Apple II family

The Apple II family was the first series of microcomputers made by Apple Computer, in the late 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s. Completely different from Apple's later Macintosh computers, the Apple II was a predominantly 8-bit architecture.

Related Topics:
Microcomputer - Apple Computer - 1970s - 1980s - Macintosh - 8-bit

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The progenitor was the Apple I, which was a hand-built machine sold to hobbyists. It was never produced in quantity, but pioneered many of the features that would make the Apple II a success. The first large-scale production computer was the Apple II. It became popular with home users, as well as occasionally being sold to business users, particularly after the release of the first ever spreadsheet on any computer, VisiCalc. See the computing timeline for dates of Apple II family model releases – the 1977 Apple II and its younger siblings, the II Plus, IIe, IIc and IIGS.

Related Topics:
Apple I - Spreadsheet - VisiCalc - Computing timeline - IIGS

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The "II" portion of the name was alternately rendered in a variety of creative ways using punctuation symbols. For example, the II and the "unenhanced" IIe was most commonly written ][e, and the IIc and enhanced, platinum IIe models were written as //c, and //e. Finally, the IIgs and IIc plus were rendered in the form as used in this article.

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