The Franklin Ace 100 is a clone of the Apple II computer. The Ace 100 is almost an exact copy of the Apple II; Franklin copied the apple hardware and software and made it their own. Ther was no legal precedent for this sort of clone, but Apple took immediate legal steps and sued Franklin for trademark violation.

Franklin lost the lawsuit and settled with Apple in 1984. Franklin then went on to develop their own legal copy of a BIOS and produced two more legal Apple clones, before quitting the computer market altogether.

The 6502 is an 8-bit MicroProcessor designed by MOS Technology. The team was led by Chuck Peddle and had also worked on the Motorola 6800. The 6502 is a simplified, but faster and cheaper design than the 6800.

The 6502 was introduced in 1975 and was the cheapest microprocessor on the market. Together with the Zilog Z80, the 6502 helped start the home computer revolution of the 1980s. The 6502 was used in a wide range of devices: the Atari 2600, the 8-bit Atari home computers, the Apple II, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Commodore 64, the BBC Micro and many others. All used the 6502 or a variation of it.

The 6502 is a 1MHz design, while the 6502A is designed for 2MHz. The 6502A is 100% compatible with the original 6502.

Commodore soon bought MOS Technology, but conitnued to sell the microprocessor to competitors and licensed the design to other manufacturers.