Apple II - Third-party Devices and Applications

Third-party Devices and Applications

Wozniak's open design and the Apple II's multiple expansion slots permitted a wide variety of third-party devices, including Apple II peripheral cards such as Serial controllers, display controllers, memory boards, hard disks, and networking components. There were plug-in expansion cards – such as the Z80-card – that permitted the Apple to use the Z80 processor and run a multitude of programs developed under the CP/M operating system, including the dBase II database and the WordStar word processor. There was also a third-party 6809 card that would allow OS-9 Level One to be run. The Mockingboard sound card greatly improved audio capabilities, allowing simple music synthesis and text-to-speech functions. Eventually, Apple II accelerator cards were created to double or quadruple the computer's speed.