As explained in the Apple-1 page there have been only 250 mainboards made
from the Apple-1 and that amount had been split in two runs, of
which the
first run consisted of 100 pieces ( later called the "preNTI-version )
and the second run - which had been made by the NTI-company and
that models from
the second run have been called later the "NTI-version" of the Apple 1.
Allthough the layout of the leads and traces havenīt been changed in that
second run, the assembly and the used components did slightly
differ from the
earlier "preNTI-version". In main the decoupling capacitors on the second
run have been more modern multilayer capacitors, while in the
first run "old-
fashioned" ceramic disccapacitors have been used. Another change in
assembly had been, that the majority of the pre-NTI boards still
had been populated
with the white ceramic version of the 6502 CPU and the violett ceramic
version of the 6820 PIA while in the later NTI-version nearly
only the CPU and PIA
with the plastic-case had been used. And in the later NTI-version there
have been different kinds of small electrolytic capacitors used
( ones in yellow cases
instead of the blue cased ones that have been only used in the "pre-NTI
version".
But the very first remarkable difference to common users had been the
fact that NTI set itīs factory logo below the label from Apple
Computer - a diamond
square with the letters NTI inside of it.
Differences between "pre-NTI" version Newton 1
and the "NTI"-version of the Newton NTI board if populated like
original Apple-1
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"pre-NTI"
version Newton 1 |
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"NTI"-version of the
Newton NTI |
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ceramic CPU and
PIA |
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plastic CPU and PIA |
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ceramic disc
decoupling capacitors |
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multilayer ceramic decoupling
capacitors |
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blue electrolytic
capacitors |
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yellow electrolytic capacitors |
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a remark to the pictures
above: the different shades of green silkscreen on the boards is
partially also caused by dirt or bleaching of the sun !
But the very first remarkable difference to common users had been the
fact that NTI set itīs factory logo below the label from Apple
Computer - a diamond
square with the letters NTI inside of it.
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here the Newton-1
board without the NTI-logo |
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and here the Newton NTI board
with the NTI-logo |
The Newton1 is ( similar to the
MIMEO ) an replication of the "pre-NTI version" of the Apple-1
out from the first run. The reproduction of the mainboard was
carried out by Michael Ng, who also runs a computer museum. In fact it
seems to ms that the manufacturing of the Newton1 was a reaction
to the fact that
after Mike Willegal had made his īfirst limited edition of the MIMEO (
which was also a reproduction of the pre-NTI version of the
Apple-1 ) and that boards
had been sold out after very short period of time and then for a long
period the community of Apple freaks had been quite a while
waiting - the Newton1
had been made to solve the still not completely satisfied complaints on
more replications of the Apple-1 mainboard.
The NewtonNTI is an replication of the "NTI version" of
the Apple-1 out from the second run. The reproduction of the
mainboard was
carried out by Michael Ng, who also runs a computer museum. In fact it
seems to me that the manufacturing of the Newton NTI was a
reaction to the fact that
after Mike Willegal had made his īfirst limited edition of the MIMEO (
which was also a reproduction of the pre-NTI version of the
Apple-1 ) and that boards
had been sold out after very short period of time and then for a long
period the community of Apple freaks had been quite a while
waiting - the Newton 1 had
been made to solve the still not completely satisfied complaints on more
replications of the Apple-1 mainboard.
But up till few months ago ( Oct 2012 ) all replications have been made
from the "per-NTI" version of the Apple-1 and not a single
replication was made
from the "NTI" version. So Michael Ng decided to make a run of
replications of this historical "second run" of the Apple-1.
Another reason was surely also that Michael Ng was experimenting / trying
to get a board "finish" with a coating getting closer to the
original by color and
surface. The Finish of the Newton-NTI is a very close copy to the
original NTI-version of the Apple-1. This sounds simple, but it
isnīt, because itīs today very
difficult to get asolderingmask with same color as used in the mid
seventies.... ao in very tiny specific details the Newton1 is
closer similar to the original
Apple-1 . But in the meantime amount of availiable boards of the
Newton-NTi is very limited - itīs nowadays difficult to get
"hands-on" one of those boards.
Maybe some day in the future Michael Ng will raise another limited run of
that boards.
Just to tell this clear: All series of replication boards from the
Apple-1 have been made only in restricted and limited amount of
pieces ( some runs had 50
pieces like those from Michael Ng and others like the MIMEO ( now the
second run availiable ) from Mike Willegal have runs with about
only 100 units. So
even replications are still quite rare and there are quite some order
waiting lists for future runs. And among the replications there
is a wide spread of
authenticity. Specially if the user wants to populate the board with as
similar as possible parts the "true" facsimiles are rather rare.
In the meantime itīs nearly
impossible to get the TI-sockets used on the original boards and a lot of
other obsolete parts are also very difficult to get.
Anyhow i allready had ordered a MIMEO board in September 2012, when few
weeks later Michel Ng posted at applefritter the release of a
run of Newton NTI
boards and i immediatly put myself on the waitinglist for that board.
After several weeks he announced the first shippings of this
board to be processed and i
waited for the board to arrive in December 2012. In the meantime i
started with the assembly of the MIMEO and collected
information on the NTI-version.
I discovered that many more original boards from the "preNTI" version did
exist compared to the larger amount of the NTI-version released
later. It took quite
a lot time to collect the availiable pictures of the remaining original
NTI-boards and analyzing the boards for the populated parts on
it to find the differences
between both versions. The main differences i now listed above. Comparing
the amount of availiable replica boards i would guess the
NTI-replication to be
quite rare among those replications. The amount of MIMEOīs, Obtronix, and
Newton-1 all together might sum up to about 400 to 500 Boards
all together ( not
counting in this list the amount of replica-1 boards - because i donīt
claim them to be true replications - but rather more only being
a modern "emulation-
board" with modern chips and no real comparability with the original
Apple-1 ) and only about 50 NTI-version like replications by the
Newtoin NTI.
So among the total amount of replication boards the Newton NTI is a quite
rare ( because only replication of the NTI-version )
reproduction of the Apple-1.
Due to the fact that i also received in December an invitation to
take part at the Vintage Computer Festival Europe in end of
April 2013 i decided to make a
transparent case for the Newton NTI and take it along to the VCFe
together with the MIMEO and set both together besides each other
and permit the visitors
to compare both versions with each other. Also the case for the
Newton NTI was designed to bear the new designed
slotexpansionboard in the case too.
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The picture above shows the
board with the sockets soldered and
the picture below shows the board mounted on the groundplate with the
slotexpansion-board.
The
following picture displays the state of the board in end of
February 2013 and still a lot of components missing ( shaded
grey ):
The next picture
displays the status of the Board 4 weeks before itīs exhibition
at the VCFs in end of April 2013:
At this point
i was still hunting for a keyboard that i could use with this
board. I finally decided to use an early Apple II keyboard and
mofify it for use
with this NTI-Board. I then added in this case as well
as also in the MIMEO case an adapter from Mike Willegal, that
permits use of a PS2 keyboard
together with the board. That should permit to protect
the old keyboard and instead use in "normal mode" a modern
keyboard.
The picture above
shows the state of the case short before the VCFe started.
In fact it turned out, while making examinations with the
expansioncards, that the boards donīt differ by the layout, but
they surely result in differences
by their population. In fact the use of different decoupling
capacitors and different electrolytic capacitors seem to have
quite remarkable effect to the
clocking signals and the bussignals. In the NTI-version the
signals are much less disturbed by "noise" ( or say: spikes and
unwanted flattening of signals )
resulting from the rather simple powersupply stabilization.
For demonstretion purpose i have taken some pictures from the
oscilloscope and set them in the >
table below besides eachother - and you can compare them by
yourself:
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signal source and
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Picture from the
"preNTI" version ( MIMEO ) |
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Picture from the "NTI-version"
( Newton NTI ) |
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