Apple II accelerators
Encyclopedia
Apple II accelerators are computer hardware
devices which enable an Apple II
computer to operate faster than their intended clock rate
.
Starting in 1977, most Apple II
computers operated at a speed of 1 megahertz (MHz). That precedent was finally broken 10 years later in 1987 with the introduction of the Apple IIGS
which ran at 2.8 MHz. Later, Apple Computer
was able to release a 4 MHz Apple IIc Plus
.
One of the difficulties with building faster computers were the limitations of the system bus
on the motherboard
. Many Apple II peripheral cards
, such as the Disk II
controller card which went into the computers' expansion slots were dependent on 1 MHz operation. Apple wanted to maintain hardware
backwards compatibility throughout the product line and it was not economically feasible to engineer a work-around for this bottleneck. The other restriction was the limited availability of faster 65xx series
of microprocessors which the Apple II family used. Western Design Center
(WDC), the designer of the 65C02
(14 MHz) and 65C816 (14 MHz) microprocessors had difficulty procuring faster units, a cause of frustration and delays for both the original Apple IIGS and for the Apple IIc Plus. Some speculate that the lack of a wide availability of faster microprocessors from WDC is one of the reasons behind the demise of the Apple II.
In the early-mid 1980s, as the available list of Apple II application software grew and these applications
became more processor intense, users wanted to have faster machines. Third-party hardware manufacturers came up with some innovative ways to bypass the 1 MHz limit. Initially, accelerator expansion cards recreated the combination of CPU and memory logic of the Apple II onto the card itself. These cards went even further by copying the Apple II ROM code into the card's fast RAM, essentially creating an Apple II on a card. Virtually all of these cards ran at a speed of 3.58 MHz, derived by dividing the 7 MHz signal on the expansion bus by a factor of 2. Incremental 1.7 MHz "half" speeds were available through further division. Later Apple II accelerators used separate on-board crystal oscillator
s to control speed timing and implemented complex caching
techniques with small amounts of fast cache memory to do the acceleration. This type of design likewise allowed for easy upgradeability and was the primary method used in Apple IIGS accelerators.
The Apple II accelerator market was fiercely competitive and could be looked upon as somewhat of a soap opera
. Microcomputer Technologies (M-c-T) was an early player with their cache based SpeedDemon card. The company later split up and some of the partners set up Zip Technologies who developed the Zip Chip, while other employees created a company called Bits and Pieces, manufacturers of the Rocket Chip. Zip Technologies successfully sued Bits and Pieces for patent infringement
and consequently forced them out of business. As a result, Applied Engineering was forced to discontinue their new TransWarp II accelerator due to their licensing of technology from the Rocket Chip. After the dust settled, Zip Technologies remained the lone player in the 8-bit Apple II accelerator market with Apple Computer licensing Zip's caching technology for the Apple IIc Plus
.
Number Nine
Apple Booster (1982) was one of the first accelerators for the Apple II series of computers. This card is the original version of Saturn's Accelerator II (thus the Accelerator II PCB shares both Saturn Systems' and NNCC's logos.) At $598, the Saturn was much cheaper than the NNCC, but little information about the board is available today.
Microcomputer Technologies (M-c-T) SpeedDemon card was the one of early Apple II accelerator which used the newer 65c02 microprocessor, and the first to implement caching
technology. This allowed the card to use small amounts of memory, making the card less expensive to produce and eliminated the need to waste clock cycles in order to refresh the dynamic RAM that other cards used. Other accelerators which did not use caching operated at 3.56 MHz most of the time but had to slow down to 1 MHz for this refresh cycle. For peripheral cards that required 1 MHz "slow" operations, the Speed Demon always slowed access to slot #6 to 1 MHz, while an on-card jumper
controlled the slot #4 and #5 slowdown. The SpeedDemon originally retailed for $295.
Saturn System's Accelerator II was the original accelerator for the Apple II series of computers. The card accelerated the Apple II and the Apple II Plus using a faster MOS 6502 microprocessor and on-board high speed RAM
. When the accelerator card was activated, software would execute within the CPU and memory on the card, not utilizing those components on the motherboard. The card used a series of 8 DIP switches to configure slot access speeds as well as the speed of the card. Since the Accelerator was released before Apple Computer's introduction of the Apple IIe. The card would run in an Apple IIe, however software which required a 65C02 microprocessor or used auxiliary memory would not function properly; a problem which was solved with the Accelerator //e, a complete redesign. Saturn Systems changed their name during the early 1980s to Titan Technologies due to trademark
complications.
The Accelerator //e was released in 1984 by Titan Technologies, an upgraded version of the original Saturn Accelerator, in response to the introduction of the Apple IIe. The card maintained the 64 KB of RAM of the original card and added the newer 65c02 microprocessor. This card solved the Auxiliary RAM incompatibility problem of the older card, however it did not speed up this second bank of RAM which was common on the Apple IIe.
Applied Engineering was the last company to offer a slot based Apple II accelerator card, the TransWarp. This new card offered complete slot configurability via DIP switch
es and speed control via both DIP switches and software. A user could hold down the ESC key upon bootup to disable the card for speed sensitive appilcations. In an Apple II Plus, the TransWarp emulated the 16k language card. The TransWarp ran at the same 3.58, 1.7 and 1 MHz speeds as other accelerators of its time, however, it included a whopping 256 KB of on-board RAM. According to the March 1986 Apple Assembly Line
(volume 6, number 6) this is how the TransWarp utilized the RAM:
The same issue of the publication determined that the TransWarp was faster than either the McT SpeedDemon or Titan Accelerator //e when running the same applications, even though all three cards ran at the same 3.58 MHz native speed. The TransWarp was released during the early-mid 1980s with an original retail price of $279. Applied Engineering offered a unique $89 upgrade to the 16-bit 65802 microprocessor, for people who were able to use its advanced features.
The TransWarp II was a completely redesigned accelerator from Applied Engineering (AE). The company scrapped the on-board RAM design of the original TransWarp in favor of a licensed cache based implementation like Zip Technology used. However, instead of using a hybrid chip, Applied Engineering chose to implement the design on a card. This enabled the Transwarp II to be Direct Memory Access
(DMA) compatible, something no other 8-bit accelerator was capable of. With DMA turned on, Apple II hard drive controllers like CV Technology's popular RamFast SCSI
card and Apple Computer's High Speed SCSI card could transfer data to and from system memory, completely bypassing the CPU, at unprecedented speeds. Unfortunately, since the design was licensed from Bits and Pieces, makers of the Rocket Chip, and not from Zip Technologies, Applied Engineering was forced to stop selling the TransWarp II not long after its introduction due to Zip winning a patent infringement lawsuit against Bits and Pieces for Zip's implementation of caching technology.
Applied Engineering's TransWarp III was supposed to be the TransWarp II's replacement after that product's abrupt discontinuation. Because of a dwindling Apple II market in the early 1990s, the TransWarp III never saw the light of day. Some believe that images in advertisements announcing the TransWarp III in Apple II related magazines were complete mock-ups and that the product never existed. The ads touted faster speeds and easy upgradeability when faster 65c02 microprocessors became available.
For more on vaporware
Apple II peripheral cards, see: Apple II cards which never made it into production.
Zip Technologies, introduced the 4 MHz Zip Chip Model 4000 (also: Zip Chip II - 4) at AppleFest
in May 1989(?). This was a revolutionary design. Rather than building an accelerator on an expansion card
, Zip used a hybrid chip
design known as System in Package
(SiP), and used this chip module to directly replace the microprocessor in the Apple II. They took a 65C02 core and combined it with control logic and 8 KB of cache ram into a very compact 40-pin DIP package, not much bigger than the original 65C02 CPU it replaced. By creating this ultra compact, slotless accelerator, the entire untapped market of tens of thousands of Apple IIc
computers became available. Within the Zip Chip, all settings were software controllable, including individual slot speeds which could be set at 1 MHz or "accelerated." The accelerator was a cache type, based on Zip Technology's US patent #4,794,523 and was capable of 10 different speed settings. Zip later introduced a Zip Chip Model 8000 (also: Zip Chip II - 8) which had identical features but operated at 8 MHz.
Bits and Pieces introduced the Rocket Chip soon after the Zip Chip was released. The product was nearly identical in look and function to Zip Technology's Zip Chip, however it operated at 5 MHz vs the Zip Chip Model 4000's 4 MHz, and the Rocket Chip II ran at a then blistering 10 MHz when it was released after the 8 MHz Zip Chip Model 8000. One unique feature of the Rocket Chip was its ability to slow the speed of an Apple II down to 0.05 MHz for "slow motion" operability. Although the Rocket Chip was faster in both instances than the Zip Chip, there were some rare software incompatibilities with the chip, while the Zip Chip didn't have any reported problems. These problems were perhaps due to Bits and Pieces pushing the physical limit of their 65C02 cores to squeeze out the extra speed in a game of one-upmanship with Zip Technologies. Zip Technologies ended up with the upper hand when they successfully sued Bits and Pieces for patent infringement and in turn forced the company out of business.
Apple Computer
licensed the cache based accelerator design from Zip Technologies for their design of the Apple IIc Plus
. This enabled the computer to run 4 times faster than its 1 MHz predecessor, the Apple IIc
.
Rather than using a monolithic System in Package design of the Zip Chip, which may have caused overhead clearance problems as well as added cost to the compact Apple IIc Plus, Apple economically separated the Zip Chip design into its individual components, using off the shelf static RAM chips for the 8 KB cache.
In October 2001, Michael J. Mahon, an enthusiast who frequents the Apple II usenet
newsgroup
comp.sys.apple2, proposed overclocking
the Apple IIc Plus. Over the next few years, newsgroup members reported speeds ranging between 8 MHz - 10 MHz simply by changing the 16 MHz crystal oscillator
on the motherboard to a faster one (the Apple IIc Plus divides the oscillator frequency by four to attain the actual processor frequency). Some users with 120ns static RAM cache reported problems attaining 10 MHz while others with 100ns chips were more successful. Most were able to achieve 8 MHz.
Computer hardware
Personal computer hardware are component devices which are typically installed into or peripheral to a computer case to create a personal computer upon which system software is installed including a firmware interface such as a BIOS and an operating system which supports application software that...
devices which enable an Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
computer to operate faster than their intended clock rate
Clock rate
The clock rate typically refers to the frequency that a CPU is running at.For example, a crystal oscillator frequency reference typically is synonymous with a fixed sinusoidal waveform, a clock rate is that frequency reference translated by electronic circuitry into a corresponding square wave...
.
Starting in 1977, most Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
computers operated at a speed of 1 megahertz (MHz). That precedent was finally broken 10 years later in 1987 with the introduction of the Apple IIGS
Apple IIGS
The Apple , the fifth and most powerful model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. The "GS" in the name stands for Graphics and Sound, referring to its enhanced graphics and sound capabilities, both of which greatly surpassed previous models of the line...
which ran at 2.8 MHz. Later, Apple Computer
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
was able to release a 4 MHz Apple IIc Plus
Apple IIc Plus
The Apple IIc Plus is the sixth and final model in the Apple II line of personal computers, produced by Apple Computer. The "Plus" in the name was a reference to the additional features it offered over the original portable Apple IIc, such as greater storage capacity , increased processing speed,...
.
One of the difficulties with building faster computers were the limitations of the system bus
System bus
A system bus is a single computer bus that connects the major components of a computer system. The technique was developed to reduce costs and improve modularity....
on the motherboard
Motherboard
In personal computers, a motherboard is the central printed circuit board in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, providing connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard, system board, or, on Apple...
. Many Apple II peripheral cards
Apple II peripheral cards
The Apple II line of computers supported a number of Apple II peripheral cards, expansion cards which plugged into slots on the motherboard, and added to and extended the functionality of the base system....
, such as the Disk II
Disk II
The Disk II Floppy Disk Subsystem was a 5¼-inch floppy disk drive designed by Steve Wozniak and manufactured by Apple Computer. It was first introduced in 1978 at a retail price of US$495 for pre-order; it was later sold for $595 including the controller card and cable...
controller card which went into the computers' expansion slots were dependent on 1 MHz operation. Apple wanted to maintain hardware
Hardware
Hardware is a general term for equipment such as keys, locks, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts. Household hardware is typically sold in hardware stores....
backwards compatibility throughout the product line and it was not economically feasible to engineer a work-around for this bottleneck. The other restriction was the limited availability of faster 65xx series
MOS Technology 65xx
MOS Technology 65xx is a family of 8-bit microprocessors from MOS Technology, based on the Motorola 6800 . The 65xx family most notably included the 6502, used in several home computers such as the Commodore PET and VIC-20, the Apple II, and the Atari 800.One popular 6502 based computer, the...
of microprocessors which the Apple II family used. Western Design Center
Western Design Center
The Western Design Center , located in Mesa, Arizona, USA, is a company developing and manufacturing MOS 65xx-based microprocessors, microcontrollers , and related support chips...
(WDC), the designer of the 65C02
WDC 65C02
The Western Design Center WDC 65C02 microprocessor is an upgraded CMOS version of the popular NMOS-based MOS Technology 6502 8-bit CPU — the CMOS redesign being made by Bill Mensch of the Western Design Center...
(14 MHz) and 65C816 (14 MHz) microprocessors had difficulty procuring faster units, a cause of frustration and delays for both the original Apple IIGS and for the Apple IIc Plus. Some speculate that the lack of a wide availability of faster microprocessors from WDC is one of the reasons behind the demise of the Apple II.
In the early-mid 1980s, as the available list of Apple II application software grew and these applications
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
became more processor intense, users wanted to have faster machines. Third-party hardware manufacturers came up with some innovative ways to bypass the 1 MHz limit. Initially, accelerator expansion cards recreated the combination of CPU and memory logic of the Apple II onto the card itself. These cards went even further by copying the Apple II ROM code into the card's fast RAM, essentially creating an Apple II on a card. Virtually all of these cards ran at a speed of 3.58 MHz, derived by dividing the 7 MHz signal on the expansion bus by a factor of 2. Incremental 1.7 MHz "half" speeds were available through further division. Later Apple II accelerators used separate on-board crystal oscillator
Crystal oscillator
A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material to create an electrical signal with a very precise frequency...
s to control speed timing and implemented complex caching
Cache
In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...
techniques with small amounts of fast cache memory to do the acceleration. This type of design likewise allowed for easy upgradeability and was the primary method used in Apple IIGS accelerators.
The Apple II accelerator market was fiercely competitive and could be looked upon as somewhat of a soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
. Microcomputer Technologies (M-c-T) was an early player with their cache based SpeedDemon card. The company later split up and some of the partners set up Zip Technologies who developed the Zip Chip, while other employees created a company called Bits and Pieces, manufacturers of the Rocket Chip. Zip Technologies successfully sued Bits and Pieces for patent infringement
Patent infringement
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may vary by jurisdiction, but it typically includes using or...
and consequently forced them out of business. As a result, Applied Engineering was forced to discontinue their new TransWarp II accelerator due to their licensing of technology from the Rocket Chip. After the dust settled, Zip Technologies remained the lone player in the 8-bit Apple II accelerator market with Apple Computer licensing Zip's caching technology for the Apple IIc Plus
Apple IIc Plus
The Apple IIc Plus is the sixth and final model in the Apple II line of personal computers, produced by Apple Computer. The "Plus" in the name was a reference to the additional features it offered over the original portable Apple IIc, such as greater storage capacity , increased processing speed,...
.
Number Nine Apple Booster – Number Nine Computer Corporation (Number Nine Visual Technology)
- Platform: Apple II, Apple II Plus
- Form Factor: 50-pin slot card
- Speed: 3.58 MHz
- Cache: 64 KB on board RAM
- DMA compatible: No
- Upgradeable: No
Number Nine
Number Nine Visual Technology
Number Nine Visual Technology Corporation was a manufacturer of video graphics chips and cards from 1982 to 1999. Number Nine developed the first 128-bit graphics processor , as well as the first 256-color and 16.8 million color cards....
Apple Booster (1982) was one of the first accelerators for the Apple II series of computers. This card is the original version of Saturn's Accelerator II (thus the Accelerator II PCB shares both Saturn Systems' and NNCC's logos.) At $598, the Saturn was much cheaper than the NNCC, but little information about the board is available today.
SpeedDemon – Microcomputer Technologies (M-c-T)
- Platform: Apple II, Apple II Plus, Apple IIe
- Form Factor: 50-pin slot card
- Speed: 3.58 MHz
- Cache: 4 KB cache
- DMA compatible: No
- Upgradeable: No
Microcomputer Technologies (M-c-T) SpeedDemon card was the one of early Apple II accelerator which used the newer 65c02 microprocessor, and the first to implement caching
Cache
In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...
technology. This allowed the card to use small amounts of memory, making the card less expensive to produce and eliminated the need to waste clock cycles in order to refresh the dynamic RAM that other cards used. Other accelerators which did not use caching operated at 3.56 MHz most of the time but had to slow down to 1 MHz for this refresh cycle. For peripheral cards that required 1 MHz "slow" operations, the Speed Demon always slowed access to slot #6 to 1 MHz, while an on-card jumper
Jumper (computing)
In electronics and particularly computing, a jumper is a short length of conductor used to close a break in or bypass part of an electrical circuit...
controlled the slot #4 and #5 slowdown. The SpeedDemon originally retailed for $295.
Accelerator II – Saturn Systems (Titan Technologies)
- Platform: Apple II, Apple II Plus
- Form Factor: 50-pin slot card
- Speed: 3.58 MHz
- Cache: 64 KB on board RAM
- DMA compatible: No
- Upgradeable: No
Saturn System's Accelerator II was the original accelerator for the Apple II series of computers. The card accelerated the Apple II and the Apple II Plus using a faster MOS 6502 microprocessor and on-board high speed RAM
Ram
-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
. When the accelerator card was activated, software would execute within the CPU and memory on the card, not utilizing those components on the motherboard. The card used a series of 8 DIP switches to configure slot access speeds as well as the speed of the card. Since the Accelerator was released before Apple Computer's introduction of the Apple IIe. The card would run in an Apple IIe, however software which required a 65C02 microprocessor or used auxiliary memory would not function properly; a problem which was solved with the Accelerator //e, a complete redesign. Saturn Systems changed their name during the early 1980s to Titan Technologies due to trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
complications.
Accelerator IIe - Titan Technologies (formerly Saturn Systems)
- Platform: Apple II, Apple II Plus
- Form Factor: 50-pin slot card
- Speed: 3.58 MHz
- Cache: 64 KB on board RAM + 16 KB shadow ROM
- DMA compatible: No
- Upgradeable: No
The Accelerator //e was released in 1984 by Titan Technologies, an upgraded version of the original Saturn Accelerator, in response to the introduction of the Apple IIe. The card maintained the 64 KB of RAM of the original card and added the newer 65c02 microprocessor. This card solved the Auxiliary RAM incompatibility problem of the older card, however it did not speed up this second bank of RAM which was common on the Apple IIe.
TransWarp – Applied Engineering
- Platform: Apple II, Apple II Plus, Apple IIe
- Form Factor: 50-pin slot card
- Speed: 3.58 MHz
- Cache: 256 KB on board RAM
- DMA compatible: No
- Upgradeable: No
Applied Engineering was the last company to offer a slot based Apple II accelerator card, the TransWarp. This new card offered complete slot configurability via DIP switch
DIP switch
DIP switches are manual electric switches that are packaged in a group in a standard dual in-line package...
es and speed control via both DIP switches and software. A user could hold down the ESC key upon bootup to disable the card for speed sensitive appilcations. In an Apple II Plus, the TransWarp emulated the 16k language card. The TransWarp ran at the same 3.58, 1.7 and 1 MHz speeds as other accelerators of its time, however, it included a whopping 256 KB of on-board RAM. According to the March 1986 Apple Assembly Line
Apple Assembly Lines
Apple Assembly Line was a monthly newsletter published from October 1980 through May 1988. This newsletter focused on assembly language for the Apple ][, //e, //c, and //gs computers...
(volume 6, number 6) this is how the TransWarp utilized the RAM:
TransWarp's 256K RAM is effectively divided into four 64K banks. When you power-up your Apple with TransWarp installed, all of the ROM from $D000 through $FFFF is copied into one of the high-speed RAM banks. The rest of this bank is not used. A second bank is used in place of the motherboard RAM. The third and fourth banks are used in place of the first and second banks of AUXMEM, if you have a RAM card such as RAMWORKS installed in the AUX slot. If you have a large RAMWORKS in the auxiliary slot of a //e, any additional banks beyond two will still be usable but at "only" 1 MHz.
The same issue of the publication determined that the TransWarp was faster than either the McT SpeedDemon or Titan Accelerator //e when running the same applications, even though all three cards ran at the same 3.58 MHz native speed. The TransWarp was released during the early-mid 1980s with an original retail price of $279. Applied Engineering offered a unique $89 upgrade to the 16-bit 65802 microprocessor, for people who were able to use its advanced features.
TransWarp II – Applied Engineering (AE)
- Platform: Apple IIe
- Form Factor: 50-pin slot card
- Speed: 3.58 MHz or 7.16 MHz
- Cache: Unknown
- DMA compatible: Yes
- Upgradeable: No
The TransWarp II was a completely redesigned accelerator from Applied Engineering (AE). The company scrapped the on-board RAM design of the original TransWarp in favor of a licensed cache based implementation like Zip Technology used. However, instead of using a hybrid chip, Applied Engineering chose to implement the design on a card. This enabled the Transwarp II to be Direct Memory Access
Direct memory access
Direct memory access is a feature of modern computers that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system memory independently of the central processing unit ....
(DMA) compatible, something no other 8-bit accelerator was capable of. With DMA turned on, Apple II hard drive controllers like CV Technology's popular RamFast SCSI
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
card and Apple Computer's High Speed SCSI card could transfer data to and from system memory, completely bypassing the CPU, at unprecedented speeds. Unfortunately, since the design was licensed from Bits and Pieces, makers of the Rocket Chip, and not from Zip Technologies, Applied Engineering was forced to stop selling the TransWarp II not long after its introduction due to Zip winning a patent infringement lawsuit against Bits and Pieces for Zip's implementation of caching technology.
TransWarp III (never released) – Applied Engineering
- Platform: Apple IIe
- Form Factor: 50-pin slot card
- Speed: 8 MHz+
- Cache: Unknown
- DMA compatible: Yes
- Upgradeable: Yes
Applied Engineering's TransWarp III was supposed to be the TransWarp II's replacement after that product's abrupt discontinuation. Because of a dwindling Apple II market in the early 1990s, the TransWarp III never saw the light of day. Some believe that images in advertisements announcing the TransWarp III in Apple II related magazines were complete mock-ups and that the product never existed. The ads touted faster speeds and easy upgradeability when faster 65c02 microprocessors became available.
For more on vaporware
Vaporware
Vaporware is a term in the computer industry that describes a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is never actually released nor officially canceled. Vaporware is also a term sometimes used to describe events that are announced or predicted,...
Apple II peripheral cards, see: Apple II cards which never made it into production.
Zip Chip – Zip Technologies
- Platform: Apple IIe
- Form Factor: CPU replacement chip
- Speed: 4 MHz, 8 MHz
- Cache: 8 KB
- DMA compatible: Yes
- Upgradeable: No
Zip Technologies, introduced the 4 MHz Zip Chip Model 4000 (also: Zip Chip II - 4) at AppleFest
Applefest
Applefest is a yearly village-wide food, entertainment and crafts fair, taking place in several towns in Canada, the United States and England.-Brighton, Ontario:...
in May 1989(?). This was a revolutionary design. Rather than building an accelerator on an expansion card
Expansion card
The expansion card in computing is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard or backplane to add functionality to a computer system via the expansion bus.One edge of the expansion card holds the contacts that fit exactly into the slot...
, Zip used a hybrid chip
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
design known as System in Package
System in package
A system-in-a-package or system in package , also known as a Chip Stack MCM, is a number of integrated circuits enclosed in a single package or module. The SiP performs all or most of the functions of an electronic system, and are typically used inside a mobile phone, digital music player, etc...
(SiP), and used this chip module to directly replace the microprocessor in the Apple II. They took a 65C02 core and combined it with control logic and 8 KB of cache ram into a very compact 40-pin DIP package, not much bigger than the original 65C02 CPU it replaced. By creating this ultra compact, slotless accelerator, the entire untapped market of tens of thousands of Apple IIc
Apple IIc
The Apple IIc, the fourth model in the Apple II series of personal computers, was Apple Computer’s first endeavor to produce a portable computer. The end result was a notebook-sized version of the Apple II that could be transported from place to place...
computers became available. Within the Zip Chip, all settings were software controllable, including individual slot speeds which could be set at 1 MHz or "accelerated." The accelerator was a cache type, based on Zip Technology's US patent #4,794,523 and was capable of 10 different speed settings. Zip later introduced a Zip Chip Model 8000 (also: Zip Chip II - 8) which had identical features but operated at 8 MHz.
Rocket Chip – Bits and Pieces
- Platform: Apple IIe
- Form Factor: CPU replacement chip
- Speed: 5 MHz, 10 MHz
- Cache: Unknown
- DMA compatible: No
- Upgradeable: No
Bits and Pieces introduced the Rocket Chip soon after the Zip Chip was released. The product was nearly identical in look and function to Zip Technology's Zip Chip, however it operated at 5 MHz vs the Zip Chip Model 4000's 4 MHz, and the Rocket Chip II ran at a then blistering 10 MHz when it was released after the 8 MHz Zip Chip Model 8000. One unique feature of the Rocket Chip was its ability to slow the speed of an Apple II down to 0.05 MHz for "slow motion" operability. Although the Rocket Chip was faster in both instances than the Zip Chip, there were some rare software incompatibilities with the chip, while the Zip Chip didn't have any reported problems. These problems were perhaps due to Bits and Pieces pushing the physical limit of their 65C02 cores to squeeze out the extra speed in a game of one-upmanship with Zip Technologies. Zip Technologies ended up with the upper hand when they successfully sued Bits and Pieces for patent infringement and in turn forced the company out of business.
Apple IIc Plus Motherboard "Hack"
- Platform: Apple IIc Plus
- Form Factor: Motherboard modification
- Speed: 8 - 10+ MHz
- Cache: 8 KB
- DMA compatible: N/A
- Upgradeable: Yes
Apple Computer
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
licensed the cache based accelerator design from Zip Technologies for their design of the Apple IIc Plus
Apple IIc Plus
The Apple IIc Plus is the sixth and final model in the Apple II line of personal computers, produced by Apple Computer. The "Plus" in the name was a reference to the additional features it offered over the original portable Apple IIc, such as greater storage capacity , increased processing speed,...
. This enabled the computer to run 4 times faster than its 1 MHz predecessor, the Apple IIc
Apple IIc
The Apple IIc, the fourth model in the Apple II series of personal computers, was Apple Computer’s first endeavor to produce a portable computer. The end result was a notebook-sized version of the Apple II that could be transported from place to place...
.
Rather than using a monolithic System in Package design of the Zip Chip, which may have caused overhead clearance problems as well as added cost to the compact Apple IIc Plus, Apple economically separated the Zip Chip design into its individual components, using off the shelf static RAM chips for the 8 KB cache.
In October 2001, Michael J. Mahon, an enthusiast who frequents the Apple II usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
newsgroup
Newsgroup
A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
comp.sys.apple2, proposed overclocking
Overclocking
Overclocking is the process of operating a computer component at a higher clock rate than it was designed for or was specified by the manufacturer, but some manufacturers purposely underclock their components to improve battery life. Many people just overclock or 'rightclock' their hardware to...
the Apple IIc Plus. Over the next few years, newsgroup members reported speeds ranging between 8 MHz - 10 MHz simply by changing the 16 MHz crystal oscillator
Crystal oscillator
A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material to create an electrical signal with a very precise frequency...
on the motherboard to a faster one (the Apple IIc Plus divides the oscillator frequency by four to attain the actual processor frequency). Some users with 120ns static RAM cache reported problems attaining 10 MHz while others with 100ns chips were more successful. Most were able to achieve 8 MHz.
