apple IIGS a next generation computer included a built-in clock, slot space for internal expansion cards, and the electronic equivalents of seven more expansion cards.<1>  Taking the cue from their experience with the Apple IIc, they included as built-in features the peripherals that most users would want to use.  They allocated serial ports to slots 1 and 2, the classic 80-column firmware to slot 3, the mouse controller to slot 4, a Smartport controller to slot 5, a 5.25 inch disk controller to slot 6, and AppleTalk capability to slot 7.  (AppleTalk was Apple's network protocol that had been designed originally for use with the Macintosh).

	Because the engineers wanted to make the IIGS capable of connecting to the AppleTalk network, the serial ports they planned were based on a different communications controller chip than was used in the older Super Serial Card and the Apple IIc serial controller.  Although the new controller chips were more capable than the older ones used on the 8-bit Apple II's, telecommunications programs written for those older Apple's wouldn't work.  This was because most terminal programs, for the sake of speed, were written to directly control the old Super Serial Card (rather than going through the slower, built-in firmware commands).  The controlling commands necessary to manage the newer chip were very different, and so caused such software to "break".<2>

	The case and motherboard used in the Apple IIGS was made smaller than that found in the IIe, both in order to make a smaller "footprint" on a desktop, and also to make it easier to make an upgrade available for IIe owners.  They had wanted to make it possible even for Apple II and II Plus owners to upgrade, but in the end it turned out to be just too expensive and difficult to execute.<2>

	The Macintosh engineering group was at this time designing a protocol for interfacing standard input devices, such as keyboards, mice, and graphics tablets.  This protocol, called the "Apple Desktop Bus", was first implemented on the Apple IIGS.  It made possible the interchangability of hardware devices between the Macintosh and Apple II lines, allowing Apple to sell a common set of peripherals that both computers could use.<2>


THE APPLE IIGS: FIRMWARE

	Firmware, you may recall, is that layer of controlling programs in ROM on a computer that sits between an application program and the hardware it is trying to control.  On the IIGS, the firmware was designed after the hardware was finalized.  Unlike the older ROM that Wozniak included with the original Apple II, the IIGS software engineers tried to make it more than just a set of addresses to call to carry out a function (such as clearing the screen).  Rather, they wanted to make a more comprehensive system (called a "toolbox") which could be more flexible for future enhancements of the hardware and firmware.  In particular, they didn't want to have the addresses for carrying out certain functions to be fixed in a single location as on the older Apples.  This toolbox would have a single address to call, and a specific command would be passed on through that address.  Set up like this, it would allow Apple's firmware programmers to modify the ROM in the future without having to take trouble to make multiple addresses in the ROM "line up" properly.  Additionally, they made it easy to "patch" the toolbox code in the ROM using code loaded from disk, allowing programmers to fix errors that were later found without having to replace the physical ROM chips.

	At first, they were given 64K of space for the ROM, over four times as much as was available on the original Apple II.  Later, they had to go back and ask for 128K of ROM, because of the many things that they needed and wanted to do.  Of course, Applesoft had to be present in ROM in order to maintain compatibility with the older Apple II software.  Additionally, they also put all of the mouse-handling tools into the ROM (unlike the II, II Plus, and IIe, which had to have the mouse firmware on a card in a peripheral slot).<1>

	A boost to the firmware design of the IIGS came, unexpectedly, as a result of the merger between the Apple II and Macintosh divisions.  This merger came as part of the reorganization that coincided with the departure of Steve Jobs from Apple.  Since the Macintosh team was now working in the same place as the IIGS designers, they were available to offer help and ideas.  Bill Atkinson, the programming wizard who wrote MacPaint and many of the mouse tools for the Macintosh, helped in the creation of the mouse tools and QuickDraw II for the IIGS.  (This was the name given to the ROM tools used to draw on the super hi-res screen, and was borrowed from the older QuickDraw routines on the original Macintosh).<1>

	To allow the user to easily configure certain features of the IIGS to their own tastes, a "control panel" was designed (another idea borrowed from the Macintosh).  It was used to set the clock, the system speed (between a "normal" 1 MHz and a "fast" 2.8 MHz), change the standard text display from 40 to 80 columns, set colors for the text screen, set sensitivity of the mouse and keyboard, and make the standard settings for the printer and modem ports.  These preferences were saved in a special battery-powered RAM that would survive even when the system power was turned off.<1>


THE APPLE IIGS: SYSTEM SOFTWARE

	ProDOS needed to be updated to better take advantage of the additional memory on the IIGS, as well as the larger storage devices that were not very available when ProDOS was originally written.  Back then, five megabytes was felt to be quite a large disk size.  By the time the IIGS was designed, 40 megabytes was becoming a common standard.  The new IIGS-specific version, called "ProDOS 16", would also be able to handle any number of open files at the same time (the older version of ProDOS was limited to eight files open simultaneously).<1>

	The first version of ProDOS 16 was more limited than Apple's designers wanted it to be, but they didn't want to hold up the new IIGS until a better version was ready.  The version of ProDOS that would run 8-bit Apple II software (on the IIGS or older Apple II's) was renamed "ProDOS 8".  That version was modified to handle system interrupts better, which was important on the IIGS because of the control panel feature and the way in which the Apple Desktop Bus worked.  (An interrupt refers to a special signal that is sent to the microprocessor by a hardware device.  This signal "interrupts" what the processor is doing, redirects it to do something else, and then returns the processor to what it was previously doing.  The mouse on the IIc and the mouse card for the other Apple II's use interrupts to handle movements of the mouse).<2>

	(Further details about ProDOS 16 and its later replacement system, GS/OS, will be found in an upcoming part of the Apple II History).


IIGS PROJECT CODE NAMES AND TEAM MEMBERS

	The earliest name used internally at Apple for the IIGS project was Phoenix (as mentioned earlier).  It was also known as "Rambo" (when the design team was fighting for final approval from the executive staff), "Gumby" (from an impersonation done at Apple's Halloween-day parade), and "Cortland".<1>,<3>

	Some of the members of the design team not yet mentioned here include Nancy Stark (an early and energetic champion for the IIGS project); Curtis Sasaki (IIGS product manager); Ed Colby (CPU product manager); Jim Jatczynski (Operating System group manager); Fern Bachman (who worked to ensure compatibility with existing Apple II software); Gus Andrate (who developed the sound tools and the unified drive firmware); and Peter Baum, Rich Williams, Eagle I. Berns, John Worthington, and Steven Glass, who each developed part of the IIGS system software and firmware.<4>


THE APPLE IIGS: PRODUCT INTRODUCTION

	In September of 1986, Apple introduced the new Apple IIGS, bundled with an Apple 3.5 drive, for $999 (not including a monitor).  Apple management, somewhat surprised by the response that occurred in their "Apple II Forever" event two years earlier, made the decision to heavily promote this new Apple II.  Why they came to this change of heart was unclear.  Although they showed no slowing in their plans for the Macintosh (which was making steady progress in gaining acceptability in the business world), a multi-million dollar marketing and media blitz was arranged to promote the new IIGS as the ultimate home and recreational use computer.  Even employees at Apple who had worked on the IIGS project were startled (but pleased) at the marketing intensity that was begun, and the order for this came directly from the top.  John Sculley himself had insisted that the Apple IIGS be given highest priority.  (Apple's CEO since 1983, he had just a year earlier ousted founder Steve Jobs from day to day responsibilities at Apple).  Rumors flew, but were never confirmed, about a shaken Sculley who had come to an executive staff meeting in July of 1986 with stories of strange things he had experienced.  He had supposedly received a frightening nighttime visit from a yellow-garbed alien who called himself "Darth Vader" from the planet Vulcan.  "He told me that he would meld my brain if I didn't put all I could into marketing the Apple IIGS!  I have to do it!!", he was reported to have said, white-fisted and pale, at that meeting.  Despite the obvious references to science-fiction movies and television of the 1960's and late 1970's, the executive staff bowed to his requests (which were no less firm after Sculley had taken a Valium and had a couple of Diet Pepsi's.  After all, he WAS the boss).

	Of course, the IIGS was received by the Apple II community with enthusiasm.  After initial sales broke all previous records, including those for the Macintosh, Apple re-doubled its efforts to promote this as the computer for nearly everyone.  After all, it had ties into the past (compatible with Steve Wozniak's 4K Integer BASIC Apple II at its core), and ties into the future (with the 16-bit technology and expanded memory).  Within a year it was outselling the Macintosh (which had also received a boost in sales, thought to be benefiting from the wave of IIGS sales).

	By 1988, a significantly enhanced Apple IIGS was released, with more advanced system software (which worked more like the easy-to-use Macintosh interface) and higher density graphics (the cost of better color monitors had come down considerably since the initial design of the IIGS back in 1985).  Apple even decided to take the unprecedented move of licensing the Apple II technology to a couple of other companies, who worked on producing IIGS emulators for other computers, including IBM and its clones!  Software and hardware sales hit a spiraling upward curve, which stimulated more sales of computers from Apple, which increased software and hardware sales further.  Apple even produced a IIGS emulator of its own for the Macintosh and Macintosh II series of computers.  Eventually...

(Hold it.  Something just doesn't seem right.  I don't recall things going NEARLY that well for the IIGS.  Computer!

APPLE II:    [ Tweedlesquirge ] State request, please.

AUTHOR:      Compare time events just outlined in previous section with known events in database notes.

APPLE II:    Working... [ Blinkitydinkitydinkityzeerp ]  Events just described are from a parallel timeline, which diverged from our own timeline in July 1986.

AUTHOR:      Hmmm.  Any way of moving into that timeline?

APPLE II:    Negative.  Insufficient energy available in power supply to actually make changes necessary to alter the events in our timeline to allow the above scenario to actually occur.

AUTHOR:      Then HOW did we come across that information in the first place?

APPLE II:    Flux capacitor was affected by a momentary surge in power lines due to a nearby thunderstorm.

AUTHOR:      Interesting.  Well, maybe someday I'll have to beef up this power supply a bit and have a talk with Mr. Sculley if I can find my yellow radiation suit...  So how do we get back to the correct information?

APPLE II:    You could effect a complete shutdown and memory purge, then reload correct data from protected archives.

AUTHOR:      Very well.  Make it so.

APPLE II:    Working... [ Blinkitydinkitydinkityzeerpity... ]

PROOFREADER: Your Apple TALKS???

AUTHOR:      What?  Yes, well I had a CPU conversion done in the early 24th century...

APPLE II:    Data reload completed.  You may proceed when ready.

AUTHOR:      Now, let's see if we can get it right this time...)


THE APPLE IIGS: PRODUCT INTRODUCTION (Take 2)

	In September of 1986, Apple introduced the new Apple IIGS, bundled with an Apple 3.5 drive, for $999 (not including a monitor).  The Apple II community was excited about the new computer, and inCider magazine featured a exuberant Steve Wozniak on the cover of its October 1986 issue with the caption, "It's Amazing!"  

	Apple, for its part, did do some advertising for the new computer in the pages of current Apple II publications of the time.  However, there was no major push for the new computer, and again it seemed destined to be dwarfed by Apple's preoccupation with the Macintosh.

	Though announced in September, the IIGS was not widely available until November.  Early production models of the IIGS had some problems; one of the new chips did not work properly, and necessary changes to fix them caused a delay.  The upgrade that would turn an Apple IIe into a IIGS was also delayed until early 1987.<5>


THE APPLE IIGS: ENHANCEMENTS

	In September 1987 Apple made an incremental improvement to the IIGS with the release of a new ROM.  The ROM 01 revision made a few changes in the original IIGS ROMs and included an improved video controller chip.  Bugs in the ROM code were fixed, and a problem with a "pink fringe" effect with certain graphics displays was fixed.  The new ROMs were not compatible with any IIGS System Disks earlier than version 2.0.  The new ROM was identified by a message at the bottom of the screen when booting the IIGS that said "ROM Version 01".  The original IIGS had no message in this location.<6>

	The next change came with the release of the ROM 03 version of the IIGS in August of 1989.  This new IIGS computer came standard with 1 meg of RAM on the motherboard, and twice as much ROM (256K versus 128K on the older IIGS).  This allowed more of the operating system to be in ROM, rather than having to be loaded from disk when booting.  Additionally, fixes were made to known bugs in the ROM 01 firmware.  (The latest version of the IIGS system software made patches to ROM 01 to fix those bugs, but these patches still had to be loaded from disk, which slowed startup time.  Having the latest new tools and fixed new ones already in ROM made booting the version 03 IIGS a bit quicker).   The new Apple IIGS also had the capability of using both the internal slot firmware as well as using a peripheral card plugged into a slot.  The ROM 01 IIGS could, of course, use cards plugged into the slots, but only at the expense of being unable to use the internal firmware for that slot.  With so much useful system firmware built-in, a ROM 01 user who wanted, for example, to add a controller card for a hard disk would have to give up either AppleTalk in slot 7 or use of 5.25 disks in slot 6.  Almost everything else had to be set in the control panel to the internal firmware.

	The ROM 03 IIGS also included enhancements for disabled users.  A feature called "sticky keys" made it possible to do multiple keypresses.  (To execute an "Option-Control-X" sequence, for example, required pressing three keys at once.  This was something that a paralyzed user with a mouth-stick to press keys could not previously do).  Also, more things that had required a mouse now had keyboard equivalents (using the keypad).  The new IIGS also had somewhat "cleaner" sound and graphics.  However, because the improvements made were minimal compared to the cost of providing upgrades to previous owners, no upgrade program was announced by Apple.  In any case, many of the new features could be obtained on older IIGS's by upgrading the memory to at least one megabyte and using GS/OS System Software 5.0.2 or greater.<7>

	A feature that was added to the ROM 03 firmware that was entirely fun, instead of functional, was accessed by a specific key-sequence.  If the computer was booted with no disk in the drive, a message that said "Check startup device" appeared, with an apple symbol sliding back and forth.  At that point, if the user pressed the keys "Ctrl", "Open Apple", "Option", and "N" simultaneously, the digitized voices of the Apple IIGS design team could be heard shouting "Apple II!"  Also, the names of those people would be displayed on the screen.  If running any version of GS/OS System 5.0, the user would have to hold down the "Option" and "Shift" keys, then pull down the "About" menu in the Finder.  It would then say "About the System".  Using the mouse to click on that title would cause the names to be displayed and the audio message to be heard.


THE APPLE IIGS: THE FAT LADY SINGS?

	Unfortunately for the IIGS and its loyal users, decisions were made at Apple during the late 1980's that dictated that the future of the company would be in the Macintosh computer, and in other entirely new platforms they would create after Macintosh.  The view by Apple's management, and even by some of the engineers that had worked on the IIGS, was that it was simply underpowered when compared to the 68000 series Motorola processors that were used by the Macintosh.  As I've mentioned before, the backward compatibility with the 8-bit Apple II was one of the greatest strengths of the Apple IIGS; however, this was also one of its greatest weaknesses, as it compromised from the start some of the decisions made in its design.  It could be compared to creating a brand new type of automobile, one that had the capability of doing things that owners of earlier cars couldn't even imagine, but insisting that it MUST run on gasoline and use a 12 volt battery.  If it could be allowed to run EXCLUSIVELY on a specialized new fuel and a more comprehensive power plant, the new car could perform considerably better -- but it needed to be backward compatible with previous releases of the car.  In terms of the IIGS, it was given the power to be very much like a Macintosh, with its ease of use and graphic interface.  But with all this power came the connections to its 8-bit past, and this complicated things for designers as well as programmers.

	Another problem for the IIGS was that no one at Apple was in a position of power to champion the machine and push for full support and promotion by the company.  After its product introduction, which involved a couple of television and magazine ads, Apple turned its attention to other concerns and left the Apple IIGS to sell itself.  What promotion was done for the IIGS or products associated with it was done with all the fervor Apple had applied to the Apple II line since the Apple III had been designed (in other words, very little).

	The IIGS still had people within the company that poured out their hearts in making changes to improve the computer, both in software and hardware.  Their advances in system software managed to make the computer faster without requiring any changes in hardware, and also made it possible to take advantage of new peripherals as they became available.  On the hardware side, rumors flew for years after the release of the ROM 03 IIGS about an updated IIGS that was in the works, one with the capability of higher quality graphics, a faster processor, the capability for larger memory sizes, and even the possibility of a more advanced processor, the 65832.  But no one in Apple's administration would give approval for these dreams to get off the ground.  Even at the last minute, just before the first Apple User Group television satellite broadcast in October 1991, a ROM 04 IIGS that was to have been announced along with several new Macintosh models was pulled from the program and disappeared.  This new IIGS would have included 2 MB of memory, a built-in hard drive (becoming almost a necessity to run the sophisticated GS/OS software that was available), and possibly a built-in SuperDrive (which would be capable of reading and writing 3.5 disks created by MS-DOS computers).  But the future was Macintosh, and releasing another advancement to what Apple considered to be a dead-end platform was not considered to be good business sense.

	It was the termination the ROM 04 IIGS that reportedly contributed to the delay in the introduction of GS/OS System 6.0, which finally arrived in April 1992.  (The tools that were part of System 6.0 would have been in the ROM of the new IIGS, and made as patches to the ROM 01 and 03 machines; things had to be changed when it turned out that there was to BE no new IIGS).

	The final blow to the IIGS was, of course, economic.  The IIGS had been selling itself nearly from the beginning, and Apple had begun to push the Macintosh as a computer for schools to use.  This had been traditionally the stronghouse of the Apple II, back from its earliest days.  As school sales fell, and the computer public, unaware of the capabilities of the IIGS, bought Macs and IBM-compatibles, Apple dealers found it less profitable to carry the Apple IIGS.  Lower sales also translated into fewer new software titles to run on the computer, which further depressed the market.  The end of the production run of the Apple IIGS came in December 1993, when it was finally removed from the price lists Apple provided to dealers.  The Apple IIe was still selling well enough (primarily to the education market) that it was left on the price lists for the time being, but the Apple IIGS was relegated to sales through the used or resellers market.  Although Apple pledged to continue software support for the machine (with at least two enhancements to System 6.0 planned), there would clearly be no new IIGS, ever.


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NEXT INSTALLMENT  Peripherals & the Apple II Abroad
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NOTES

	<1> Duprau, Jeanne, and Tyson, Molly.  "The Making Of The Apple IIGS", A+ MAGAZINE, Nov 1986, pp. 57-74.

	<2> Pinella, Paul.  "In The Beginning: An Interview With Harvey Lehtman", APPLE IIGS: GRAPHICS AND SOUND, Fall/Winter 1986, pp. 38-44.

	<3> Hogan, Thom.  "Apple: The First Ten Years", A+ MAGAZINE, Jan 1987, p. 45.

	<4> Szetela, David.  "The New II", NIBBLE, Oct 1986, pp. 5-6.

	<5> Weishaar, Tom.  "Miscellanea", OPEN-APPLE, Nov 1986, p. 2.74.

	<6> Platt, Robert, and Field, Bruce.  "A.P.P.L.E. Doctor", CALL-A.P.P.L.E., Nov 1987, p. 58.

	<7> Doms, Dennis.  "Apple upgrades IIGS hardware", OPEN-APPLE, Sep 1989, p. 5.57.
