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Apple IIe Revisions and DHR Support... lots of misinformation online?

Ozzuneoj

Experienced Member
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Nov 16, 2015
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185
Location
PA, USA
So, I've been trying to learn about the various models and revisions of the Apple IIe to better understand what my two Apple IIe Enhanced systems can do.

One of my machines has a Ramworks III card with 512K installed and the other has a 64K+80Column card.

I read about DHR or Double High Resolution support being a thing that was added to later revisions of the Apple IIe motherboard, as long as you have an expansion card that supports it (I think both of the cards above do?). The problem is that the few places where this is discussed say that IIe "Revision A" boards do not support DHR, but "Revision B" boards do. Then these articles go on to say that the IIe Enhanced is identical to the IIe except for a few updated chips... in fact you could get these chips and a sticker and make your IIe an "Enhanced"... neat, right?

Now, if you told me that anyone could upgrade a IIe to an "Enhanced" with nothing but a hand full of chips and a sticker to put over the power LED, I would say, based on the info above, that my "Revision A" motherboard was incapable of DHR. Then I find this post:

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?18434-Apple-IIe-silly-question&p=122979#post122979

Check you motherboard P/N. I believe it's in the upper left hand corner by the power connector. The first version was 820-0064-A. These were not capable of DHR graphics and replaced by 820-0064-B, which lasted up until the enhanced model was introduced, which was the 820-0087-A. It was revised (yet again) for the platinum model 607-0187-A, I believe.

And then this:
http://mirrors.apple2.org.za/apple.cabi.net/FAQs.and.INFO/A2.FAQs.MISC/A2.Prod.numbers.txt
Subject: Re: Production #s
From: spec@*****.ca (Mitchell Spector)
Date: Tue, Jun 23, 1998 8�4���� EDT
Message-id: <23JUN199807042570@******.ca>

In article Togega@*****.net writes...

>How can you tell the different //e models apart? I know the original had no
>keypad, and the enhanced did, but what about the platinum?

Well there are three major revisions of the Apple IIe, the first
of which was the original beige model introduced in January 1983. It
had the following distinguishing features:

#1
- Large white printing on keycaps (similar to Apple III)
- Cover lid with velcro snaps and RF sheilding mesh (similar to II Plus)
- Revision 'A' motherboard initially, though was shortly changed to the
Revision 'B' board that supported Double-Hi-Res and a special video
signal accessible through slot 7.

The next revision, which is the most common one (I would guess it
came out sometime between late 1983 and mid 1984) had the following,
though looked virtually the same:

#2
- Black printing (smaller, more discrete and professional) on keycaps
- Cover snaps on and off with just plastic grooves and tabs
- Revision 'B' motherboard initially (820-0064-B), then replaced
with another revision 'B' board marked (820-0087-A). The major
difference is most chips soldered in, gold colored pathways,
enhanced chip part numbers silked screened to board. Also the
copyright was dated 1984, previously it was 1982.

- Initially shipped with original CD, EF, Video ROM, but was changed
to "Enhanced" ROM set as of March 1985 (65C02 replaced 6502 in the
change, this was all done to make the IIe more compatible with the
IIc and II Plus).


The final revision was popularly called "The Platinum IIe",
and was introduced in January 1987, and had the following bits
changed:

#3
- Completely redesigned keyboard:
o Grey colored keycaps with black print
o Layout identical to Apple IIgs and Macintosh SE
o Reset key moved directly above ESC/1, like IIc
o Apple function keys replaced by Command and Option
o Numeric keypad squeezed in (off centering keyboard)
o Power LED moved above numeric keypad, a small "-"
- Entire case, including back ports, now platinum/light grey
- Apple logo in square recess, on right side of case (not lid)
- "Apple IIe" printed on lid (in Apple Garamond font, like GS)
- New revamped motherboard:
o Only two chips make up 64K of memory (2 * 64Kx4 DRAMs)
o Single 'CF' ROM replaces old CD and EF ROM chips
o Shift-key mod present as default (pathway closed)
o All boards have Enhanced chipset, guaranteed.
- New Extended 80 Columns card (just two DRAMs, 64Kx4) which
was drastically reduced in size, only slightly larger than
a standard SIMM if memory serves right. Included as standard.
- Shipped standard out of the box with 128K RAM, 80 columns of
text and Double-Hi-Res graphics (due to Extended 80 card).

That about covers it, unless I missed a detail or two above.
Oh, and if you consider it part of the Apple IIe line (I do not
any more than I consider the PC-Transporter being part of IBM
clones out there) there was Apple's "Apple IIe Card" for certain
PDS slotted Macintoshes. That was basically a Mega II chip, a pair
of 256Kx4 DRAMs, a 65C02, IWM and some extra logic on a small card.
There was a connector that went to a Y-cable, to let you hook up a
joystick and Apple 5.25 drive. The ROM and video emulation was
handled by the host Macintosh system, hence it was not nearly as
faithful as the IIGS's emulation of the IIe.

Mitchell Spector

So, there you have it. Simply calling them Revision A and B is really unclear. There is nothing on my board to indicate that this is a "Revision B"... but that isn't important. It's newer than the "B" revision, and apparently has all of those improvements.

I think there needs to be more of a distinction between these models, because if someone is new to these machines like I am, they may not realize that they aren't missing features on a IIe with an Enhanced sticker with an "A" motherboard, as long as it's an "820-0087-A". On that same note, someone could sell something like this as a having a "Revision A" motherboard... which would be true, except it's not what a collector would expect (though they'd probably ask for pictures, given the updated chassis).

For the record, both of my systems match all of what is mentioned above as the #2 revision... particularly, they're the later ones with all of the "Enhanced" stuff and a "820-0087-A" 1984 motherboard. To make matters more complicated, mine is also silk-screened "607-0187-A" right below the PCB markings... but that's apparently not relevant.

This info is surprisingly hard to find online considering how popular these were and still are...
 
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