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{{Mac_specs|Image=Apple3.jpg|Introduced=May 1980|MSRP=3,500|CPU=[[Synertek|Synertek 6502A]]|
CPUspeed=2 MHz|OS=Apple Sophisticated OS (SOS)|RAM=128 [[
Discontinued=April 1984}}
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== History and design==
The Apple III was designed to be a business computer. It featured an advanced [[operating system]] called [[SOS (operating system)|SOS]] (the '''S'''ophisticated '''O'''perating '''S'''ystem) and a new [[BASIC programming language|BASIC]] [[interpreter (computing)|interpreter]], "Apple /// Business [[BASIC]]" (an implementation of [[UCSD Pascal]] was also offered for more structured programming). Other features included an 80-column display with upper and lowercase characters, a numeric keypad, support for a real-time clock, 6-bit (DAC) audio, 16-color graphics, a hierarchical file system, and the ability to emulate a 48
The Apple III was powered by a 2 [[megahertz|MHz]] SynerTek 6502A [[8-bit]] [[central processing unit|CPU]] and, like some of the more advanced machines in the Apple II family, used [[bank switching]] techniques to address up to 256
The Apple III was the first Apple product that allowed the user to choose both a screen font and a keyboard layout:either QWERTY or Dvorak. These choices could not be changed while programs were running, unlike the Apple IIc, with a Keyboard switch directly above the keyboard, allowing switching on the fly, and most recent versions of MacOS, which have a Keyboard menu on the menu bar, allowing on-the-fly switching.
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== Commercial failure ==
For a variety of reasons, the Apple III was a commercial failure. With a starting price of about $3,500 US, it was more expensive than many of the [[CP/M]]-based business computers that were available at the time. The Apple III's software library was very limited, and whilst sold as an Apple II compatible, the emulation that made this possible was intentionally hobbled, thus it could not make use of the advanced III features (specifically 64
Far more importantly, the machine was plagued by numerous hardware and software [[computer bug|bug]]s. The real time clock, the first in an Apple computer, would fail after prolonged use. This chip, which was made by [[National Semiconductor]], was an example of a recurrent problem. Semiconductor purchase contracts allowed a vendor 30 days to replace defective parts. It was assumed that a vendor would test parts before shipping them, but this was not required. National had a reputation for knowingly shipping bad parts, confident that they could do another production run before they had to send replacements. This was not a problem for customers who put chips in sockets and had extensive repair facilities. However, Apple was soldering chips directly to boards and could not easily test a board to find a single bad chip. Eventually, Apple solved this problem by deleting the real-time clock from the specification, rather than putting in a working clock chip.
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== Apple III Plus ==
An improved version, the '''Apple III Plus''', was introduced in December [[1983]]. The III Plus fixed the hardware problems of the original III, included 256
== See also ==
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