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Computing becomes personal
Apple IIgs
An Apple II system with enhanced graphics and sound.
MakerApple
Era1980s
TypePersonal computing
About this object
The IIgs continued the Apple II software line while introducing a 16-bit processor and expanded graphics and audio facilities. This record includes a photograph of the system in use.
Inspect the original photograph
Technical record
Apple IIgs
| Introduced | 1986 |
|---|---|
| Processor | WDC 65C816 at 2.8 MHz, 16-bit, 6502-compatible |
| Memory | 256 KB or 1 MB, expandable to 8 MB |
| Graphics | Super Hi-Res, 320 × 200 or 640 × 200, palette from 4,096 |
| Sound | Ensoniq 5503 DOC, 32 oscillators, 15 voices |
| Compatibility | Runs Apple II software at reduced clock |
Architecture
The sound hardware is the part worth looking at. Thirty-two oscillators of wavetable synthesis in a home computer in 1986 was not a step beyond its competitors so much as a different category of device, closer to a sampler than to the single-chip sound of the machines it was sold against. The 65C816 kept the older software running while opening a 16-bit address space, which is the trick the machine was built around.
Record & provenance
The IIgs continued the Apple II software line while introducing a 16-bit processor and expanded graphics and audio facilities. This record includes a photograph of the system in use.
Reference: ATX-OBJ-032-IMG-8430
Source: collection inventory, photographs, and notes accompanying Serious Machines (Amir Husain, 2024).