The Apple /// was designed to be a business machine. It was partly compatible with the Apple II (thanks to a few options in the operating system). It used a powerful memory management system and worked under SOS (Sophisticated Operating System) which was a great, device -independent, operating system. This OS was the "ancestor" of ProDOS (the "professional" Apple operating system) and some parts of this system were used later in the Lisa and Macintosh OSs.
Despite its unique features, the Apple /// had a lot of technical problems, namely, the horrible case design. It caused the internal temperature to get so hot that the motherboard would warp and some of the socketed chips would become unseated. To remedy this, Apple told people to literally pick up the computer several centimeters off the desk and drop it! It was a miserable flop in the marketplace.
The Apple /// was followed in december 1983 by the Apple /// plus which had an Apple IIe style keyboard and a new video interface. Four months later, it was discontinued.
Please consider donating your old computer / videogame system to Old-Computers.com or one of our partners from anywhere in the world (Europe, America, Asia, etc.).
Special thanks to Georgia and Stan Miller who donated us this computer !
Steve Wozniak said that the reason the apple /// was so utterly horrible was because it was designed by the marketing people rather than the engineers. He said that the engineers were forced to put in EXTRA chips in the computer to DISABLE the extra memory! It crashed, and was just junk. I am amazed at how expensive these crap-balls are on Ebay.
Monday 22nd August 2016
David Lowry
Steve Jobs was the one that insisted the Apple III had no fan and was completely quiet.
Saturday 3rd August 2013
Doctor Jest (USA)
The Apple /// was a failure because it was badly engineered and designed.
Sunday 18th November 2012
Allison Divette
NAME
APPLE III
MANUFACTURER
Apple
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
May 1980
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
Business BASIC
KEYBOARD
Full stroke 74-key with numeric keypad
CPU
MOS 6502A
SPEED
2 MHz
RAM
128 KB (up to 512 KB)
ROM
16 KB
TEXT MODES
40 or 80 chars x 24 lines
GRAPHIC MODES
40 x 40-48 (16 col), 280 x 160-192 (6 col), 560 x 160-192 (2 col)
COLORS
16 maximum
SOUND
one channel 7 octaves
SIZE / WEIGHT
44.4 (W) x 46.2 (D) x 12.2 (H) cm
I/O PORTS
Monitor, Internal Slots (4), RS-232, Floppy disk port
BUILT IN MEDIA
One built in 140 KB 5.25'' disk-drive
OS
SOS
POWER SUPPLY
Built-in power supply unit
PERIPHERALS
4 expansion slots,5 MB Profile hard disk unit, dual floppy disc unit, coulour video card, provision for extra memory
Special thanks to Georgia and Stan Miller who donated us this computer !
