TK-3000 IIe
The TK 3000 IIe is a personal microcomputer model manufactured by the Brazilian company Microdigital Eletrônica Ltda., compatible with the Apple IIe Enhanced. It was presented to the public at the V International Computing Fair in September 1985, and entered the market in April 1986 with a retail price of Cz$ 12,500.00. In 1987 an updated version, the TK 3000 IIe COMPACT was released.
Details
Due to Apple using dedicated integrated circuits in the Apple IIe, copying these became more complicated compared to the Apple II and Apple II Plus, which were based on off-the-shelf integrated circuits. For this reason, Microdigital had to reverse engineer these components to achieve compatibility with the Apple model. Microdigital designed two dedicated integrated circuits used in the TK 3000 IIe, the MC168300 and the MC168310, performing functions similar to the MMU and IOU integrated circuits, respectively.A complete Zilog Z80 computer is used for keyboard control replacing the AY-5-3600 keyboard controller integrated circuit used in the Apple model, adding some functional features like accented characters.
The TK 3000 IIe was sold with two different cover models: One simple, flat, like any Apple II case, and another with space for two slim 5.25″ disk drives, making them embedded in the case.