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.
All Apple II models except the Apple IIc had at least seven 50-pin expansion slots, labeled Slots 1 though 7. These slots could hold printed circuit board cards with double-sided edge connectors, 25 "fingers" on each side, with 100 mil (0.1 inch) spacing between centers. Slot 3 in an Apple IIe that has a 80-column card fitted (which is usually the case) and Slots 1 through 6 in a normally configured Apple IIgs are "virtually" filled with on-board devices which means that the physical slots cannot be used at all, or only with certain specific cards, unless the offending "virtual" device is disabled.
In addition to the seven standard expansion slots, the following computers contained additional, largely special-purpose expansion slots:
- Apple II and Apple II Plus: Slot 0 (50-pin, for the firmware card or the 16 kB Apple II Language Card)
- Apple IIe: Auxiliary Slot (60-pin; primarily for 80-column display and memory expansion)
- Apple IIgs: Memory Expansion Slot (40-pin)
Perhaps the most common cards found on early Apple II systems were the Disk II Controller Card, which allowed users of earlier Apple II's to use the Apple Disk II, a 5ΒΌ inch, 140 kB floppy disk drive; and the Apple 16K Language Card, which increased the base memory of late-model Apple II and standard Apple II Plus units from 48 kB to 64 kB.
Both Apple, and dozens of third-party vendors created hundreds of cards for the Apple II series of computers. These expansion slots afforded great opportunities for expansion. In the 2000s, long after the last Apple IIe came off Apple's assembly line in 1993, a handful of manufacturers continue to market peripherals and expansion cards for Apple II computers, not counting students, hobbyists, and other Apple II users who continue to push the original machine to its limits.
Famous quotes containing the words apple, peripheral and/or cards:
“she in the kitchen
aproned young and lovely wanting my baby
and so happy about me she burns the roast beef
and comes crying to me and I get up from my big papa chair
saying Christmas teeth! Radiant brains! Apple deaf!”
—Gregory Corso (b. 1930)
“If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He’s not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, he’s really needed.”
—David Hockney (b. 1937)
“Out in Hollywood, where the streets are paved with Goldwyn, the word “sophisticate” means, very simply, “obscene.” A sophisticated story is a dirty story. Some of that meaning was wafted eastward and got itself mixed up into the present definition. So that a “sophisticate” means: one who dwells in a tower made of a DuPont substitute for ivory and holds a glass of flat champagne in one hand and an album of dirty post cards in the other.”
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)