Great Hierophant
Veteran Member
I understand that the original Apple II's boot process evolved over board revisions and the expansion cards placed in the system. Here is my understanding, is there anything incorrect here?
In the Apple II with the rev. 0 mainboard, when you hit the power switch the Power bulb would light up but the system would otherwise appear off. You had to press reset and then you would see an image on the screen and hear a beep. The image would be random text characters (some flashing, some inverse) and the system would give you a system monitor * prompt.
In the Apple II with a rev. 1 or later mainboard, the image of random text characters and system monitor * prompt and a beep would occur as soon as you hit the power switch, no pressing of reset required.
In the Apple II with a Language Card, the Autostart firmware would replace the Old Monitor ROM firmware and the machine would boot to APPLE ][ and a Integer BASIC > prompt.
In the Apple II with a Firmware Card, the machine would boot to APPLE ][ and an Applesoft BASIC ] prompt.
In the Apple II with either of the above Cards and a Disk II Card, the machine would boot to APPLE ][ and try to boot from the Disk II drive 1. I do not believe that an Apple II without a card will boot a Disk II drive without entering a command from one of the prompts.
In the Apple II with the rev. 0 mainboard, when you hit the power switch the Power bulb would light up but the system would otherwise appear off. You had to press reset and then you would see an image on the screen and hear a beep. The image would be random text characters (some flashing, some inverse) and the system would give you a system monitor * prompt.
In the Apple II with a rev. 1 or later mainboard, the image of random text characters and system monitor * prompt and a beep would occur as soon as you hit the power switch, no pressing of reset required.
In the Apple II with a Language Card, the Autostart firmware would replace the Old Monitor ROM firmware and the machine would boot to APPLE ][ and a Integer BASIC > prompt.
In the Apple II with a Firmware Card, the machine would boot to APPLE ][ and an Applesoft BASIC ] prompt.
In the Apple II with either of the above Cards and a Disk II Card, the machine would boot to APPLE ][ and try to boot from the Disk II drive 1. I do not believe that an Apple II without a card will boot a Disk II drive without entering a command from one of the prompts.