Essay/Term paper: 1 to 500 mhz

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Internet

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, two good friends from
high school, started a revolution that will never end.
They invented the first Apple computer (Slater 3) The
Apple I, they called it, ran on one megahertz and had
eight thousand bites of memory and only eight bits of
pixels on the screen (Levey 5). By today's standards that
is absolutely nothing. Much like people of today, the
first testers of the computer did not even take it
seriously.
It wasn't until the Apple II came out in 1977 that
people paid attention to the Apple computers. The Apple
II was almost exactly like the Apple I, but it was
comparatively inexpensive, at $1,298 (Levey 11). From
1977 to 1993 Apple Computer produced and extension to the
Apple II series. Based on the MOStek 6502 microprocessor,
the first Apple II was the first personal computer with
the ability to display color graphics and to come in a
stylish plastic housing (Levey 15). From then on, Apple
updated the Apple II line further creating the Apple II+
with increased memory, the Apple IIe, which is the only
Apple computer to date to have been produced for more than
a decade, the Apple IIc, a compact version of the Apple
IIe with a faster processor and expanded memory, the Apple
IIc+, a later version of the Apple IIc, and the Apple
IIgs, the first,
last and only 16-bit Apple II, designed to produce
enhanced graphics and sound, with a much more powerful
microprocessor, and still compatible with the older 8-bit
Apple II software (Levey 24).
Even the new Apple III could not top the outstanding
performance of the Apple II series. Because of it's
outrageous price of $4,000 - $7,000, and minimal
improvements the Apple III is considered one of the
biggest bombs in the history of Apple Computers. The
next computer, the "Lisa", which was named after Steve
Jobs's daughter, whom he neglected, was a giant leap from
the Apple III. It had five megahertz, and five megabytes
of hard drive, and most importantly a Graphic User
Interface (History of Apple). (Which by the way a man by
the name of Bill Gates stole to make "Windows".) This
ancestor of the Macintosh was not a complete success.
Even though it was the best computer yet, it did not set
well with the general public. However, it was the model
for the Macintosh 128k. The Macintosh 128k was one small
chip for mankind, but a giant leap for all computers to
come. It integrated the new Motorola 68000 chip, and had
an amazing eight megahertz, and four hundred thousand byte
floppy disk drive. This wondrous machine sold only for
$2,495, which was actually a lot of money, but
comparatively cheap (History of Apple).
Sadly, Steve Wozniak, was injured in a plane
accident, and that's when Apple Computers began a long
downward spiral. Because of this, Steve Jobs took
complete control of the company, and like Napoleon from
Animal Farm, he became corrupt, and caused Steve Wozniak
to quit, and Apple Computer split in half. One half was
the Macintosh side, and the other strictly Apple. As a
result of this, Steve Jobs lost his job (Levey 138).
This slump lasted until 1996 when Steve Jobs recomposed
himself, and came back to Apple Computers and turned the
downward spiral into an upward skyrocket (History of
Apple) . No Apple or Macintosh computer has sold as much
as the Apple II series until Jobs brought on the "Power
Mac", the "iMac" the "G3 Power Mac", and the newest PC,
the "G4 Power Mac, with 500 megahertz and a twenty-seven
Gigabyte hard drive. The rest is yet to come.

Works Cited


Slater, Robert. 1987. Portraits in Silicon, MIT Press,
Cambridge, MA

Levey, Steven. 1984. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer
Revolution, Anchor Press/ Doubleday, Garden City,
NY