| Apple I | |
|---|---|
| Type: | Hobbyist home computer |
| Manufacturer: | Apple Computer |
| Released: | 11 April 1976 |
| Discontinued: | 30 September 1977 |
| CPU(s): | MOS Technology 6502 @ 1 MHz |
| memory: | 4 KB (expandable to 8 KB or 48 KB using expansion cards) |
The Apple I is a computer manufactured by Apple Computer (now Apple, Inc.) in 1976 and 1977. It was the company's first computer, from when the whole company was based in Steve Jobs's garage and consisted of him, the designer Steve Wozniak and three "employees". The Apple I was mainly a hobbyist product, and consisted only of a motherboard, lacking features such as a monitor, a keyboard, a power supply, or even a case, which had all to be supplied by the customer in order to make the machine work. The Apple I is now extremely rare, with only a few units in working order confirmed.
The system mounted an MOS Technology 6502 CPU and had no graphics capabilities at all, other than a raw text mode, and natively ran only the built-in Woz Monitor, a machine language monitor used to operate the computer, although the later Cassette Interface daughterboard allowed for software to be loaded from and saved to audio cassettes through a tape deck, including the Integer BASIC interpreter. Both the Woz Monitor and Integer BASIC were re-released built-in with the Apple II.
Today, although owning an Apple I is exceptionally hard, various replicas (both emulation-based, technologically-compatible or full one-to-one replicas) are easily available.