Apple One

Apple One

The Apple One computer

The Apple One was the first personal computer created by Apple Inc., designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak. It was released in 1976 and marked the beginning of the personal computer revolution. The Apple One was initially sold as a fully assembled circuit board containing about 60 chips. To make a working computer, users still had to add a case, power supply, keyboard, and display.

History

The Apple One was developed by Steve Wozniak as a hobbyist project. Steve Jobs, Wozniak's friend and co-founder of Apple, saw the potential to sell the computer. They managed to secure an order for 50 units from the Byte Shop, a local computer store, which was one of the first retailers of personal computers.

Design

A schematic of the Apple One

The Apple One was a single-board computer with a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor running at 1 MHz. It had 4 KB of standard memory, expandable to 8 KB or 48 KB using expansion cards. The computer used a cassette interface for loading and saving programs.

The Apple One did not include a keyboard or monitor, which were required to operate the computer. Users typically connected the Apple One to a television set for display output.

Features

The Apple One was notable for being one of the first computers to come with a fully assembled motherboard, which was a significant innovation at the time. This made it more accessible to hobbyists who were not comfortable with soldering and assembling their own computers from kits.

Legacy

The Apple One laid the foundation for the success of Apple Inc. and the development of the Apple II, which became one of the most popular personal computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Apple One is now a highly sought-after collector's item, with original units selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction.

Related pages

• Apple II
• Steve Wozniak
• Steve Jobs
• Apple Inc.
• Personal computer history