On this day, April 2, 1979Microsoft releases its first hardware product for the Apple II, a microprocessor board designed to solve software compatibility in a computer.
This allowed the Apple II to run applications developed for the popular CP/M operating system.
The Z80 SoftCard was an easy-to-connect peripheral based on the Zilog Z80 processor with a “decoding circuit” to read signals from the Apple computer bus.
Z80 SoftCard is a good solution for Apple II and Microsoft
The $349 card (more than $1,000 today) was a huge hit for Microsoft. Bundled with Microsoft BASIC, it debuted at a computer show in March 1980 and went on sale the following month. In the first three months, Microsoft sold 5,000 devices, which at that time was considered a great success and became the company’s main source of income.
Microsoft continued to partner with Apple as a developer over the next few years, not only in hardware but also in software. By the end of the 1980s, Microsoft had made great strides with Windows, and its operating system proved so popular that the company successfully competed with Apple in the market, and for the next 20 years did not deviate from its familiar software-based business model.
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