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Microprofessor II (MPF II), introduced in 1982, was Multitech's (later renamed Acer) second branded computer product and also one of the earliest Apple II clones. It does not look like most other computers. The case of the MPF II was a slab with a small
The MPF II was not totally compatible with the Apple II.
The MPF II did not have Apple II's text mode. All the text was drawn on the screen by software rather than generated by hardware. It was the only cost-effective way to generate Chinese text on the screen at a time when a hardware-based Chinese character generator could cost hundreds of U.S. dollars.
Like Apple II, MPF II had two graphics buffers. However, the second buffer was at address A000H while with Apple II it was at 4000H. The keyboard input was mapped to a different address than the Apple II making impossible to play Apple's games on the MPF II.
MPF-II keyboard interface was very simple and consisted of an 8-bit output port and an input port that was directly connected to the keyboard matrix. The Apple joystick interface was not there, and instead, the joystick appeared as a keyboard with arrow keys and two other buttons.
The external slot interface was also not compatible with the Apple II and could not use any standard interface cards including the Disk II controller.
MPF II
at the Old Computer Museum {{Acer Inc. Acer Inc. computers Early microcomputers Home computers Apple II clones
chiclet keyboard
A chiclet keyboard or island-style keyboard is a computer keyboard with keys that form an array of small, flat rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or plastic keys that look like erasers or "Chiclets", a brand of chewing gum manufactured in the s ...
on its lower part.
In 1983, the Multiprofessor II retailed in the UK for £269.00 including VAT
A value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax (GST), is a type of tax that is assessed incrementally. It is levied on the price of a product or service at each stage of production, distribution, or sale to the en ...
.
One key feature of the MPF II was its Chinese BASIC, a version of Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
-localized BASIC based on Applesoft BASIC
Applesoft BASIC is a dialect of Microsoft BASIC, developed by Marc McDonald and Ric Weiland, supplied with the Apple II series of computers. It supersedes Integer BASIC and is the BASIC in ROM in all Apple II series computers after the origina ...
.
There was also a version sold in Europe, Northern America, India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
, and Australia that did not have Chinese localization.
Differences to Apple II
The MPF II was not totally compatible with the Apple II.
The MPF II did not have Apple II's text mode. All the text was drawn on the screen by software rather than generated by hardware. It was the only cost-effective way to generate Chinese text on the screen at a time when a hardware-based Chinese character generator could cost hundreds of U.S. dollars.
Like Apple II, MPF II had two graphics buffers. However, the second buffer was at address A000H while with Apple II it was at 4000H. The keyboard input was mapped to a different address than the Apple II making impossible to play Apple's games on the MPF II.
MPF-II keyboard interface was very simple and consisted of an 8-bit output port and an input port that was directly connected to the keyboard matrix. The Apple joystick interface was not there, and instead, the joystick appeared as a keyboard with arrow keys and two other buttons.
The external slot interface was also not compatible with the Apple II and could not use any standard interface cards including the Disk II controller.
Technical information
* CPU:MOS Technology 6502
The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small te ...
*Clock rate: 1 MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
*RAM
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* ...
: 64 KB (including 16KB RAM mapped at the same address as the ROM)
*ROM
Rom, or ROM may refer to:
Biomechanics and medicine
* Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient
* Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac
* ...
: 16 KB (12 KB of which is a BASIC interpreter)
*Text modes: 40×24 (using graphics mode)
*Graphics modes: 280×192
*Colours: 8 colours
*Sound: 1 channel of 1-bit sound
*Connectors: Keyboard, Printer, Expansion port, cassette recorded input and output, Composite and TV-out
The term TV-out is commonly used to label the connector of equipment providing an analog video signal acceptable for a television AV input. TV-out is different from AV-out in that it only provides video, no audio.
Types of signals and their re ...
*Optional peripherals: 55 key full-size keyboard, Floppy
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined wi ...
disc drive, Thermal
A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example ...
and Dot-matrix
A dot matrix is a 2-dimensional patterned array, used to represent characters, symbols and images. Most types of modern technology use dot matrices for display of information, including mobile phones, televisions, and printers. The system is al ...
printers, Joystick
*Power supply: External PSU, 5,12 V
See also
* Microprofessor I — unrelated Z80 programming education device *Microprofessor III
Microprofessor III (MPF III), introduced in 1983, was Multitech's (later renamed Acer) third branded computer product and also (arguably) one of the first Apple IIe clones. Unlike the two earlier computers, its design was influenced by the IBM p ...
External links
MPF II
at the Old Computer Museum {{Acer Inc. Acer Inc. computers Early microcomputers Home computers Apple II clones