Earlier this week, an online auction featured a breakthrough in the history of computing.Sold as Lot # 5006 (Opens in a new tab) on RR Auctions is a prototype of Apple Computer A, assembled by someone other than Steve Wozniak and claimed to be owned by Steve Jobs. If it’s not pedigree enough to excite bidders, there’s photo evidence that this was an Apple 1 production prototype that helped secure Apple’s first “big” order. Sold 50 pre-assembled Apple 1s to a bite shop in Mountain View, California. The PCB bids depicted above and below are $ 278,005 at the time of writing and are expected to exceed $ 500,000 by the end of the auction (August 19th).
The PCB was not carefully managed by its owner Steve Jobs. After securing a groundbreaking order, it is believed to have been abandoned in the Apple Garage for several years before Jobs gave it to its current owner about 30 years ago.
Evidence of the abuse is PCB damage and cracks, some chips and capacitors are no longer in place and are probably donated to production computers or subsequent projects in the garage. In addition, the working example photos show that some large orange Sprague Atom capacitors are missing from the top right of the layout. There is no CPU either.
Since this is an Apple 1 prototype, it must have a MOS 6502 CPU @ 1 MHz, 40 x 24 character display output, 4 KB RAM, expandable to 8 KB or 48 KB using an expansion card, and 456 KB. I have. Of storage (tape). However, as a prototype, this Apple Computer A was a bit more flexible as the auction information stated that it could have been run using a Motorola 6800 processor with sockets instead of the MOS 6502.
There are some other differences between this prototype and the first 50 Apple 1 computers shipped. According to the RR auction, this model is the only model soldered using Woz’s distinctive “three-hand” technique. The list of auctions means that the first batch of Apple 1 machines was products with components under $ 40, but due to the added value and benefits of assembly, software, etc., ByteShop puts them at $ 666.66 per unit. Sold at.
Is it wrong to repair it and bring it back to normal? The condition is terrible, and it’s not a very handsome PCB. Nevertheless, we believe that the fate of the machine lies behind the glass and is kept in its current devastation by collectors and businesses.
