The Apple II series of computers were very popular, so popular in fact,
that numerous clones were manufactured by other computer manufacturers.
The Franklin Ace 1000 is clone of the Apple II Plus computer. Franklin made numerous Apple clones, the first being
the Franklin Ace 100, a clone of the original Apple II.
Slightly later, in 1983, the Franklin ACE 1200 was released, seen here on the right.
Identical to the ACE 1000 (from 1982), with the addition of two built-in floppy drives.
The Ace 1100 (not pictured) has only one floppy drive.
The ACE 1200 also includes as standard equipment these expansion cards:
80 column text card
Dual Interface Card with serial and parallel ports
video card with color capability (the ACE 1000 is monochrome)
processor card with a Zilog Z-80 CPU and with 64K to run CP/M (supplied on diskette)
These are the motherboards of the Apple II Plus computer on the left, and the Franklin Ace 1000 computer on the right.
Notice any resemblance? Except for a difference in size, you can see that the 1000 is very similar to the Apple.
Franklin copied most of the actual Apple II Plus computer code to obtain high compatibility.
Because of this, Franklin was eventually sued by Apple Computer for violation of certain Apple trademarks,
namely, the operating system.
In August of 1983, Apple Computer wins a judgment against Franklin Computer as ruled by a U.S. federal appeals court judge.
Franklin eventually quit the computer business, but not until after they released two additional Apple clones,
the Ace 2000 and Ace 500.
Slightly later, in 1983, the Franklin ACE 1200 was released, seen here on the right.
Identical to the ACE 1000 (from 1982), with the addition of two built-in floppy drives.
