Microsoft Softcard Z80 coprocessor for Apple II

A compatibility card is an

expansion card In computing, an expansion card (also called an expansion board, adapter card, peripheral card or accessory card) is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an electrical connector, or expansion slot (also referred to as a bus sl ...

for computers that allows it to have hardware emulation with another device. While compatibility cards date back at least to the Apple II family, the majority of them were made for 16-bit computers, often to maintain compatibility with the

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a tea ...

. The most popular of these were for

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

systems that allowed them to emulate Windows PCs via

NuBus NuBus (pron. 'New Bus') is a 32-bit parallel computer bus, originally developed at MIT and standardized in 1987 as a part of the NuMachine workstation project. The first complete implementation of the NuBus was done by Western Digital f ...

PCI PCI may refer to: Business and economics * Payment card industry, businesses associated with debit, credit, and other payment cards ** Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of security requirements for credit card processors * Prov ...

; Apple had released several such cards themselves.

Compatibility cards by system

Apple II

* The Z-80 SoftCard made the

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-mold ...

and

Apple II Plus The Apple II Plus (stylized as Apple ] or apple plus) is the second model of the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. It was sold from June 1979 to December 1982. Approximately 380,000 II Pluses were sold during its ...

compatible with CP/M by way of a

Zilog Z80 The Z80 is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975. The first wor ...

processor, and was followed up by the Premium SoftCard IIe for the

Apple IIe The Apple IIe (styled as Apple //e) is the third model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. The ''e'' in the name stands for ''enhanced'', referring to the fact that several popular features were now built-i ...

IBM PC compatibles

* 3DO Blaster

Macintosh

By Apple

Apple DOS Compatibility Card with an Intel i486 SX processor

* Apple IIe Card for the Macintosh LC family * Houdini I

PDS PD, P.D., or Pd may refer to: Arts and media * ''People's Democracy'' (newspaper), weekly organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) * ''The Plain Dealer'', a Cleveland, Ohio, US newspaper * Post Diaspora, a time frame in the '' Honorverse' ...

card for

Macintosh Quadra The Macintosh Quadra is a family of personal computers designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from October 1991 to October 1995. The Quadra, named for the Motorola 68040 central processing unit, replaced the Macintosh II family as ...

with a 25 MHz 486 CPU * DOS Compatibility card for Power Macintosh 6100 with a 486/66 CPU (actually a Quadra PDS card with a special adapter; if the adapter is removed, the card can be used in a Quadra) * 7-inch

PC Compatibility card with 5x86/100 MHz CPU * 12-inch PCI PC Compatibility card with Intel

Pentium Pentium is a brand used for a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel. The original Pentium processor from which the brand took its name was first released on March 22, 1993. After that, the Pentium II and P ...

100MHz CPU, Intel Pentium 166MHz CPU, or Cyrix 6x86 133MHz CPU (166PR) for Power Macintosh 7200, 7300, Power Macintosh 4400 and 7220

By other manufacturers

* Dayna Communications released the MacCharlie for the

Macintosh 128K The Apple Macintosh—later rebranded as the Macintosh 128K—is the original Apple Macintosh personal computer. It played a pivotal role in establishing desktop publishing as a general office function. The motherboard, a CRT monitor, and a fl ...

and 512K * AST Research released the Mac86 as a PDS expansion for the Macintosh SE, giving it DOS compatibility through a 10 MHz 8086 processor. It was followed up by the

Mac286 The Mac286 was an Intel 80286-based MS-DOS coprocessor expansion card for one of Apple Computer's first expandable Macintosh computers, the 1987 Macintosh II. It was developed by Phoenix Technologies under contract to Apple Computer and sold by ...

, which added a 286 processor through the

Macintosh II The Macintosh II is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from March 1987 to January 1990. Based on the Motorola 68020 32-bit CPU, it is the first Macintosh supporting color graphics. When introduced, a basic s ...

's NuBus slots. After AST left the Mac market, the rights to both were sold to Orange Micro. * Orange Micro's OrangePC series of cards were the spiritual successor to the Mac86 and Mac286. These cards provided support for 386, 486, and Pentium processors, up to a 400 MHz

AMD K6-2 The K6-2 is an x86 microprocessor introduced by AMD on May 28, 1998, and available in speeds ranging from 266 to 550 MHz. An enhancement of the original K6, the K6-2 introduced AMD's 3DNow! SIMD instruction set, featured a larger 64 Ki ...

processor in the final model. Orange Micro also released the PCfx!, a cut down OrangePC board with a 200 MHz Pentium soldered on. *

Reply Corporation Reply Corporation, often shortened to Reply Corp., was an American computer company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 1988 by Steve Petracca, the company licensed the Micro Channel architecture from IBM for their own computers released ...

's DOS on Mac series of cards added a 486/5x86 (up to 100 MHz) processor and DOS compatibility to Centris, Quadra, Performa, and Power Macintoshes through a PDS expansion; later models supported PCI-based Power Macs and Pentium processors up to 200 MHz. This technology was acquired by

Radius In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...

in 1997, who began selling the cards under the name "Detente."

Amiga

Amiga Sidecar The Commodore A1060 Sidecar is an expansion hardware device developed by Commodore and released in 1986 for the Amiga 1000 computer. It features a complete PC XT-clone system mounted in an expansion case which connected to the expansion bus on ...

for the Amiga 1000

Archimedes

* In 1992, the company Aleph One released the 386PC, an expansion that added a 20 MHz 386SX processor to the Archimedes for running DOS applications. Licensed versions of these cards were soon made by Acorn for the A3020 and A4000; these official cards were available with both 386SX and 486SLC processors. * An updated DOS compatibility card with a 40 MHz 486SX (underclocked to 33 MHz) was available as an upgrade for the Archimedes' successor, the

Risc PC The Risc PC is Acorn Computers's RISC OS/ Acorn RISC Machine computer, launched on 15 April 1994, which superseded the Acorn Archimedes. The Acorn PC card and software allows PC compatible software to be run. Like the Archimedes, the Risc P ...

Notes

References

Compatibility cards Interoperability {{Compu-hardware-stub